Occasionally a hurricane does hit hard. Hurricane Alicia was a big one that did some damage in Houston a few years ago. I had to go downtown on the morning it was due to hit, and the winds were horrendous especially in those artificial wind tunnels typical of all downtowns everywhere. I drove into the multi story parking garage, and the wind had the parked cars that were left in there just rocking. And, every car burglar alarm was blaring. Very noisy.
One tall downtown building had every single window on the north side knocked out. I didn't see it happen, but the short building across the street had gravel on the roof, and those chunks of rock became little missiles. No doubt the building code got changed shortly thereafter.
I lived about a block away from an elected city councilman, and the power companies made sure that those neighborhoods didn't suffer from lack of power like the others did. Our loss of electrical power lasted for minutes, but other neighborhoods didn't have electricity for days.
It was eerie. I would walk outside at night, and my block had lights, but a block away on each end it was completely dark. I half expected Rod Serling to step out from behind a bush and give the Twilight Zone speech.
I heard that those people who lost their electricity had huge backyard barbeques in which they would cook all of the fish and meat from their freezers that would have spoiled otherwise. But, those of us in the Twilight Zone didn't get invited. Can you blame them?
Final note. Days later the Houston Chronicle headline screamed "Alicia Debris Still in the Streets". And, later that fall a friend of mine came to a Halloween party dressed as "Alicia Debris" - obviously a street walking hooker. What an uproarious time we all had once it was all over!
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