Going Home

Heading down HWY 61 was like driving through another world. I can't tell you how many times we drove over power lines that were strewn across the road, I quit counting at 25. Trees, huge trees were either snapped in half of ripped right from the ground in which they stood. We passed countless boom trucks that power companies from all over the country had dispatched to help with the recovery. Rarely did we see a telephone pole that was not leaning, on its side or snapped in half by Ike's winds. At a police checkpoint, a Texas state trooper needed to see identification for us to travel through. Last he'd heard, the road we'd planned to travel was under water, but we could continue at our own risk. After the checkpoint, our journey took us through a marshy, pasture mix of Chambers County. Metal silos stood like crushed soda cans, a testament to the force of Ike's winds. At one point we passed what used to be a farm. The house and barns were no longer there. Just a couple of concrete slabs. A couple of pickup trucks and a large grain wagon were flipped over in the ditch across the street. Paul Mills, the engineer I was traveling with stopped next to a flooded shallow to show me some of the area's newest residents. About half a dozen alligators were lounging on the banks of the water. The gators will have no shortage of food in the coming months, especially being scavengers. Fish, birds and other dead wildlife littered the road. More to come...

Kevin just got back to the station and we're heading home today. Logging off and will finish when I get back to Toledo, after I've spent some time with my wife and baby.

Until then, thanks for watching.
-Billau

More From Houston

I've got some down-time, so here's a rundown of what I've done and seen so far.

Kevin and I flew into Houston Monday night. We checked into the station around 10:30 central time. After saying hello to a couple of people we remembered from the last trip, we checked our schedules for the next day and checked into our hotel.

Tuesday morning I arrived at KTRK at 8 am. I was not assigned a reporter, but my first task was to go downtown to the Morgan Chase Tower to check the progress of the cleanup in the area. The building is the tallest in the city and a number of its window were knocked out during the hurricane. There was still very little power in the city, so most of the traffic lights were four-way stops. Adding to the difficulty were the police roadblocks. Entire city blocks were shut down so that heavy machinery could come in and clear the glass and debris. My next job for the station was chauffeur. KTRK had stationed a crew out on the Bolivar Peninsula, an area that took a direct hit from Ike. My job was to run a satellite truck operator out to the live location to relieve the operator who'd been stationed there for 48 hours. My new GPS told me the trip from Houston to the peninsula would take about an hour and a half. We left a twelve-thirty. We pulled up to the satellite truck about three-forty five. What I saw on that ride was incredible. As we headed east out I-10, we started to see the full force of this hurricane. Part of I-10 is lies very low to sea level. Officials had to use plow trucks to remove the debris the storm surge washed onto the highway. For a 2 mile stretch, there was a 6 foot pile of debris lined up just off the shoulder. Billboards were skeletons with the tattered banners blowing in the wind. It was difficult to know where exits were because the signs were blown off the posts.

We stopped to get toilet paper and paper towels at the one open gas station we passed along the way. Several state troopers were directing traffic to the pumps and the line was hundreds of yards long.

When we got to Route 61 we headed south, and that's where I started to realize the force that this hurricane had. More to come...

-Billau

Recovering From Ike

I've been working for our sister station, KTRK, in Houston, Texas since last Monday. The destruction down here is incredible. What reminds me of coming down here in 2005 to cover Katrina and Rita, is how much more real the damage is when you see it in person. We can become desensitized from the images on our televisions because they all seem to look the same. When you see a whole waterfront neighbor hood where a community once stood and all that is left are the posts that the houses once stood on, it quickly becomes very real. With the exception of a quick trip to the center of downtown Houston, I've spent much of my time in the communities on the east side of Galveston Bay. In one location, there was a row of houses that were once right on the gulf. Today it's difficult to tell there were ever houses there. Everything, everything blew across the bay. Driving through a marshland we started to see roofs, walls, and refrigerators. No driveways. There were never houses in this area. Not even within 10 miles or more. That was the power of this storm.

I'm off to see what today will bring. I'll have much more to post with a ton of pictures when I get back (my flight home is now booked for Sunday afternoon).

Thanks for watching.
-Billau

Back to Texas

Yes it's been a while since I've posted, but I've been busy. Not with work. My wife gave birth to our first child, Austin Edward Billau. He's 15 days old now. That's not the reason I'm posting now.

As you may or may not have read on the right, I traveled to Houston, Texas in 2005 to help our sister station KTRK ABC 13 with their coverage of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. As you know the gulf coast, especially Texas, has been hit hard again by a very powerful hurricane, Ike. Kevin and I again will be heading south to help out down at KTRK with their coverage on The Road to Recovery. We fly out tonight and we will join fellow 13 ABC employees Jeff Smith and satellite truck operator Jason Klocko, who flew down this morning.

While we're there, I'll try to post to give another perspective of the aftermath.

-Billau

**Yes it's hard to leave my wife and new baby behind. I've got lots of pictures on the digital camera going with me. They'll be in good hands while I'm gone. All of the grandparents live in the Toledo/Southeast Michigan area and they'll take advantage of any opportunity there is to hold the baby.