The department ordered us in to work on Friday at 1400 hours, or 2 PM. We were told that we would be working through our regular shift which is 2200-0600, or 10 PM to 6 AM. They added a qualifier that in order to leave, we had to be relieved by a day shift officer. The storm was scheduled to come ashore at about 1 AM in Galveston, so 6 AM in Houston would be in the middle of the hurricane. None of us thought that we would be going home on time and many thought that we probably could not make it home anyway.
At roll call, after the Captain spoke for eons, a fellow beat officer told all of the 1A20 beat officers that he had a key to Langford's Grocery, which is a small restaurant located in the beat. He told us to meet over there a little later and that we would cook some burgers. Over the course of the two weeks of the hurricane Ike mobilization, we spent a lot of time at Langfords.
We were all told to find a safe place to "hunker down" once the storm rolled into Houston. We were also told that once winds reached a sustained 50 mph, we were to head to our spots to ride out the storm. Calls would not be dispatched until the winds slowed and it was safe for us to respond.
A few hours after roll call, I had to drive down to south to fill the patrol car with gas. The department was worried that the underground gas tanks at a southern station were going to be flooded and ruin the gasoline. On the way to the station, I went down to my parent's neighborhood which is just north of the Galveston causeway. The water was already very high. The exit for their neighborhood was under water and the water was already out of the canals and rising. The water was white capping and starting to blow sideways. There were only a hand full of other vehicles on the freeway, mainly news people and law enforcement. I took a few pictures and then headed back north.
Our "hunker down" spot was Bobby's apartment complex parking garage. He lives in some nice new apartments that are close to the station. At about 2200 hours, we made our way to the apartment complex. The winds were really starting to pick up and there were no calls for service. We got out the DVD player and watched a movie on the 50 inch plasma in the work out area of the apartment complex. While we were watching the movie, we were notified by someone that lives in the apartments, that someone was stuck in one of the complex's elevators. We found the broken elevator and attempted to open the stuck doors. In the movies it appears that you can grab the doors and pull and they will open if enough force in applied. Not the case in real life, at least not with this elevator. Luckily for the stranded people, the fire department arrived and they have keys that unlock the doors. They unlocked the doors, pulled them open, and the people climbed out. We concluded that the fire department gets all of the cool equipment. We returned to the work out area a little humbled by the elevator and finished the movie.
At about 0300 hours, we all headed out to the parking garage to watch the hurricane. By this time the sustained winds in the downtown area were reported to be in the 80 mph range. We watched transformer after transformer blow up. They give off a green light when they explode. A few caught on fire, but the sideways rains quickly extinguished the flames. At 0500 hours, the power at the apartment complex finally went out. It had flickered on and off for hours.
If you are still reading, you are in for a treat. At 0600 hours, some day shift units actually made it in to work and we could hear them getting in service over the radio. Pedro decided that he was going to try to make it back to the station. He asked for my opinion, and I told him to wait. While we were very close to the station, every route had the potential for high water. Pedro decided to try to make it anyway. He threw his rookie in the car and took off. About 10 minutes later, Bobby's phone rings, it is Pedro. He told Bobby that he had driven into some high water and was now stuck. The car shut off and would not start. Pedro told Bobby to ask me what to do. I got on the phone and called our dispatcher. I asked her if the city wreckers were running. Pedro was stuck less than 1000 yards from our station under the Memorial bridge off of I-45. We found out later that the wreckers were not running during the storm . While I was speaking to our dispatcher, a supervisor gets on the radio and states that there is an officer in distress stuck in high water. The dispatcher asks for a unit to check by with him, and Bobby and myself volunteer.
Upon reaching where Pedro was flooded, I observed that he was stuck directly over Buffalo Bayou. The bayou was rising and that is what was flooding the roadway. I decided that the water appeared passable and I drove out to get Pedro and his rookie. I reached them and they jumped into the backseat. Pedro began pleading with me to back up stating that the water was deeper the further that you went. I quickly surveyed the water and once again thought it was passable. As I began to continue driving through the water, Pedro was in the back seat yelling like some crazy crackhead that we were going to get stuck. I calmly continued and dropped Pedro and the rookie off at the station a few minutes later. Pedro was dumbfounded. He could not believe I had just driven through what he got stuck in. I told him that the water was in fact deeper now, as the bayou continued to rise. This fact did not make him feel any better.
Upon returning to the stuck car, Bobby and I watched as the bayou continued to rise. As the water reached about mid way up the car, the lights on the car began to flash. I think that car was screaming at Pedro as it succumbed to the rising water. After about an hour, the car was gone. We ended up getting back to the station at 1100 AM on Saturday, 21 hours after the start of our shift. We were due back at the station at 2000 hours or 8 PM for our first 12 hour shift of hurricane Ike mobilization.
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