Fat Tuesday Libations

Fat Tuesday Libations

http://instagram.com/p/lJCE_2wP7p/

Celebrating the 1st Saints Game #WhoDat

Celebrating the 1st Saints Game #WhoDat

http://instagr.am/p/N92YZZwP2j/

Debris in Lake Woodlands

Debris in Lake Woodlands
Originally uploaded by Juston Western
A result of the heavy rain we received today as part of Tropical Storm Hermine.

Hurricane Katrina: A Real-Time Retrospective

I lived in New Orleans from August 23, 2000 to December 18, 2004. During those years I fell in love with the city and had my life forever changed because of it. While an education at Tulane University was the driving force behind my residency in New Orleans, a contributing factor was the city's thriving electronic music culture. As I transitioned from high school to undergraduate studies, my passion for electronica was perhaps only exceeded by my love of computers.

Given my interests, it wasn't long into the fall of 2000 before I discovered the Disco Productions Forum. This was an online message board hosted by the company of successful rave promoter, Disco Donnie Estopinal, and grew to be the preeminent virtual community of electronica enthusiasts in the Gulf Coast region. Although the central focus of the discussion board was electronic music, it came to be a hotbed for bantering about all things New Orleans.

When I moved to Delaware in early 2005 to begin my career as a Communications Officer at Dover Air Force Base, I still made daily visits to the Disco Forum to maintain a connection to New Orleans. As Hurricane Katrina approached the Gulf Coast in late August 2005, my wife & I breathlessly watched the cable news coverage from our apartment in Dover as the disaster unfolded. It was truly like witnessing a loved one being tortured in slow motion.

Aside from being glued to the television coverage from our vantage point some 1,200 miles away, we also frantically searched online for any news concerning the fate of the city. At the time, Facebook was still in relative infancy and Twitter did not exist. The Disco Productions Forum, however, turned into a virtual water cooler where all those from New Orleans or with ties to it gathered to swap stories and information.

During any disaster, an uncurated information clearinghouse will be peppered with hyperbole, misinformation, and emotionally-fueled tirades. It will also have some amazing insights, rich details, and first person accounts that a book or movie written about the disaster just cannot capture.

After nearly two weeks of living on the Disco Forum in the lead-up to and aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, I realized that these hundreds of posts written by individuals impacted by the storm told an amazing story. So on the evening of September 7, 2005, I spent about two hours saving all of the Katrina-related posts to my hard drive.

This morning after I watched the fifth anniversary coverage of Katrina on Meet The Press, I remembered that I'd captured some really unique content all those years ago and hadn't done anything with it. So I've spent the rest of this August 29, 2010 compiling those threads from the Disco Forum created during the chaos of Hurricane Katrina.

All of the nearly 150 threads linked below are as I downloaded them on September 7, 2005. I've sequenced and time-stamped them in the order they were originally created because I think it truly illustrates how consuming and spreading information during a disaster is a bit like being in the fog of war. The only modifications I've done are to change the links in multi-page threads so that page 1 properly links to page 2, page 2 to page 3, and so on. All posts and their respective content are the ideas and responsibility of their respective authors. Some of the posts are controversial, profanity-laden, or have come to be understood as untrue with the luxury of five years of hindsight. I am reposting them today because I believe they have some historical significance and serve as a valuable reference for those who study Hurricane Katrina, social networks, disaster preparedness, disaster response, and the influence of the media on our culture.

http://www.justonwestern.com/neworleans/katrina/DiscoKatrina.html

Social Media During Disasters

The American Red Cross has released results of a survey about the use of social media during disasters or emergencies.  The PDF report of its findings can be found here:

http://www.redcross.org/www-files/Documents/pdf/other/SocialMediaSlideDeck.pdf

Some interesting figures are contained within the report, including that over 75% of respondents would expect help to arrive within an hour if they requested help via a social media network.  Personally, I think this expectation is overly optimistic, but it would hinge upon who was in a user's respective social graph.

When Hurricane Ike hit The Woodlands 2 years ago, I realized that we'd likely lose power for a while and find it difficult to communicate with the outside world.  Prior to the storm's landfall in Texas, I e-mailed all of my friends & family, and directed them towards my Twitter page to stay up to date with our progress during & after storm.

This turned out to be a prudent decision, because we did in fact lose power & most cellular connectivity for several days.  Thankfully, SMS messages are surprisingly resilient following natural disasters (they require much less cellular infrastructure to receive & transmit relative to voice & data services).  This allowed me to update Twitter throughout the storm & its aftermath simply by texting the service.

For those interested in seeing my account of "events on the ground", I captured all my tweets from the storm in a blog post last September to mark the 1 year anniversary of Hurricane Ike:

http://justonwestern.blogspot.com/2009/09/hurricane-ike-twitter-updates-1-year.html

Since that time, I've followed my friends' descriptions of earthquakes on the west coast and crippling blizzards on the east coast, all from my Twitter & Facebook activity streams.  When you want to tell a large group of people you're ok after a disaster, it's tough to find a more efficient way than with one of these social networks.

Tropical Storm Alex Warning Along I-45

Hurricane Ida

Hurricane Ida
Originally uploaded by Juston Western

I know Hurricane Season technically doesn't end until November 30, but come on, barreling into the Gulf this late is like going into a restaurant 15 minutes before it closes. Poor form, Ida.

Hurricane Ike - Twitter Updates 1 Year Later

Since this weekend marks the 1 year anniversary of Hurricane Ike barreling down on the greater Houston area, I thought it would be interesting to take a look back at my Twitter updates from before, during, and after the storm.

These tweets began on Wednesday, September 10, 2008, as I came to realize Houston may be impacted by the storm, and end a week later on September 16 after we got power back in my neighborhood.

While The Woodlands was not hit as hard by Hurricane Ike as some areas of Texas, I think these tweets still provide a fairly compelling narrative of what it was like to live through the storm.

At the bottom of this post I'm also including two videos I shot during and after Ike here in The Woodlands.

Testing & e-mails @ work; errands midday; class videos in PM, along with prep for Hurricane Ike; the 10PM update shows a likely direct hit.

10:57 PM Sep 10th, 2008 from twitterrific

A day preoccupied w/Hurricane Ike coverage; found out @ 4PM that work was canx'd for Friday; came home & finished yard prep, then TWC/pizza.

10:04 PM Sep 11th, 2008 from web

All the gas stations I drove by in The Woodlands this morning had the pumps completely roped off.

7:01 AM Sep 12th, 2008 from twitterrific

SMS test in preparation for Hurricane Ike. If Comcast & Sprint EvDO both putter out, I'll try to post updates via this method starting early Saturday

8:38 AM Sep 12th, 2008 from txt

Starting to see the winds pick up here in The Woodlands; whose idea was it to put a community in a forest anyway?

9:50 AM Sep 12th, 2008 from twitterrific

@netfuel Thanks man! We're hunkered down. Shouldn't get crazy bad this far north. I feel for those in Galveston, though. Eeesh.

10:40 AM Sep 12th, 2008 from twitterrific in reply to netfuel

It had been sunny most of the day here in The Woodlands, but now we've got pretty thick cloud cover.

11:19 AM Sep 12th, 2008 from twitterrific

Blog posting about my Hurricane Ike playlist: http://tinyurl.com/5xfcdk

11:45 AM Sep 12th, 2008 from twitterrific

It's gotten significantly more overcast here in The Woodlands within the past hour. The wind is coming in bursts, though.

12:46 PM Sep 12th, 2008 from twitterrific

Just took a long, hot shower...hoping it won't be the last for a few days; filled up the upstairs bathtubs for extra cleaning/toilet water.

2:20 PM Sep 12th, 2008 from twitterrific

Ironed a week's worth of clothes in case work is powered but home is not. About to knock out last of school assignments, then just waiting.

3:49 PM Sep 12th, 2008 from twitterrific

Had a first band of showers briefly blow through here; it's as humid as a sauna out there right now.

4:10 PM Sep 12th, 2008 from twitterrific

Ash just cooked us an awesome cajun chicken dinner; wanted to have a good hearty meal to hold us over until the Granola Days are done. :-P

5:12 PM Sep 12th, 2008 from twitterrific

Oh wow, here come the Tropical Storm force winds; just had a burst of leaves blow against my office window; that'll get your attention.

5:40 PM Sep 12th, 2008 from twitterrific

Decided to join into the block-wide Hurricane Party that broke out in front of our house.

6:18 PM Sep 12th, 2008 from mobile web

Starting to hear some first sirens around the neighrhood.

6:27 PM Sep 12th, 2008 from mobile web

Still hanging out with the neighbors in the street. Who knew this many people lived on the block?

6:55 PM Sep 12th, 2008 from mobile web

The wind is blowing pretty steady in the 20mph range. Outside & enjoying right now.

7:10 PM Sep 12th, 2008 from mobile web

Now inside for the night; darkness has arrived in The Woodlands, along with about 30MPH wind; still got electricity, but some dimming.

8:21 PM Sep 12th, 2008 from twitterrific

Polished off rest of leftover pizza; just heard there are 250K w/o power now in H-Town & to not expect power for 2-3 wks; hopefully sooner.

8:38 PM Sep 12th, 2008 from web

Looking at the radar, I'm expecting our power to hold up until about 11PM; prove me wrong Entergy! Make that $500 bill worth it!

8:42 PM Sep 12th, 2008 from web

Heard on NBC 2 that Bush Int'l is reporting 59MPH winds; we should be getting similar winds within the hour.

8:53 PM Sep 12th, 2008 from web

Had to put on my Tulane hoodie because we've got the air cranked down so low; Ash just went outside & said a neighbor's tree is precarious.

10:05 PM Sep 12th, 2008 from web

Can't helped but be amused that NBC 2 ran a commercial for Tina Turner's October show here in Houston during their Hurricane Ike coverage.

10:38 PM Sep 12th, 2008 from web

Going to catch a couple of hours of sleep & getting back up around 1AM when the bad stuff is predicted to arrive here.

10:54 PM Sep 12th, 2008 from web

Still have power here in The Woodlands; wind & rain are really whipping outside now; the next few hrs should be the roughest. #ike

3:33 AM Sep 13th, 2008 from web

Starting to get some small tree branches blowing into the back of the house #ike

4:08 AM Sep 13th, 2008 from twitterrific

Heard that Brennan's of Houston has been on fire since about 12:30AM & is still burning.

4:18 AM Sep 13th, 2008 from twitterrific

Yep, here comes the heavy stuff; strong wind & rain, and just had the power do a hard flash for the first time; cable dropped out briefly.

4:38 AM Sep 13th, 2008 from twitterrific

Wow, we're getting the brunt of the storm right now, but our power/cable is holding strong; Ashley & Puggles have fallen asleep next to me.

5:15 AM Sep 13th, 2008 from twitterrific

Just did a quick damage assessment peeking out both doors; lots of debris in backyard, but front yard looks pretty good.

5:27 AM Sep 13th, 2008 from twitterrific

Looks like we've got a fairly large tree uprooted in the backyard and leaning against the deck. Hoping it will be braced there.

5:54 AM Sep 13th, 2008 from twitterrific

Lost power at 6:17AM in 77382 on Entergy's grid. #ike

6:24 AM Sep 13th, 2008 from mobile web

Hanging out with Ash & Puggles in the dark & listening to branches hitting the house.

6:33 AM Sep 13th, 2008 from mobile web

Tree fell on the back of our house, but just seems to be resting leaned on the roof instead of coming inside. Sprint network is down. Relying on SMS now

7:02 AM Sep 13th, 2008 from txt

Ran into backyard to check on tree now that it's dawn. It's laying completely on roof and resting against chimney. Still crazy windy/rainy.

7:07 AM Sep 13th, 2008 from txt

This tree on the roof is making some really strange sounds come out of the chimney. #ike

7:31 AM Sep 13th, 2008 from txt

Much brighter outside now, revealing tons of debris. Rain coming down in sheets still. Hoping the wind dies down by 10AM so I can assess roof damage. #ike

8:34 AM Sep 13th, 2008 from txt

I see I'm getting Voicemails. If you're trying to call, just txt me instead. I can't get voice service anymore. Watching the wind & listening to radio

9:05 AM Sep 13th, 2008 from txt

Got better look @ tree; no wonder it came down: had roots like a weed; moved out of livingroom b/c it looks like wind may roll tree off roof

9:21 AM Sep 13th, 2008 from txt

Tried to catch a short nap; wind/rain is still surprisingly hard some 7 hrs later.

10:25 AM Sep 13th, 2008 from txt

Still waiting for this wind to die down. We've gotten much more rain than expected: backyard looks like a river.

12:35 PM Sep 13th, 2008 from txt

Wow, just walked around the street a bit. Our 'hood got hit HARD. A giant tree barely missed the front of our house. Trees down EVERYWHERE.

1:21 PM Sep 13th, 2008 from txt

There is a giant tree blocking the road up the street from us. Our neighbor has offered to cut tree off our house tomorrow.

1:51 PM Sep 13th, 2008 from txt

Just saw a firetruck come down our street. Hopefully they will be able to remove the giant tree across the road.

3:46 PM Sep 13th, 2008 from txt

Made a full lap around the 'hood. Feeling pretty lucky relative to other houses. Lots of holes in roofs, missing fences, & water damage.

3:46 PM Sep 13th, 2008 from txt

Feeling much better after a nap & a shower. Thankfully still have some hot water. Took some damage pics. Will upload as soon as EvDO returns

6:51 PM Sep 13th, 2008 from txt

Had dinner w/neighbors via gas grill & our melting freezer meats; funny how nearby "strangers" pull together in times of turmoil. Bed now.

10:36 PM Sep 13th, 2008 from txt

Day 2 w/o power begins; had big wave of thunderstorms blow through @ 3AM; about to start cleaning up the yard. #ike

10:41 AM Sep 14th, 2008 from txt

Just heard rep from Entergy on radio say their system in Montgomery Co had catastrophic failure & will take a min of 2-4 weeks to restore.

12:31 PM Sep 14th, 2008 from txt

Drove around Woodlands some; so many trees are wrecked; found an open Kroger to get more water, food, batteries; no gas anywhere nearby #ike

5:20 PM Sep 14th, 2008 from txt

Sitting in a gas line at the Wal-Mart off 242. Glorious cold front came thru overnight. I feel like I'm in a 3rd world country.

9:04 AM Sep 15th, 2008 from mobile web

Got gas for Jetta after hr in line; now @ Wal-Mart to get more water, bread & cargo shorts; in line @ McDonald's to get a burger 4 Puggles

10:20 AM Sep 15th, 2008 from txt

Spent several hrs cleaning up the backyard & then the house a bit; now listening to radio & about to get some homework done. #ike

3:26 PM Sep 15th, 2008 from txt

Took a walk around the 'hood; looks like a lumber yard from all of the cut up trunks/limbs; considering Baton Rouge if Hewitt calls off wk.

4:48 PM Sep 15th, 2008 from txt

Hanging out over @ neighbor's house again, this time for spaghetti; thinking of grabbing a Hewitt laptop in AM & escaping to Baton Rouge.

6:37 PM Sep 15th, 2008 from txt

Came into Hewitt office; getting internet access for first time; hearing 80% of power hoped to be restored in The Woodlands by Friday.

12:46 PM Sep 16th, 2008 from twitterrific

Just read that estimated 100% Entergy restoration date for The Woodlands is 9/25. Also found out my work bldg flooded during storm.

1:17 PM Sep 16th, 2008 from twitterrific

Looks like the Sprint EvDO just kicked in here in The Woodlands; was getting 4KB/s, now seeing 50KB/s; near Research Forest & Grogans Mill

1:41 PM Sep 16th, 2008 from twitterrific

Spent several hrs in the office today catching up on e-mail/UPS testing; generators & Internet but no A/C; now across street for BBQ nite 4.

6:16 PM Sep 16th, 2008 from txt

Got power back at Alden Bridge in The Woodlands at 9:58PM!!! #ike

11:28 PM Sep 16th, 2008 from twitterrific

Hurricane Ike Wanes In The Woodlands



Damage From Hurricane Ike In The Woodlands

Hurricane Season 2009

Hurricane Season 2009
Originally uploaded by Juston Western

This year I decided to pick up the Hurricane iPhone app. Hopefully won't need to use it to see storms barreling towards Houston or New Orleans but it's only mid-August and you can see Ana's projected path.

Returning To Normalcy Post-Ike

The greater Houston area kind of took it on the chin for Hurricane Ike last weekend. Even 90 miles from the coast, The Woodlands experienced hurricane force winds.

We were without power at our house from 6:17AM on Saturday morning until 9:58PM on Tuesday evening, so basically 4 full days. I posted play-by-play updates on my Twitter page starting on September 11 and continuing for the next week if you're interested in going back to see how it unfolded.

Today I've also posted a photoset on Flickr with pictures of Ike's aftermath, as well as 2 videos on YouTube, which I'm embedding below. The first was footage from Saturday morning, as the remnants of Ike were still looming in The Woodlands, and the second is from Sunday afternoon when I was out assesing the damage after the rains had subsided.


Hurricane Ike Wanes In The Woodlands




Damage From Hurricane Ike In The Woodlands

Hurricane Ike Playlist or Tina (Houston) Turner vs L'Ouragon Ikey Tunes

We're all bunkered down here in The Woodlands, expecting Hurricane Ike to make it our way in about 10 hours. So in that spirit, I scoured my iTunes library & put together a little music for the event. In all it's 31 song glory, here is the tracklisting:

01 - Ike & Tina Turner - I Want To Take You Higher
02 - Dean Martin - Houston
03 - Ella Fitzgerald - Stormy Weather (Keeps Rainin' All The Time)
04 - Jimmy Buffett - Tryin' To Reason With Hurricane Season
05 - Roachford & M.Y.N.C. Project - Ride The Storm (Life Goes On Club Mix)
06 - Bob Dylan - Hurricane
07 - Amoeba Assassin - Piledriver (The Hurricane Mix)
08 - Gambino Family - Trapped In A Storm
09 - Houston Grand Opera - Porgy & Bess Act 2, Scene 4: Oh, Doctor Jesus (Hurricane Scene)
10 - Selwyn Cooper - Hurricane Blues
11 - Roni Size - Centre of the Storm featuring Zack De La Rocha
12 - Ike & Tina Turner - Proud Mary
13 - Green Velvet - Stormy Weather
14 - Bob Dylan - Shelter From The Storm
15 - Darude - Calm Before The Storm
16 - Scorpions - Rock You Like A Hurricane
17 - Kaos, Karl K, & Jae Kennedy - Houston
18 - The Doors - Riders On The Storm
19 - Frank Sinatra - Stormy Weather (with Quincy Jones)
20 - Gnarls Barkley - Storm Coming
21 - Jeff Mills - The Storm Among Us
22 - Leftfield - Storm 3000
23 - Massive Attack - Weather Storm
24 - Hurricane Smith - Oh, Babe, What Would You Say
25 - AIR - The World Hurricane
26 - Mobb Deep - Quiet Storm
27 - Beausoleil - L'Ouragan (The Hurricane)
28 - Enya - Storms In Africa
29 - Scorpions - Wind of Change
30 - Orbital - Desert Storm
31 - T-Bone Walker - Stormy Monday

Fingers crossed for the best!

Apprehensively Awaiting Hurricane Katrina's Landfall In New Orleans

I've been nervous all day watching the news reports about New Orleans' apparent impending doom. Many news reports are already calling this the storm of the century, and it's going to hit the worst possible location: New Orleans. I really hope I have a city to go back to. :-( Here's one article that won't let me sleep easy tonight:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/28/AR2005082800780.html