Nine years ago I flew to Houston, TX, to talk at a writers’ conference. My host picked me up from the airport (in his BMW Z3) and drove me along Highway 1, past the Johnstone Space Center with its Saturn 5 rockets lying on the grass by the entrance, and into Clear Lake. It was a nice place. There was, of course, a lake, and a bay and lots of great waterfront places to stroll and eat, and lots of nice people to welcome you.
This morning, Hurricane Ike hit Clear Lake, and I’ve been watching some Weather Channel videos of reporters in the dark this morning watching as parts of buildings fly past them. (I’ve watched the Weather Channel through a few hurricanes now and I have never seen these reporters quite so rattled).
I’m sure that the international TV stations will probably pick up this video of Ike knocking one Weather Channel reporter off his feet,
but it was this video of the usually-unflappable Jim Cantore fidgetting and stuttering and ducking debris that struck me.
So to my friends in Houston, I hope you’re safe and undamaged.