HoustonRelief - add/view comments ()

When I came to work Friday morning ready to camp out at the station for the storm, I was greeted at the door by our station engineers "you know you're here because you want to be... Not because you have to be...this storm looks bad and it could be dangerous." I was stunned - what do you say to a greeting like that? Of course our stations are in a glass building on the 9th floor and double paned windows or not... It's a scary place to be in a bad storm. Power was likely to go out. People would be scared and the only source of information and comfort for our listeners would be the radio.

Madd Hatta came back to the station Friday at 5pm with pillow, blanket and toothbrush in hand ready to captain our Hurricane Ike broadcast. He stayed on air from 6pm Friday to 2pm on Sunday with only a 2 hour break on Saturday morning and a few hours on Saturday to catch a nap... With his trusty sidekick J Mac, Monetana and Prince Folaji from Praise 92.1 and Jeff Harrison PD Majic 102.1 as well as our station engineers we were one of the few radio clusters that were able to remain on the air during the storm. GT, Rob G, Da Boi Genius, Ross the Boss and Chilly Bill braved the dangerous driving conditions to give us all some much needed nap time late Saturday night for a few hours on our various stations and I can’t tell you how happy I was to see the rest of the Praise team show up on Sunday afternoon. Despite no power, water and both of his homes suffering Hurricane damage, our VP/GM Doug Abernethy pulled out his grill on Sunday to provide everyone with a much needed hot meal. Supplies were definitely running out so Barbara Wilson and Red Delasbour volunteered to raid the nearest Super Walmart in Dallas and drive to Houston Monday morning to feed the troops.

The storm was unlike anything I had ever seen or heard. You could hear the windows blowing out in our building - it sounded like bombs exploding. Part of our roof and the "penthouse" on top of the building was ripped off and landed on the building next door... The wind screamed for hours on end and I have never witnessed horizontal rain before...yes, it rained sideways. You could actually see power transformers bursting into flames and there was a historic restaurant downtown that was engulfed in a multi alarm blaze. Our engineers were fascinated to explain and demonstrate how our building was actually swaying visible by the dangling lights moving in the air and you could watch the windows 'breathe' and buckle under the strain of 100+ mph winds. It was eerie to hear the creaking and moaning of the metal structure as it stood up to Ike. It went on for hours... And when it was all said and done, we could look out the window and see destruction. Debris, downed power lines, broken glass, flooding, trees, roofs and fences battered by the storm. Galveston (45 minutes from Houston) is completely devastated.

People were terrified, calling us on the phone... Family and friends huddled in closets and small rooms looking for information or a song of hope or even just the comfort of knowing they were not alone as Madd Hatta and the crew did their best to share the human side of the storm... That no matter what... Power outages, loss of water, damaged property that they were not alone. We survived... We made it through together. We did our best to give out information on the storm, relief efforts, rescue efforts and safety measures. For those that were stuck, we were able to link up neighbors to share supplies and a helping hand. For those that needed a reason to smile we did our best to give them a reason...

In the end, it will be a while before things return to normal in Houston. Gas and ice is hard to come by and FEMA and the grocery stores are working hard to try to restock. We had a few million people without power and Crews are working 24 around the clock to get the lights back on. They're working on clearing the water supply and getting water on for folks that have no running water. In the end, I'm eternally thankful to Madd Hatta, J Mac and the rest of the crew for weathering the storm with me. Hurricane Ike will always be a reminder that life is precious and while material items can be replaced, people cannot and how truly blessed we are to still be standing.

Recommend this profile to your Facebook friends.