Help is on its way

Well, unless a freak wind accident causes an upset in my world overnight this hopefully will be my last Isaac post. I am sick of this storm mainly because it makes me ache. As I’ve said in this space many times before, low barometric pressure has a habit of doing that. Right now a very narrow outer rain band from what is once again Tropical Storm Isaac showed up on radar about 25 miles to the east of where I am. Right along the Texas-Louisiana border.

It is funny how geographic borders have a propensity for stopping weather. One of the local TV weather guys said we would get no rain out of this storm. But it seems to be crossing the border. Go back, you damn tropical rain! Your kind isn’t allowed in our partially-drought-ridden state! Egos.

I stepped outside and was hit by one little drop of rain. I don’t know if that will be it for our experience with Isaac, other than some pretty good breezes. But we may get some rain tonight. Or we may not.

But more importantly, at least for the folks who actually got hit by the storm, I counted more than two dozen of those big Asplundh bucket trucks parked outside the MCM Elegante’ Hotel here on the outskirts of Beaumont. Asplundh — pronounced “AH-splund, the ‘h’ is silent” — is the big tree trimming company. The trucks and its crews are waiting for conditions to allow them into areas hit by Isaac so they can cut trees blown into all types of precarious conditions by the storm. Believe me when I say, if you got hit by a hurricane, or ice storm or large tornado, you want as many of those tree-trimming trucks as well utility repair trucks, there and you want them there yesterday. That is because the sooner they get there, the sooner your electricity is restored.

So, help is on its way. Good news. From Texas.