lanny's Blog

 The  fine folks  at  Katz's   generously  opened their doors to us  this  morning  so we could  plunck down and host a live web chat.  As it turns out  as many  live chatters wanted to know what was on the  menu as they wanted to    grouse  over the elections. 

   Join us  at   www.myfoxhoustonlive.com 

     I  was stationed outside a bed and breakfast in Montrose  this  morning and it was  weird  how quiet and orderly  everything was.  Granted  these folks in Montrose are  sharply focused on the issues  and  are always  the savy  voters, but  it made me wonder where everyone  was.

     Folks  gathered as early as  5:30 this morning at my location.  In fact when the young couple walked up with lawn furniture at  5:30 AM  I was  startled  thinking  this was a sign of  huge crowds to come  but not so.    By  7 AM  there were more than  150   voters  lined up down the sidewalk.  But  by  8:30  all  those  folks had voted and were gone!!   Talk about  efficient  voting.   No one I  spoke with was the least bit  undecided, they were resolute in their  vote.

   And a word  about the  workers insides  these precincts.  BRAVO !   You really have to either love your job, or love the process to get there  around 5:30 AM  to set everything up,  take an oath of  honesty,  and then  work  the site  for  countless hours into the night.  The  folks where I was  had been working that site for  15 years,  they love the  Lovett Inn and they love  their  judge  Dennis  Fetters.  He gave us  a  blow by blow  account of what was going on inside  throughout the morning.  Very informed  man.

     I am home now  glued to the tube to see if there  is a last minute  surge of voters  tonight.   It looks as though the  early  voting is going to be the real story in this election. 

   Best of luck to whomever  wins  in all the races.  I know I certainly  wouldn't want to hold  a public  office.     No thanks!!   

Stop what you are doing and go  to the  ENTERTAINMENT  page here and look at  AGING OF PRESIDENTS   blog.......my whole family was  rolling with  laughterr.

Great way to take the edge off the election.

      It happens  this Friday afternoon at the  House of Blues,  down by the George R. Brown Convention Center.   I have just spent  the last hour  reading  his  bio  and  going on the web to read up on him and  to tell you the truth I have burst out in tears of  riotous  laughter reading all his  inventions and characters and  quotes.  The man is a comic  genious.  He is  so spread out with his talent.  Most of his  characters  are taken from his  lifetime of  making  friends  laugh.  Silly things that we all do with our friends.  Then he is  fascinated with  UFOs  which is a whole  other  blog.  Then there are his movie  credits.  I had forgotten  he has done so much  film work and in so many  different  areas.  The solid stuff like  playing the son in  "  Driving Miss Daisy "  to the  crazy fun stuff like   "  The Blues Brothers."  He has hosted  a nationally syndicated show  from the House of Blues, he  has  owned  the Hard Rock Cafe in NY.  He is  co-owner of House of Blues  currently.  

     His degree was in  criminology and he's a huge  cop  fan.  His brother  is a  psychi  analyzer, what ever that is.  The man is all over the road.  And to top it all off, he  owns  a  fricking  winery and vineyard!   Stop already.  I feel like such an  under achiever.

   My  interview is going to be about his love of  the blues;.  He  and  Jim
Belushi are the opening act this Saturday at  House of Blues, so we are going to talk  blues.  My interview will air   this  Friday night on the  9PM. 

  As I do before I interview any  famous  person  I throw  the questioning out to you guys.  What questions  would you like me to ask  Mr. Akroyd  this Friday.  Give it your best shot.  The man is a  wealth of knowledge.       

     I am going into my  3rd straight week of  covering  the aftermathof Ike.  Overwhelming  is the word  that  best describes the sites I have seen.  People  by the  tens of thousands  have lost  everything except the clothes they had on when the storm hit.  Lost,  is another word that comes to mind  when describing  these poor folks.  It doesn't matter if  some had flood insurance or not,  these people  are desperate for our help. 

   So far, my only help for them has been  to get  them and their stories on tv.  We  reported on the Clear Creek School   districts  back to school  supply drive.  The  employees of the  Dixie Farm Rd  Walmart  saw  our story and decided they would cancel their planned  holiday party and instead  reach into their own pockets  and  buy  school supplies  for all who needed  them.  The next morning they came into that  small gymansium with  50-thousand dollars in supplies.  Can you believe that?  That's what you hope  television is all about.     

    The Houstno Food Bank,  god bless them  continue  to  haul  a half a million tons of food to folks  in the  areas  hardest hit!      But  the  days  are long  and  the thoughts of  many are that  "  things must be going well, I haven't heard anything on the news."  Well, think again.     The Chris and Renee Napier's  still have no home in Baytown  after their  house  exploded from the  wall of water that  rammed it  the night of the storm.  The poor  family  whose  foundation we stood on in  Shoreacres  still have no home  or  car.  They were  in Kentucky when the storm hit  and had not returned as late as last week.    Hundreds of folks in Seabrook still have  mud  in their homes which flooded  from the  14 foot storm surge.   And  Cheryl McCullough of San Leon  doesn't know if her home for almost 30 years is  salvageable.   

     Churches  are certainly doing their part.  the  Baptist group ranks at the top with  thousands  of Baptist Men of the Southern  Baptist  Convention  on the ground the Sunday after the storm hit.  They are here from  California,  Maine, Delaware, and North Carolina.  they are here  doing  laundry and  feeding  50--100-thousand people  a day!!!   In Baytown alone  they are  fedding  20-30-  folks  everyday  7 days of week.  Everywhere  we went    a Baptist  disaster  truck was in sight.  These people have really put their  faith into action. 

      I come home late in the day and actually feel guilty  and sad that I have a home, with furniture, that I have a ceiling fan  and  air conditioning.  I just want so bad to bring those folks home with me  to let them  take a bathe  and  relax  for  once  since all this happened. 

    Hundreds of thousands of people are in  desperate need of  trailers to live in on their  lot.  They don't want to  drive 200 miles away  to a FEMA  hotel.  They want to be  on their propety.  Looting continues  so  these folks are on their property with guns at  the ready. 

   No   donation is too small.  I passed  by several mobil home sales  lots  that  were  full of  brand new  RVs, trailers and such.  Why aren't these dealers  talking to FEMA  to turn these   mobil  homes over to the folks who are sleeping in their car?   God  knows people aren;t  buying new  mobil homes right now with the economy the way it is  so  I hope they will try to work with FEMA  and the  homeless to help  them out. 

    I just want ya'll to  think about these people  who  stretch from San Luis Pass to the Lousiana  coast line  who sleep outdoors  or in their  cars  or the backs of their trucks  at night  with nothing.  Most lost their  only means of transportation  because  their  cars were either swept into the sea  or  their motors  were caroeted  the minute the salt water  rushed over them.  It's been 3 weeks and these folks  haven't even gone back to work yet. 

     Give to your  churches, the United Way, or  any of the Disaster Relief  organizations  such as  Red Cross and give  generously and often.  this is  billions and billions  of  dollars  in  recovery  and I am not sure  everyone  has  the grasp  as to the scope of this thing.  Cattelemen have lost  cattle,  land  has been washed away, homes gone, pets, and people,  all  washed out to sea  from Ike. 

    This is my first time  to blog about this  and I promise I won't stay away so long.  It  just  takes my breath away  sometimes  when I realize how  truly  bad things are.

   My plans  call  for me to head into Chambers  County all next week.  Right now I am dealing with a miserable sinus infection from being around so much mold.  Moldy houses, moldy  fabrics  moldy  people.  Everyone  will tell you down there  that  they have  some kind of  upper  respiratory  thing, or they have laryngitis  from  mold in the  air ways.  I am hoping mine clears up  over the weekend so I  can keep on  putting the light on folks  trying depserately  to  get their lives back.  I hope you will join me in prayers  for everyone on the gulf coast  who  break down and cry  in the middle of a sentence.  There is no  end in sight  for so many.  And it's particularly  sad  for the old folks  who don't deserve this.  They have worked their tail off  only to have everything  they own  wiped  out.  I can't imagine having to start over at  72.         

    The people  I show you on the news are so glad to see someone, anyone  with information for them.  Or after being on the air, their cell phone will ring with  someone who has been worried about them.  Television  can be a divisive medium, but in this case  it  is a great source of joy for so many. 

    Huge thanks to those who have helped  and  a strong  urge  for those who haven't yet given.  This is the worst disaster to EVER hit  the gulf coast and we have to pull together  for a long long time on this one.   I know we can all make a difference!

Poor mom's in Baytown for 2 more weeks without A/C.  Wondering if anyone out there has a  class C  RV  to rent for a week to 10 days.  If so, shoot me an e-mail...griffith@fox26.com

My  immediate family's  homes  are safe but my  group in Baytown has damage and  no  electricity.  All of us ,  thank  God,  are helathy.  

  Prayers to all who lost  or who are  suffering  from this  awful  disaster.  The people of Texas will rebuild the Gulf Coast!!! 

You just never know who you are going to run into   during  a disaster  story.  Yesterday I went down to  Brennan's  to talk with  Alex Brennan about the fire.  And  who pops out of the  shadows, non other than....TEXASEX!  The blogger and live  chat  dude  who is always on.  It was so cool seeing him in person and seeing where he works  and does his  live chatting from. 

   Hey Tex, thanks for the  cold  lemon aide.  My photog and I LOVED it!!!

    ALso, please pray for  James and Katherine  Koonce.  They are the father and  3 year  old  daughter who was  horribly  burned in the  Brennan's  fire  Friday night.  They are both at the burn center in San Antonio.  They sustained  burns  over  80 percent of their  bodies.     He was a long time employee there  who brough his family  into the restaurant  to ride out the storm.     

     God bless you all  and hang in there.  Better days  are ahead.   

Even though  I spent  2 days  at Transtar  with the  mayor and  county judge  and  for 2 days they told us  this would be a  bad storm, I still  didn't believe it would be this bad. I mean come on, we haven't had a storm of this  magnitude  since  Carla in  1961.  Bad as that  was  I think this is  worse.

     I cannot remember a time  when the  region was out of water  but  very few people have  running  water  in their homes.  If they do have water then it is just a trickle  like  mine.  Not enough to  work into a  good lathered.  Not by a long shot. 

   My neighborhood looks like  a bomb  went off.  Hundreds  of trees  were failed  and  I have my neighbor's  pine tree  on top of my house.  Freaky  but it didn't  damage my  structure.  Everyone in my hood  is  walking around  dazed and confused  but  greatful  more bad things didn't happen. 

   I have no  electricity, ro  internet  access, my cell phone  has no signal, we have  very little  water,  but  our  spirits are high.

    It has been a mixed blessing  to lose  touch with the  communications  world.  Odd  and scarely  feeling  but  it  has given me a break from the non stop reporting.   I am now back in the newsroom  where  we  are off the air   but  have  a generator  pumping  air conditioning  into the newsroom.  Obvioulsy I have  my desk computer and it is  working well.   

     No one  that I know or are related to has been injured and that's a blessing.  Later Friday I found out that my  86 year old  aunt and uncle  were stranded in the Baytown home  on Cedar Bayou.  I couldn't believe it.  She has Parkinson's  and he  has  early  Alzheimer.  My mom was also left  in the lurch  and she lives  by the  bayou.  I hopped in my  truck and hauled it to Baytown and was able to get all 3  to come back to HOuston with me where we could all keep an eye on each other.  They are now  back  in their own homes  safe, and dry  with  no damage to their property.    Moving seniors  is one thing  but  2 seniors  with major health issues  is  quite  a  task. 

     Now I am caught up and am waiting to see where I will be sent next.  We are staying on  until  the  worst of this is over.   

  Don't lose faith folks  I know it's  tough out there  but  with a good attitude  you can make  things  good  things happen.    

     Well you guys have been posting your concerns  about Ike  this week  and  I have largely ignored them because I am so hurricane  weary.  Looking at the latest  tracks, however, I am beginning  to get worried  too.  November can't get here soon enough.  We need extremely  cool weather to hit our region  to protect us  from another massive  hurricane.

   It's all on our weather  tab.

OK,  you got to admit, this is  really funny.  Fox  News  is reporting that the  iranian  regime  is considering  lopping off  3 or 4  zeros  from its  currency  to fight out of control inflatioin. 

   Is that a riot or what?  You will still have  out of control inflation but  you'll  feel better because you got change back   everytime  you buy something.     What a riot!!!

 Even though I had  Labor Day off, I was at home  monitoring  the live chat.  Apparently there were LOTS of  children  on the site  cursing and using all kinds of  abusive language.  The web folks here had their  hands full   kicking  out  the  bad  words.  School was out  and the kids were left in charge of the computers. 

   When that happens  good people get tossed too because the language  is flying soooo fast that  it is hard to  keep up with  who's saying what  and so on. 

    I apologize for the bad behaviour  yesterday  but  kids will be kids.  To those who got kicked out unfairly please come back and realize that when we are in a situation of breaking  news  all hands are on deck  and  No One, No ONe  in the web dept  can keep up with  virtually everything  flying through this space.   The reporters  were  even  helping  throw  out the bad  yesterday. 

  Thank you  and  let's  chat!

A blank post  offerd up in prayer for our brothers and sisters in harms way. 

     Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin, a virtually  unknown  in  political circles  is  named  John Mc Cain's  Vice Presidential candidate.  Who besides me  is  flooooooooored???    If he wins  then she becomes  second in line  to the presidencey.  You can't tell me that  Hillary   Clinton isn't   fuming.   Who kneww? 

    Your thoughts !!