Robert Kerr:
CLASS OF 1969
Evergreen Park High SchoolClass of 1969
Evergreen park, IL
Robert's Story
For the past 30 years (1979 - 2009) I have worked as a computer analyst for the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB). For the 4 years prior to that (1975 - 1979) I worked for the University of Texas Marine Science Institute (UT/MSI) as a computer operator/data processor.
My job at the UT/MSI was more interesting than my current position. While at the MSI we would go on geophysical research cruises that would take us around the Gulf of Mexico and into the Pacific. I got to go through the Panama Canal. We docked at Costa Rica and El Salvador. The ports we stopped at were not exactly tourist meccas.
While at the UT/MSI I had the opportunity to go to South America and South Africa but I decided to go to work for UTMB as a programmer trainee instead. The job wasn't quite as eventful but I got to work with a bunch of great people and got a job I really enjoyed.
Last year I survived hurricane Ike. If I recall properly it struck on September 13. Nobody really expected it to do much damage. Galveston Island has been hit by storms that packed a more powerful punch in the past and came through with not much more than a bunch of downed trees and some roof damage. Ike, however, faked us all out.
The storm pushed water into the bay behind Galveston and the winds that pushed the water into the bay became the winds that pushed the water back towards Galveston as the eye of the storm passed over Galveston. The seawall stopped the waves from the Gulf, from the south. There was nothing to stop the water that came from the bay, from the north.
At work we moved our PCs to the second floor. Some also moved their monitors. Nobody moved anything else. The water that flooded the building where I worked came to a height just above the top of my desk.
Behind our building are the docks where the Galveston shrimp fleet calls home. One of the boats floated up onto one of the paking lots our employees use. There were a number of boats in places that you didn't expect to see one. Even now there are a couple of boats sitting out in a field to the north of the highway coming into Galveston.
The residents were not allowed to come back onto the island until about t...Expand for more
hree weeks after the storm. It was bad that so much stuff went under water. It was worse that it all sat for three weeks just soaking. The water was a combination of the saltwater from the bay along with all of the sewage that floated up out of the sewers.
I got off with relatively little damage. My apartment is on the second floor but the garage below got 31 inches of water. I exected some flooding so I removed everything from the bottom of all of my shelves. The water rose up and soaked everything on the second shelf. Fortunately I had placed the contents of a number of boxes in to plastic bags before putting them into the boxes.
My washer and dryer took a swim as well as a window unit air conditioner. I had taken the A/C unit downstairs to clean it and had left it sitting on the washer. The water made the washer buoyant and when it tipped the A/C unit also went for a swim. If I had placed the A/C unit on the dryer it would not have slid off since the dryer did not float.
I dreaded the task of checking to see what happened to my fish tank. I was expecting to see a 20 gallon tank of slime and algae. Much to my surprise though I found a bunch of fish that had survived the ordeal. They had survived three weeks of heat, no light, no food, no aeration, and no filtration. The next day I took them all to the nearest pet store (which was about 25 miles up the road) and gave them away.
In November about 25% of the labor force at UTMB was laid off. I was holding my breath for a while there but my position was not cut. I felt bad for the people who lost their home and their job. I couldn't imagine what they were having to go through.
Unlike New Orleans, Galveston did not have money tossed at it. The Army Corps of Engineers spent something like $7 billion reconstructing and reinforcing the levys around New Orleans. I'm not sure how much the Feds have spent on Galveston, but I guarentee you it is nowhere near $7 billion.
On the bright side the Texas legislature approved several hundred million to help rebuild UTMB and FEMA will also kick in several hundred million. It is a start but it will be a long time before the city will ever be the same.
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