JD's Blog

Time to "Fall Back".
We'll all be setting our clocks back an hour this Saturday night.

For the record- we are returning to Standard Time and it officially takes place on Sunday, November 2nd at 2:00am.  So make sure to set your alarm clock so you can get up and make the change at the appropriate time.



That Energizer Bunny and the International Association of Fire Chiefs once again want to remind everyone to change the batteries in the smoke detectors this weekend too.

Food is great, but it does not get the mess cleaned up.  Hurricane Ike has left our area with a lot to clean.



The Salvation Army is helping by handing out free cleaning kits.  The kits contain scrubbing brushes, brooms, mop, gloves, Clorox, and other items.



And yes, The Salvation Army has been providing food too.  They have already served 1.8 million meals in the Southeast Texas region.

www.salvationarmyhouston.org

I bet there are miles of fences across our area that were knocked down by Hurricane Ike.



How much will it cost to replace all those boards?
I have heard anywhere from $23 to $38 per foot.
What kind of numbers have you heard for fence construction or repairs?

Rescue Flight took me up for a look at the damage from Ike.  Here is the link to the full photo gallery:

http://www.myfoxhouston.com/myfox/pages/ContentDeta
il?contentId=7486881

An interesting press release I ran across...

   

When you think of an airport, you think of airplanes, flight attendants, security lines, maybe some unique shopping opportunities - but, hay? These days big round bales and neatly stacked squares of hay can be seen from the roads at both George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) and Ellington Field (EFD).

It started as part of an employee suggestion program with an idea to use the open land around IAH and EFD to grow and sell hay in order to generate revenue for the Houston Airport System (HAS).

The employee who suggested the program is the airport system’s director, Richard Vacar, who also owns horses and knows quite a bit about buying and selling hay.

“We’re always looking for ways to better our airport and to create additional sources of revenue,” says Vacar. “The thought came to me - I make hay off of my land by selling hay, just imagine how much money we can make out here with hundreds of acres of open land. We could be the Wal-Mart of the hay business!”

Of the 10,000 acres that comprise IAH, 250 acres are presently being used to harvest hay and 50 of the 2,500 acres at EFD are being used.

"Interested parties are more than welcomed to come on over and buy our hay. We’re open to both brokers and anyone who has a farm that needs hay.”

When the hay project is finally in full swing some 2,000 acres of land at IAH and EFD will be used to grow hay, providing a projected revenue source of roughly $4 million dollars a year. Cutting and baling at the airports this year will continue until the fall.

To get your ranch-hands on some of your own hay at a bargain price, call 281-230-8701 for more information.

Copyright © 2008 - Houston Airport System

Today's FOXRAD Hurricane Briefing had a really cool demonstration of protective film for your windows.  It helps protect the glass from breaking, but if it does break, there is no flying glass.  This stuff was originally created as an anti-terrorism product to protect against bomb blasts.
Here are a few more pics I took after the segment was over.  This is the first time I have seen a crowd gather around the set like this.  You would have thought we were giving aways food or something.

Go to the weather tab or the weather blogs to see the whole program.

Our Web Staff continues to develop more cool tools for you.

We just launched the FOXRAD Weather Sphere over the weekend.  Everything you need in one location with detailed information for each of the 18 counties in our viewing area.

>Each county page displays watches, warnings, and advisories from the National Weather Service.

>FOXRAD county views.

>Look for links to govenment and emergency agences specific to each county.

>You can also blog, message board, and send us photos for you county.

Looks like it's time to update you weather boodmarks. 

You can find it on our weather tab or

click here to view the FOXRAD Weather Sphere

The Virginia Tech Shooting is so horrible I’ve tried to limit how much I read and take in every day. It can be overwhelming. But I decided to keep looking and not give it up completely. I knew somewhere there would be a story of something good. I found one of those today. The story of Liviu Librescu, a hero.

Click here to read the story.

I’m glad I had the opportunity to learn a little about this man’s life.

Unprecedented April Snowfall in Southeast Texas over this Easter weekend.  Rain mixed with sleet and snow  fell in the Northern parts of our viewing area.  If you drew a line from Brenham to Conroe to Livingston, generally the snow fell North of that.  Our part of the world has seen snow in March before, but has never recorded snowfall in April.  There has been colder temperatures recorded back in 1938 and 1939, so we did not set those records.  But the official National Weather Service observations have never reported snow in April.
Here are some of those snowfall observations from Saturday
Crockett - 1 inch
Livingston - Trace
College Station - Trace
Huntsville - Trace
The community of Grapeland in Houston County received between 1 and 2 inches.  Looking at the pictures we received (check them out in the weather blogs) Lufkin got more than 2 inches of the white stuff.
So did we miss anything?  What did you see?  Got any more pics?

Being a Mac user, I know that I can trust an Apple product to perform well.  But this iPod did more than most.

 

Stopping a bullet in Iraq?

 

The story has changed from when these pics first hit the web.  The soldier's body armor probably did most of the work saving his life.

But it's a reminder to me of how dangerous their job is over there.