Hurricane Ike was a daunting experience for many of us but KPC's preserves on the Katy Prairie weathered the storm fairly well.  We lost some trees and some power lines were down but we did not have the devastation that the wildlife refuges and sanctuaries along the coast suffered.  KPC Board and Advisory Board members, supporters, and staff all lost power (some for only a few hours while others still don't have power back), some lost trees, some of us believe we experienced small tornados (cracks in driveways that were not there before the storm, the roar of what sounded like a train coming through, and chimneys destroyed); and some had major damage to homes on the coast.

For me, it was not the destruction but the aftermath that was the eye-opener - the time when residents came out of their houses to assess their damage or their good fortune, to talk about their experience, to commiserate with neighbors, or just to share a laugh or a thought or even (candle-lit) potluck suppers.
 
On Saturday afternoon my own neighbors ventured out and started to clean up - first their immediate surroundings and then the three whole blocks that encompass our adjacent neighborhood.  What began as an individual clean up ended up as a neighborhood event.  I met people I had only briefly seen on the street but had never before talked to.  We piled up tree limbs, cleared debris so that the gutters could flow and streets could drain, shared equipment, and talked about how we managed to muddle through the horizontal rain and the driving winds.

I know that similar events occurred on a block-by-block basis throughout the region.  The newspapers were full of stories about people sharing food not only with neighbors but with strangers in need, about small heroic acts, and about help that went above and beyond.

I realized after the storm how fabulous it is to have such great neighbors.  But even more it made me realize how fortunate the Katy Prairie Conservancy is to have the amazing volunteer support it enjoys all year round.  Without the many volunteer tour leaders, educational field trip advisors, clean-up crews, sign builders, trail layers, invasive species control experts, master gardeners, master  naturalists and, most especially, our board and advisory board members who provide guidance, key oversight, and vision, the Katy Prairie Conservancy would not be able to accomplish a fraction of what it is able to do.

I read stories every day from other nonprofits about what volunteers are doing to help them rebound from the damage caused by Hurricane Ike.  It is particularly distressing to see the pictures of the extensive damage caused by storm surges and the saturation of salt water in freshwater areas.  In some cases the storm waters pushed back vegetation and inundated areas with salt water 15 to 20 miles from the original shoreline.  Andrew Beck, Sanctuary Steward at the Houston Audubon Society, wrote on their website blog about a recent visit to the Society's High Island Sanctuary: "All of the spartina and other marsh grasses were dead due to the saturation by salt water, [land] for miles and miles north of the inter-coastal [canal] had been submerged under the surge of water. We saw dead cows, bloated like I have never seen, they were un-recognizable. The air smelled like plant decay, petroleum, and dead fish."

Many of the people who volunteer for KPC also volunteer for the Houston Audubon Society, for Gulf Coast Bird Observatory, for Galveston Bay Foundation, for Buffalo Bayou Partnership and the many other groups in the region that are working to make the land hospitable to people and wildlife.  KPC hopes that its preserves will provide a stopping or resting place for wildlife displaced by the storm.  KPC is even providing temporary shelter and food for 250 head of cattle that cannot be sustained at their former rangeland in Winnie, Texas.

Some organizations and even nature may have been stressed by Hurricane Ike, but it has also shown what a difference our volunteer "families" make in times of need.  Thanks to all of you.


Mary Anne Piacentini