I’ve gotten lots of questions about what impacts Hurricane Ike has had on my company, ConocoPhillips. The short answer is, I don’t know yet.
I was in Houston this week, and as it became evident that the hurricane was going to hit Houston, I decided to cut my business trip short by a day and came home Thursday evening. I knew that Ike wasn’t going to hit until late Friday/early Saturday, but with as many people as were told to evacuate (I heard over a million), I knew I should leave earlier than Friday or risk not getting out. Even on Thursday, the freeways were jam-packed and crawling Thursday morning.
We closed our offices on Thursday at noon, and although my flight wasn’t until 6 p.m., I drove to the airport hoping to catch an earlier flight. However, the wait list was already 70 names long, so I just waited for my flight. However it was delayed, and we didn’t get the wheels up until 8:30 p.m. I was exhausted but happy to be heading home. The pilot told us the weather wasn’t causing the problem; it was all the private aircraft traffic impacting the commercial flights.
We did shut down three Gulf Coast refineries—Sweeney, Alliance, and Lake Charles. Also we shut down at least one offshore platform, and I understand most oil companies shut down their facilities, too. I heard on the news today that gasoline prices spiked to well over $5/gallon in Atlanta. That’s the first time I’ve heard of a price that high in our nation. Hopefully that’s very short lived!
Besides all my friends and co-workers in Houston, I have several relatives there. My cousin Julie White Reames lives in Sugar Land, as does my Aunt Laura and her husband Dave White. Lisa’s nephew Nathan and his wife and children live on the north side of Houston also. I’m worried about them all and pray for their safety from the storm.
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