Texas Stores in the Wake of Hurricane Ike

Reports on the status of Texas bookstores affected by Hurricane Ike are still coming in, but with evacuations and severe damage in Galveston, as well as power outages and spotty communication throughout much of southwestern Texas, the picture will probably remain incomplete for a while. Galveston booksellers are unreachable, while some Houston bookstores have reopened. Downtown Houston was more heavily flooded, but for the majority of the city's residents and businesses a lack of power presents the greatest challenges.

On Tuesday morning, September 16, downtown Houston's Murder By the Book was open for business, but without power. "We took in some water, but were really fortunate not to have sustained worse damage," said assistant manager David Thompson. "We had people trickling in all day. Times like this reading really helps de-stress you."

By Wednesday, he was able to report that the store had a generator running, which was powering a computer, the modem, and some lights. Murder By the Book, he said, was "still planning to host bestseller Don Winslow for a signing [on Thursday].... His The Dawn Patrol (Knopf) is one of our favorite books of the year!"

About the electricity, Thompson observed, it was necessary not only for day-to-day store operations but to dry the soaked carpets with wet-vacs and fans to prevent mildew, which can also spread to the books.

A block away from Murder By the Book is Brazos Bookstore, which BTW was still unable to reach at press time.

The west side of Houston experienced much less flooding and overall damage. Although there were a lot of downed limbs and some trees, Blue Willow Bookshop and Katy Budget Books were open, although many staffers remained without power.

"Everything's fine here," said Blue Willow owner Valerie Koehler. "We fared pretty well, but the majority of houses don't have power on our side of town. Since we do have power, customers are charging their cell phones here. Everyone's helping each other out."

Koehler was immediately back to business because her schedule demands it. "We didn't have any author events this week, but we have conferences and events coming up, and we need to have orders in place. We don't have a lot of customers rushing down the door, but we wanted to stay on top of the things that we planned to be doing this week."

In the far western Houston suburbs, Tamra Dore of Katy Budget Books reported the bookstore had escaped unscathed. "There's really no damage. A little rain blew in. The biggest problem is the widespread power outages," she said. Those outages, along with gasoline shortages, are affecting the ability of customers and staff to get to the store.

And although there was no physical damage to Katy Budget Books, what is of concern is the significant loss of business. The doors are open, but customers have been scant, and a planned school book fair was cancelled. Dore noted that 2005's Hurrican Rita caused a $10,000 loss of business, and Ike might cost them as much as $8,000. Meanwhile, the customers who are wandering in appreciate Dore and her staff's efforts. "They're glad we're open. They're tired of picking up branches," she said.

Nearby businesses were a "mixed bag" of open and closed according to whether or not they had power, explained Dore. "We're at a point where the power is starting to come back west to east. We're hoping our whole area will be back on the grid soon.

"We were very lucky. We'll just have to absorb the loss of business. That's just part of living on the Gulf Coast. Up north they have blizzards. Here, we have to deal with this." --Karen Schechner

See this week's related story about the ABA Bookseller Relief Fund. And share news of your store with BTW, by sending an e-mail to ABA Editorial Director Rosemary Hawkins at rosemary@bookweb.org.