Hurricane Update

Hurricane came and went and for the most part was a non event for us. The last 24 hours it turned north to the east of us. Ever the capitalist I tried to make some money last second making some trades after hours on Friday in a small personal account (not the hedge fund) longing UNG (natural gas ETF) and shorting All State as it made its final turn towards Houston. The energy markets were saying this was a non event and I thought a direct hit on the ports of Houston and downtown Houston would have a bigger impact than most people thought.

A couple of interesting things from Associated Press

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iegCzko2qT3cUfD__XPxPGVOVMwgD935UL480

The storm surge was less severe than what had been predicted. Wilson Shaffer, chief of the National Weather Service's evaluation division, said Saturday morning that the highest surge so far was seen at Sabine Pass in Texas, at about 13.5 feet, according to tidal gauges.

Forecasters had predicted a surge of up to 25 feet, which would have been the highest in recorded history in Texas, above 1961's Hurricane Carla, a storm that brought a 22-foot wall of water, with some 15 feet rushing inland up shipping channels.

That is a pretty big miss. 25 feet versus 13.5 feet. So far no reported deaths on Galveston which I think is directly tied to the fact that the storm surge they predicted never materialized.

Looking at the oil refiners.

Valero's refineries at Houston, Texas City and Port Arthur remain shut down, and all three have lost power.

and

Thirteen Texas refineries had been shut down due to Ike, according to the Department of Energy. In Louisiana, refineries were just coming back online after Hurricane Gustav.

CenterPoint, the main utility in Houston, reported 1.3 million outages Saturday. Entergy Texas said nearly all of its 395,000 customers in southeast Texas were without power. Both warned that it could be weeks before power is restored.

I also recommend looking at some of the picture of the JP Morgan Chase building in downtown Houston at the Houston Chronicle. Wow!

http://www.chron.com/news/photogallery/Ike_blasts_Houston_Galveston.html