AM Show Hr 1 | On The Storms And Early Voting

Episode Transcript

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It's that time, time, Time, Time, Luck and Load. Michael
Berry Show is on the air afew days. Michael Berry's show is sponsored
by Pan American World Airways. PanAmerican World Airways, commonly known as pan

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AM, was founded on March fourteenth, nineteen twenty seven, by Juan Trip
and a group of investors. Itbegan as a small mail carrier between Key
West, Florida and Havana, Cuba. The airline quickly expanded throughout the Caribbean
and Latin America, establishing itself asa pioneering force in international air travel.

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PanAm entered its golden age in thenineteen fifties and sixties, becoming synonymous with
luxury and innovation and air travel.The airline was the first to offer regular
commercial jet service, with the Boeingseven oh seven and nineteen fifty eight,
drastically reducing flight times and making internationaltravel more accessible. During this period,

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panam's iconic blue globe logo and whiteclad flight attendants became cultural symbols. The
airline expanded its routes across the globe, connecting major cities in every continent except
Antarctica. Because to the best ofmy knowledge, there are no major cities
there or maybe airlines. I don'tknow if there's an airport in Antarctica or

(01:32):
not. I don't know if theyget there by boat or they fly.
I really don't know. But threemajor turning points led to Panam's demise.
The company invested half a billion dollarson seven forty sevens, right before an
oil embargo raised the price of oilfour hundred percent. It also purchased National
airlines in order to fly domestically,resulting in a loss of eighteen point nine

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million dollars. Pan Ams struggled toremain profitable and began selling off assets,
including its prestigious Pacific routes and itsNew York City landmark, the pan Am
Building, which is now the metLife Building, and then, in December
of nineteen eighty nine, it wasthe target of a terrorist attack that killed
over two hundred and sixty people.In nineteen ninety one, PanAm declared bankruptcy

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and ceased operations. Delta Airlines purchaseda significant portion of its remaining assets,
including its routes and aircraft. Despiteits demise, PanAm left a lasting legacy
in the aviation industry. Today,PanAm is often celebrated as a symbol of
the Golden Age of aviation, representingthe glamour and excitement of early commercial air
travel. Its influence persists in popularculture and the collective memory of aviation history.

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I was nine years old when Itook my fresh flight with PanAm.
My father took people to an La. I'll never forget the thrill the China
clipper lifting off the water, thesun across the Pacific. They brought fresh
food on board in Honolulu, andI had fresh pineapple and French pastries.

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When the steward turned the light offabove my head, I was too excited
to get a sleep. Manam inventedluxury the skies, and it's nice to
see they haven't forgotten it. Thisis first class at seven forty seven.
You get plenty of room to spreadout in work or stretch out and relax.
In fact, no airline gives youmore space, more privacy. That's

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a luxury these days. Yeah,look as stars come on, George's good
to sleep. I can't too excited. You can't beat the experience. Center
Point expects ninety percent of customer outagesrestored by this evening as of six o'clock

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this morning, power outage dot USreports one hundred forty nine hundred and seventy
five thousand customers in Harris County remainwithout power. According to Centerpoint Outage Tracker,
about two hundred ten thousand customers hadtheir power restored in the last twenty

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four hours, and they added thatmore than seven hundred and seventy thousand customers
have had their power restored since Thursday. The company said in a statement.
After Thursday's storms moved out of theHouston area, we immediately made a call
for mutual assistance cruise. Many ofour peers answered the call. Line workers

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and vegetation management professionals came from otherTexas cities as well as from Florida,
Alabama, Tennessee, Illinois, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Missouri, and Ohio.
After traveling several hours, once theyarrived in Houston, crews were required to
complete an eight hour rest period.When ready to be assigned, they went

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through an onboarding process where they receivedmaps of the restoration work plans and design
system standards. This orientation helps ensureefficient and effective restoration efforts. Combined with
our more than two thousand Center PointEnergy employees and contractors, more than seven
thousand resources are working together to restorepower to the Greater Houston area as safely

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and quickly as possible. Among thearea's center point energy territories say we're hit
the hardest bel Air, Cyprus,Baytown, Greens Point, Humble, and
Spring Branch. I don't know whythey don't mention the Heights or Oak Forest

(05:44):
or timber Grove when they list these, because I went driving around several times
and that area was absolutely devastated.I have both my nieces live in that
area and to see what has happened, to see the number of houses with
trees splitting them down the middle.And these aren't two million dollar houses.

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These are very modest houses that wouldhave been a lot less expensive except for
the compression of demand because people can'tbuy. People can't afford in West u
or the Heights or Montrose areas anylonger. So it's just continued to move
a little bit further. But youget these double income, no kid families

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that want to be as close totown as possible, and that's pushed into
those areas, combined with a lotof the older folks who have been there.
And at some point we'll sell,but aren't ready to leave the neighborhood.
Those areas were hit extremely, extremelyhard. It's amazing. I was

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driving down one street somewhere out inWest use and I don't know where exactly
it was, but and there wasthere were were a couple of the big
trucks that were in the road andthey weren't center point trucks. They were
clearly disaster response contractors, you know, they're people that travel around the country
doing this full time. And theyhad about three of them in a row,

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stacked on the road and they wereworking. So you basically only had
one lane, and it was likea mountain pass, you know, you'd
have to have a couple of carsgo and then a couple of cars go,
and normally there would have been aggravationthat the road was being occupied.
But as we pulled up, Isaid to my wife, don't don't doom.

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Don't don't don't doom, don't don'tdon't dum, don't down't them now,
No, now, I said,those guys are rock stars. Right
now you pull up to them.And my wife had said earlier she saw
several of the trucks rolling in andshe said, what it reminded me of

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is the video when you see theAmericans rolling into Paris and the French women
are just throwing themselves down. Andshe said, it's like everywhere you go
when you see the trucks, there'salways somebody out there, usually an old
person talking to them, like,hey, could you leave him alone because

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you know she's out there going Couldyou get that over there being pulling every
because he can't tell her? Lady, if you'll just let me work,
because you're the fifty eighth person todaythat has tried to tell me which line
we need to work on. I'llget them all fixed if you just give
me a minute. But it wasmy wife's point, and I think it

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was it was correct, Like theseguys come in and it looks like you
see those videos. I love theWorld War two videos where the American troops
coming. They got this big smilelike, oh, I'm about to have
a French girlfriend, little Sun,mister Fuckelberry, George Sleep, I can't

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it. It's been see if youcan sum back to him, you know,
that's not a way more than oneway to say exactly would you be
to say he was. As ofApril, Texas had already recorded eighty nine

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tornadoes, beating last year's total andonly behind Illinois and Alabama for the most
tornadoes in the US. On Maysixteenth, an EF one tornado with peak
wins of one hundred miles an hourhit Cyprus, doing significant damage. So

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Adam Dunn, star baseball player hada lengthy and impressive Major League baseball career,
is a friend. I did canget this from him. I got
it from a mutual friend of ourswho was the one who first introduced us,
and I have not run it toground, but I'm going to repeat

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it anyway because it's a great factthat may or may not be a fact,
but I'll find out. Cody Johnson, not the singer, the owner
of Canvas Press, said Done,texted me Dunn has a weather station at
Baseball USA, which is on theWest Belt. Said Don has a weather

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station at Baseball USA, and heclocked the wind high point at one hundred
and twenty seven miles an hour.I thought that was impossible, but now
I'm looking at these, it wouldmake it the worst. But then again,
this is the worst I ever recall. Since I came to Houston in

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eighty nine, I don't recall anythingany any tornado or dracho damage like this.
I think I'm just gonna say tornado, but you'll know I know the
difference between a tornado and a dracho. Fair, Okay. The twenty twenty

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four tornado season has been the mostactive in US history. National Weather Service
has more than eight hundred tornadoes havebeen reported nationwide. April had over three
hundred, the second highest since twentyeleven. But ACI Weather is predicting fewer

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overall tornadoes in twenty four than intwenty three. That's from a site I
follow called Hey Houston. I wastrying to find the other set of information
and I can't find it. Reminder, early voting going on right now at

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forty four Early Voting Center in HarrisCounty. That is through this Friday and
then next Tuesday is election Day.But of course you can vote early.
For those of you in Orange,Jefferson, and Jasper counties. I hope
you will please go out and endorsethe candidate that Donald Trump has endorsed in

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House District twenty one, and thatis David Covey Drunk Dade has appointed Democrat
Committee chairman. He has refused tosupport the border protection efforts. He has
refused to support the education reform efforts. He has contradicted the governor and Lieutenant
governor at every turn when they've triedto implement what is our very popular state

(12:50):
platform, the things we want done, but not him. He's serving the
Democrats and the lobby. And that'swhy they're having big fundraisers for him every
day to try to save him inthat seat. Not because he's a brilliant
visionary, but because he's a usefulpuppet. And if only he hadn't gotten

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drunk the night that he had toreturn to the microphone. Drunk as he
always is, but this night hehad to return to the microphone, you
wouldn't know how large he's living.He's drunk with power is the real problem.
Can you pull the drunk day audioso people can be reminded exactly how

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drunk he really was. But yourearly voting is going on now. My
endorsements. These are districts across thecountry. I'm across the state. Yeah,
give it go, speaker, I'llmove adoption mister Kempbell sends them.
Remember it is a separably. Theauthor is the objection to the adoptionmment,
and the church them is adopted Chero'smister Johnson of Harris. Mister Johnson of

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Harris is speaking opposition to the bill. It's not you want the sure enough.
The sure organism is in the aveCreato to speaking opposition to the bill.
I'm trying to keep it together.My wife and I were at dinner
the other night and there was aguy coming out of the bathroom and he

(14:30):
was hammered, I mean bad.And he's wearing a suit in this Houston
heat, mind you, and he'sgot a tie on and his his jacket
is tied, and he's about aboutearly sixties and he's clearly trying to pretend
he's not drunk. That always amusesme when someone tries to be so they're

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walking very stiff, like you know, Herman Munster, because they don't want
you to know they're drunk. Hereare my endorsements in the districts. Now,
you may or may not be inone of these districts, but this
is who I've endorsed for Montgomery CountySheriff Rand Henderson for Montgomery County Sheriff Ran
Henderson for a State rep. Districttwenty one. That's Orange, Jefferson,

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and Jasper Counties. David Covey Districtthirty, AJ Lauderback District thirty three,
Katrina Pearson District forty four, AllenSchoolcraft District fifty eight, Helen Kerwin District
sixty one, Carrisa Richardson District sixtyfour, Andy Hopper District ninety one,

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David Lowe District ninety seven, RylBean. You can find my endorsements at
Michael Berryshow dot com. It's onthe homepage. You can print that and
take it into the booth with youif you like. They will allow you
to carry a pony. There's aone hundred different terms for what a voter

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sheet that you can can consult whileyou're voting. If they say you can't
tell them the state laws as youcan in case you want that. If
I have not endorsed in a raceyou are interested in, it's because I
don't have a clear favorite in thatrace. I don't endorse in every race,
So just so you're aware, thereare many primary races that I don't

(16:22):
have a candidate, and whoever winsin the primary, I will support in
November. Reminder, these are therunoff. These are the runoffs for the
primaries that were back in March.This is not the runoff for the Harris
County Appraisal District. This is notthe runoff for the elections we just had
recently, which were school boards andthings like this. There is kind of

(16:45):
a leap frog. You have yourMarch primary, then you have your uniform
date. Was it May fourth,I guess it was where you had the
school boards and mud boards and HarrisCounty Appraisal District. And now you have
the runoff for the candidates in theRepublican primary for state House, state Senate,

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US Congress, US Senate president.If it had been obviously Trump won
that outright, but those whoever didnot get fifty one percent in the primary
will now be up in these runoffelections. And so that is that.
There was a motion yesterday last nightand it has passed as of this morning

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twenty six to four to close theRepublican primaries in Texas. That means that
Democrats will not be able to votein the Republican primary. The only people
complaining about that are Democrats and themedia, because if the Democrats hadn't voted

(17:56):
in congressional district I mean in HouseDistrict twenty one in Orange Jefferson and uh
Jasper Counties. They sent the Democratsin to vote for day Feeling because Dade
is the one who appoints Democrats tocommittee chairmanship. If that had only been
Republicans, he would have lost outright. Everyone listens to Michael Berry show

(18:22):
yong Vip. Let's kick it allright, stop collaborate and listen. I
said back to my friend with something, grabs hold of me, tightly flowed
like a hawk. Dailien Nightly whatever, stop Joe, I don't know.

(18:45):
Turn off the lights and I'm glowto the extreme. I walk a mic
like a van duel lot off thestage and watch a chump like I can't
don't dance? Who wants to speakof that booze? I'm killading your brain
like a poisonous mushroom dead league whenI'm playing dope melody. Anything less than
the best is a fella love it. We'll leave it. You bet,
I can't wait, You bet Ican't pulled out a kid. Don't lay
you don't. I just learned yesterday, Raymond, you know what you call

(19:07):
a bear that does karate griz Lee. I was reading the story about an
old man his last request before hepassed away. Was that when he died,
his ashes would be put into aspray bottle with water and sprits onto

(19:27):
his prized plants. He wanted tobe missed. Friday, we remembered the
Santa Fe shooting of twenty eighteen.Saturday was the actual day that it happened,

(19:48):
six years earlier, but Friday,of course made sense. Some of
you will remember shortly after that shootingwe had we talked about that shooting,
probably more than in most Obviously itwas local school shooting. But we had
an intern who'd been a senior therewhen that happened, and so Coco didn't

(20:12):
have to be at the school thatday, As luck would happen, that
may very well have saved her life, but she knew everyone there. We
talked to Rome Schubert. Was itlast week, last Tuesday, and Rome

(20:33):
Schubert was in the art the firstart room, one of, if not
the first person shot in the melee, but he managed to get away.
And of course he was to bepitching this past weekend at Senior Night for
his last time on the mound.But the night that we spoke to him,

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he got called in as a reliever. Of course, he doesn't know
when he's going to go in andpitch, but he got called in or
called up, called out to themound, and he pitched a shutout inning
with two strikeouts and no bases onballs and no hits, so pretty solid
outing for Rome. Said he wantedto do construction management, said he wanted
to do in commercial realm. SoI mentioned Tellipson, and you know,

(21:23):
as young people often do, hewas kind of well, okay, all
right. I later realized that hedidn't know how to answer, and that's
quite common a young person in asituation like that, they're a little overwhelmed.
Well, I think when we hungup, his mother called and his
girlfriend fiance. His girlfriend and hismother are both nurses working at Texas Children's

(21:48):
Hospital, and Tellipson does all theconstruction over there, so they knew well
what Tellipson was. And Tad,who is I think the third generation.
I think how Ward was his washis dad. I think Tad's the third
generation. But I could get itwrong. I'm sure I'm going to hear
about it if I am wrong,But I know Tad pretty well, and

(22:11):
I said, hey, would youmind talking to this kid. I'm not
asking you to hire him, butcould you at least talk to him and
give him some direction, and said, share my cell phone number, and
he did for the other fellow Holmbackwho had asked to talk to him as
well. And I spoke to Tadyesterday and he said that he in Rome
had connected, so a good endingto that. Well. If you remember

(22:33):
the officer we had on after thatwhole thing happened, his name was John
Barnes. And the irony of thewhole situation is he was shot during the
during the school shooting. He wasa responder of course with Santa fe isd
and he was pinned down when anotherofficer came and got him and was able

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to get him out of the situation. He was pinned down and the shooter,
whose name I won't say, hada good angle on him. So
if he so much is peeked outfrom the corner, which is what he
had done done going around the corner, he get popped again and that's how
he was shot, you know,before he knew what had hit him.
He was lucky he didn't bleed out. He suffered tremendously. But the irony

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of it all is that he hadbeen at HPD. He had gone to
work at at Santa fe isd asa you know sunset of your career,
hanging around the kids. You know, hey, no, you stop the
grab assen and here he you know, out of the frying pan, into
the fire. Six years later,he still doesn't have his benefits. KPRC

(23:44):
TV with the score man, they'reso there's so much, so much.
The last six years have been astruggle for John Barnes. You know,
every police officer believes that they're goingto get disability if they're forced to medically
retire from voice and it's just simplynot true. I don't get this ability.

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Barnes was the first to reach thegunman in May of twenty eighteen.
He was hitting the arm with ablast from a shotgun. It was like
someone had stuck a hose, gardenhose in my arm and turned on the
faucet. It was just I mean, on the video you could actually see
blood shooting across and hitting the wall. Barnes had to be revived twice that
day, and after ten surgeries,his arm is still not one hundred percent.
I can't stretch it any further thanthis. I can't turn my hand

(24:29):
over. That's as far as myhand will go. I can't stand any
longer than thirty or forty five minutesbecause of my arm hangs down. It
puts pressure on my elbow and it'svery painful. I can't pass any physical
I mean, there's no physical anywherewhere you can work with one arm.
Barnes went to work for Santa feId Police after retiring from Houston Police.

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He had only been on the jobfour months when the shooting happened. When
Barnes went to work for Santa feIsd, he was placed under the state's
teacher retirement system, which requires there'sten years of employment to be eligible for
full disability retirement. He said healso had to fight with Workmen's Comp to
get extended benefits. We went toa hearing that took six months, so

(25:11):
I didn't get anything from Mortman's Compfor six or eight months. Barnes also
applied for benefits through the Federal PublicSafety Officers Benefits Program. Nearly six years
later, he's still waiting to hearwhether he qualifies, which is ridiculous.
If I don't qualify for that,give me an answer. Two to three
years in Barnes has gone back towork as a commercial truck driver. He
says his arm will likely need moresurgery, but financially it's tricky because he

(25:34):
would have to stop work, yetwould need the extra income to help with
medical expenses. I had to workin arm. I try to go and
work in the plans. I physicallycannot do that. Physically, there's lots
of things I can't con ladders andthings like that, and I didn't know
any of this. Imagine if everyrecruit into law enforcement noon you get shot

(25:57):
to hell responding to safe kids.He did, and this is what you're
going to get out of the bullbe a lot better if you're an illegal
alien. Huh. Continues on theMichael Berry Show, Kevin Wrights. I'm

(26:32):
a retired lineman from Center Point afterthirty five years of service. I was
listening to the show and I heardyou ask why didn't Center Point mention the
Heights area. The areas you mentionedare the names of their service centers,
so not the neighborhood affected necessarily.They said, bel Air and Spring Branch

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cover the heights. So the areais that I'm talking about getting hit hardest
are coming out of the bel Airand Spring Branch service centers for Centerpoint I
was not aware of that, sothat does make a difference. I I

(27:15):
can't find this well, I can'tfind an email where I had just pulled
it out. Oh. So I'veasked people online, on Facebook and on
our show to please share your graduationadvice. What were you told that made
a difference or what would you tellsomeone that you wish you'd known at that

(27:40):
age? And our Friday show willbe dedicated as it is every year to
graduates and graduate advice. I alwaysenjoy the advice that I'm not a graduate.
But Spencer writes, if you havea little bit of wits and have
drive, it doesn't matter what careerpath or job you get, you'll figure
it out. And then, asif he's a caller, he writes company

(28:04):
hines height six foot one, waitabout one eight two went to Mom and
pops since they had ac over theweekend and they don't skip dessert. I
guess that's the reason for his weight, so he's thinking he probably put on
race white. It's very funny.A lot of folks when they send me

(28:25):
an email, will include their height, weight, what they do, and
what they suspect would I would sayto them if they if they were on
the line, which which gives mequite a cake. If you would like
to share your graduation advice you didreceive or would give people today, you
can email me through the website Michaelat Michael Berryshow dot com, or you

(28:48):
can go directly to the site MichaelBarryshow dot com and listen very carefully so
we don't get this wrong or you'llwaste your time. In mind, we
still have some bumper stickers available.If you would like a bumper sticker to
put on your truck, go tothe website Michael Berryshow dot com and there

(29:08):
there is a button that says getyour free bumper sticker. Click on that.
It'll ask you for your name andyour address. We don't harvest them,
we don't save them, we don'tsell them, we don't share them.
You'll fill that out. You willnot email me and ask me for
a bumper sticker because we don't havethem here in the studio. We're not
set up to send out ten thousandbumper stickers. It's not going to happen.

(29:32):
So you fill that out and thenit took almost a month for the
first round, but now it'll takeabout a week because they're caught up.
They had to get all the printingdone, They had to figure out all
the mass mailing situation and figure itout through our system. So won't waste
a lot of time, but you'llget them much faster now. And it's

(29:52):
two bumper stickers and a ten dollarsGringos gift card. And I asked that
you send me a photo of thesticker on your vehicle when you get it,
So do that through the website MichaelBerryshow dot com and click on the
button that says free email. Thedepth toll from the storms now stands at
eight according to Houston Fire Department.The eighth persons believed to have died in

(30:17):
a Spring Branch neighborhood Saturday from carbonmonoxide poisoning, probably from a generator.
He was said to be in hissixties. Houston Fire Department said they can
confirm five deaths related to the windstormweather event, one of which was carbon
monoxide related, and then three windstormrelated deaths confirmed by Harris County. They

(30:41):
talked about a fifty seven year oldman in northwest Houston who died trying to
move an electric pole. He collapsedand was rushed to the hospital. But
did not survive. In East Houston, a sixty year old man lost power
in the storm when he went outto his truck to plug in his oxygen
tank. Oh man, his powerwould have gone out and the only power

(31:08):
he would have had would have beenin his internal combustion engine automobile truck.
He went out there to plug in. Probably needed oxygen more than usual because
he's panic, he's rapid breathing,he's nervous, and he's worried about not

(31:33):
having his oxygen Friday morning. Sothe morning after the storm, he was
found dead. In Cyprus, lightninghit a trailer that went up in flames,
killing an eighty five year old woman. We told you the story yesterday
of the mother of four who wentoutside to move her car so it wouldn't
get hit by a tree. Thetree came down on top of her while

(31:56):
she was doing that, crushing thecar and ultimately killing her. A seventy
two year old cement worker was killedwhen a crane collapsed and slammed down on
the cab of his truck. Thatthe sad part about it is, and
I suppose it's just with anything,it's just bad luck. You drive around

(32:17):
and you see trees that have missedthe roof by a foot and they're laying
right and you can tell it almosthit but it didn't. You see trees
that hit on the behind the truckby a foot, and they could have
hit the truck if somebody was inthe truck. A lot of people during

(32:40):
this power outage you could see goingout to their vehicle to try to cool
down and power up their phones andtheir basics. I'm sure oxygen tanks would
have been among that. It's it'shumbling to realize how quickly we can be

(33:05):
reduced, not defeated, but reducedcompromised. How much we count on electricity.
It is humbling to think how fastit can happen just like that,
and without that power, very fewpeople have generaated. I think that'll change.

(33:27):
I think this will be a generatorsupercenter. Boon. We had a
fence. A tree fell on afence here outside our studio and the neighbor
who clearly was all too eager toget a new fence. They've been here

(33:47):
for years before we were here.They got this raggedy old fence that if
you blew your if you blew apuff a cigarette at it, would fall
over, and they, Hey,I'm been hoping you'll fix that. Your
tree fell on it. Oh youmean the one that was almost to dust.
Yeah, I'll fix the fence there. Don't worry about that. It

(34:08):
wasn't hard for that tree to gothrough it. Knife threw a butter.
A knife threw butter. Anyway,So I'm talking to Patrick Dunn, the
father of the Eric and Patrick dunfence folks do youn in fence dot com.
And he said, Hey, Iwant to thank you for sending anybody
to us, but if you couldplease tell them to be patient, because

(34:30):
I mean, people were calling andthey're hot. And I said, Patrick,
I can tell them to be patienttill I'm blue in the face.
It ain't gonna make a bit ofit. He just kind of looked at
me and us, I don't knowwhat to tell you. Your business is
about the boom, but you're gonnadeal with some impatient people.