Hurricane Ike

I wanted to make a one time posting instead of sending out numerous emails to everyone. We are all doing good. The kids slept through the storm, for the most part. The house remained completely intact, no broken windows or fences. The trampoline survived, as did most of our landscaping. Unfortunately, that cannot be said for all our neighbors.

It is amazing the devastation around the city! The Woodlands, northeast of here - a very beautiful and desirable area is still without power and may be for a month. Of course the coast appears to be demolished due to the storm surge and waves. Looking at the buildings, or lack of, I just don't know how so many people survived it. Apparently there are over 15,000 people still on the island - 25 - 30% of the residents had stayed to ride out the storm.

At about 3 AM Doug and I got up to watch a bit of news to see what was going on with the storm. About half an hour later, I saw transformers in the distance blowing and shortly thereafter, we lost all power. We stepped outside - on the south/southeast side of our house and it was windy, but nothing that would blow us away yet. The wind was coming in from the northeast at that time. At that time, we had still no rain, or very little that dried within minutes of falling.

The storm was incredible. The wind was so strong. We had boarded up some of our windows - the bedroom ones so we could all sleep together and feel/be safer. We put a mattress at the foot of our bed so the kids could sleep with us. Thank God we did that - otherwise I would not have gotten the one hour of sleep I did get. I grabbed Doug's arm at least 3 times that night. The outside door in out bedroom whistled on and off once the winds got to about probably 60 miles per hour. At some point, it was constant whistling for about 1-2 hours. Alex, our 2 year old had crawled into our bed at some point and he started kicked Doug in the back - I think he was trying to tell him to turn off the alarm clock! Wish we could have just turned it off!

We survived 100 mile per hour winds. I do not know the difference between hurricane winds and tornado winds, but it certainly sounded like numerous trains were headed our way. When the very strong winds hit, so did the driving rains. The heavy rain lasted until about noon. Numerous times we had a lake in the backyard and we saw rivers flowing from the houses into the streets. By daylight, the winds were coming in from the west. By the afternoon, everything seemed nearly normal. Except the lack of AC and running water on a hot day, it was a Houston Hot and Humid Day.

The night after the storm a huge electrical storm poured more rain upon the city. It was an impressive display of natures beauty and fury. Cars were flooded, businesses flooded, and houses flooded. Just when we thought we had seen it pass, we got more! While we weathered it fine, others were not so lucky.

We did not know the extent of the damage to our area, to Galveston, north of us, east of us. Even today, the local news is primarily focused on Galveston and Bolivar Island, which has been destroyed. We know there is lots of damage throughout the city, but it's not until the locals put pen to paper, or start typing, will we know all the stories. While there is lots of other news out there to fill the air time of national news channels, the devastation in the Houston area is large and will not be quickly solved. The electric company has never had to deal with this many people - over 4 million - without electricity. Water supplies are contaminated in many areas. FEMA provided it's first supplies this morning, 4 days after the hurricane. Water, ice and gas were nearly impossible to get the day before the hurricane, imagine now. There are mandatory curfews everywhere.

Katie is out of school all week. Cy-Fair School District is an enormous district and there was lots of wind and water damage and some schools without power still.

We just got power 24 hours ago - that was 3 days without a shower! YUCK! The well to our subdivision is in our subdivision - no electricity, no water. We had no home phone, no Internet, no AC. It was a bit eerie without street lights and no planes overhead for a couple days. The airports opened up Monday.

While at times it may be scary because of the scarcity of supplies and necessities, the Texans know how to take care of their neighbors. People are chipping in, giving. Helping cut down trees, clearing roads, clearing drains, sharing food, giving food and supplies. They are opening their homes to those without and taking care of each other.

I've weathered my first hurricane and someone today said, "Well, now you're a Texan!"