A Further Hurricane Ike Update

It is now Thursday, four full days have passed since the last part of Ike left our area. Clean up efforts were detailed slightly by a rain storm Sunday morning.

Stores are open, but most don't have perishable goods such as bread, meat, dairy, and fresh fruits. Ice and gas still create huge lines. We got our power back, only to have the air conditioner run out of freon the next day. It has been nice and cool the last few days, but after several days of no privacy because our windows had to be open all the time we really wanted to close them and use the A/C instead. Plus the A/C also helps clear out the moisture that had started making the house smell musty due to the windows having been open. Many people are still without power, even in our town.

The night before last we had friends and their two kids stay with us. They needed to get into some electricity and cool air. They wanted one night to catch up on their tv shows that they have missed. It is very disruptive for them to be staying a different place every night, but they feel like they are putting people out and don't want to be a burden on others. Having them here wasn't a problem at all, though convincing them of that was a different story. During the day they are cleaning up the remainder of the family business.

Yesterday, just has the husband was going to bed, there was a knock on the door. "We need everyone out of the apartment, or at least out of the upstairs." They were cutting the branch that was over our roof down. They wanted to make sure that no one was upstairs just in case something went wrong. The branch was the size of a small tree, probably weighed at least a ton. It had to be cut down because another branch, from another tree, had landed in it during the storm and they couldn't guarantee the integrity of the limb. It was rather nail biting to watch them cut the limb down, but they did a great job. The only damage was a few boards were knocked out of the fence in our backyard, which I now have to sweep all the leaves out of again.

School was canceled for the whole week, the staff will have a meeting on Monday. I'm guessing that it will be about the supplies students will need, about how many of our students lost their homes, and whether we will be taking in any evacuees from the surrounding areas. My husband doesn't think so, since most people fled to Austin or Dallas, but I think that many will be returning to the area to be near their work even if their home is gone. I have a feeling we will be getting some students, and possibly even some teachers added to our various campuses. It will be interesting to see if I am right, and when we will make up the missed days or if the TEA (Texas Education Agency) will excuse us from making them up. Now I'm gong to finishing writing our first test of the year.

Hurricane Ike Aftermath

I thought I'd post just a few pictures now, and share the story of our family friend that was slightly injured. Most of these are from our complex. There is an addendum in our lease saying they aren't responsible for damage done to cars by the carports. Come to find out, from a home inspector that lives here, that they are not made up to code. The carports were made from fencing material, basically aluminum, as you can see by the pretzel shape of some of the pieces.

I'm also included a couple from around town. As bad as it looks, our town got off very, very lucky compared to other communities like Galveston, Baytown, and Chambers County.

As for our family friend, she was extremely lucky. A very large tree fell on her house. It fell through her attic, and into her bedroom where she was sleeping. The tree landed on her bed, somehow only knocking her out of it onto the floor. Then all the things stored in the attic started landing on her. Luckily her neighbors saw the tree fall and came over to check on her in the middle of the storm. She was able to walk downstairs and let them in. They helped her get her essentials together, clothes and medicine etc., and she stayed with them for the night. Her son went to check on the house after the storm, and he didn't even want to enter the building as it looked incredibly unstable. She will probably have to leave her home. I am hoping she will stay with my grandmother, at least until her house is habitable again. My grandmother is still in deep mourning for her husband, but is too proud and independent to stay with someone.


You can see the pieces of metal everywhere, there is a daycare next door that got a lot of this in their playground, they are going to have to clean that up completely before they reopen.











If you look very carefully on the left hand side of the photo below, you will see that the carport is sitting on car rather than above it.







This is the Exxon next to our complex, you can see one of the lights is knocked over in the parking lot. The gentlemen you see either work for Exxon or for their insurance company.






This building use to have an entire fake stone front and said "Antique Center". The local Kroger lost some of its stone as well as had damage to the front and back of the store. They will be open today.

Hurricane Ike, Part III

We made it through the storm alive and well. None of our stuff was damaged either. All of our family is fine, though one family friend had some slight injuries (It was a very near thing). We lost power at 10:30 Friday night, my family lost power at 3am. Got it back just now at 9pm.

The night of the storm was horrifying. We were in the eye wall the entire storm. The wind literally howled, our daughter described it as a "mechanical Godzilla". We hunkered down in the living room on an air mattress and the baby girl slept in the closet under the stairs. Needless to say we didn't sleep much, though we eventually passed out from sheer exhaustion. We tried to distract ourselves with music, books, and food. The carports at our apartments were ripped apart, and many people's cars were damaged. We had a tree branch fall into our back patio and tear off part of the gutter and land on the fence. The fence leans a bit but is fine otherwise. Our friend, Steve, still has his trailer to live in, an unexpected piece of good luck. However, his family's music store lost it's roof. They are going to have to find a place to hold music lessons until it's fixed.

School will start again on Wednesday. I'm really glad I have a couple of days to get the house back in order, and clean clothes, etc. Tomorrow, I'll be going through our frig and freezer to see what is still good and what needs to be replaced. It's questionable as to what will even be available at the store. I am so looking forward to having a cooked meal.

On this blog tomorrow, I will be posting some pictures of the aftermath of Ike. Mostly at our apartment complex, a couple in town.

Hurricane Ike, Part II

So after our plans fell through yesterday, we went and got a few more things at the store and are now in our house for the duration. Kroger is open today until 11pm, a bit of a shocker since the hurricane strength winds are suppose to reach shore at about 6pm.

Not making any full meals, just snacking. The nerves make it impossible to eat a full meal. Watch the news for a couple of hours, take a couple of hours off. Want to stay informed, but too much makes you start to panic. So we watch our recorded tv shows, play around on the internet and such to pass the time. Likely that we will lose power later, so we are saving reading as such for when we only have flashlights. I'll probably take a nap later as I probably won't sleep well tonight.

Ike is 12 hours away, and Galveston is already flooding. The flooding is as bad as with a Category 4 storm because of how wide Ike is. Waves are coming over the sea wall and depositing trash and pieces of broken piers all over the roads. Crews are clearing the debris as quickly as possible so that the rescue crews and emergency vehicles can get through. The floods came up sooner than people expected and the Coast Guard has been rescuing people all morning. There is a freighter that is broken down in the Gulf and the rescue copters can't get to them because of the high winds. (2:44 - the ship has just lost some power and can no longer steer, there was a rescue mission that failed.) The poor men and their families. Over 600,000 people in Texas have evacuated from their homes; and over 100,000 people in Louisiana.

Thankfully, Ike isn't spinning tight enough strengthen further. Now we wait to see if there are any last minute switch in directions.

4:25 - The wind is blowing steadily, though it's more like a strong breeze with gusts that feel like wind. There is a fire burning out of control on Galveston island around UTMB hospital and the court house. The flooding is preventing them from getting to it. The husband had to go lay down and rest for a while, I'll probably take a rest after him.

4:47 - The fire is in the Yacht Club, a transformer blew and set a fuel source alight. They are expecting more explosions because they can't reach the fire due to it being surrounded by water. The smoke is being pushed straight at UTMB, but the hospital is in no danger. There are still patients there, though all critical patients have been evacuated.

4:59 - Press Conference - Need to be off the road by 6:30 because hurricane force winds will be here. Too late to leave, time to get inside and wait. Looting will not be tolerated. A curfew will go into effect starting at 7pm - 6am on Saturday and Sunday in all Houston areas that had mandatory evacuations.

Damage estimates are are at $7 billion. I'm beginning to think we will be lucky enough not to lose power. People were still hanging out at coffee shops and one person was kayaking down the street.

6:00 - The state is now predicting that the damages will reach $81 billion. We've had our first power blink out, just long enough to reset the computers. Could finally hear the wind outside about 10 minutes ago. Hubby is up now, may be time to make a pallet on the floor. The wind is more audible upstairs.

6:45 - It's stalled in the Gulf temporarily, the eye has gotten much tighter and the winds are at 110 miles per hour (almost a Cat. 3). Bayous in Houston are flooding though there is no rain due to the storm surge.

7:30 - Husband and I just blew up our air mattress so we can all sleep in the living room floor. We've set it up right next to our closet beneath the stairs so we jump in there quickly in an emergency. About 90,000 people in mandatory evacuation areas have ignored the orders to get out. There have been wind gust up to 115 miles per hour. Many communities have put curfews in place for public safety and to prevent looting. I wonder what kind of idiot goes out in a hurricane when they don't have to. The lights have just flickered a couple of times, I hope the power lasts a little longer.

Hurricane Ike, Part I

So, yesterday the city decided to cancel school for Thursday and Friday. Since then our family has been trying to decide whether to stay or evacuate. The last evacuation was a nightmare, our car almost died. We were on the road for 14 hours, A/C gave out and the baby got sick. Then the hurricane followed us to our "safe" location. The car is in no condition to make such a trip, even if we had the money there are no hotels available for hundreds of miles (They were booked on Monday.).

My mother-in-law is insisting that we go with them, so we are going. They are coming to pick us up and we have no idea what kind of space we have for the essentials such as food and water. I really dislike uncertainty in such times. So by 6pm tonight we will be headed out of town, my family split into two different cars and our cat will be at my parents' house. I think this is the right decision, especially since when I was at Walmart getting supplies there was not a single seagull to be found (they are always there looking for free food).

I'll post an update to the situation as I am able. I have no idea if I'll have access to the internet for the next few days.

Evening update: We aren't leaving after all, our ride fell through.