Hurricane Ike

[Hophop4]

We are in Sugar Land which is Southwest of Houston. We are all fine. We have no power since Friday midnight and have no idea when we will get it back on. We had tree branches and limbs down in front and back yards but no damage to our house. We have phone service but my cell phone has been down. I am currently on my laptop using my dialup account until my battery dies out. There is about 2 million people without power some are getting it back up but guess it's a slow process. Weather is cooling down with this cold front coming in so that is helping without A/C.

 

[lll1929]

Glad to hear you survived the hurricane with no major damage to your property.

 

[beejaybee]

Wrath of Ike

Here in NE Ohio Ike arrived yesterday and knocked down trees as well as did other damage. We are experiencing massive power outages (luckily, for me, my part of town is okay) that may not be fixed until the end of the week. There was a message on my answering machine from our local PD encouraging residents without power to seek shelter with friends or relatives.

 

[silvib]

I've just watched the evening news and the losses people have sufferered is just dreadful. Hop - use your battery sparingly and make it last. Good luck.

 

[abbekit]

Good to hear you're okay Hop. I was getting worried!

My in-laws live in Texas City and luckily were out of town for the weekend. I still don't know what they might be going back to. My husband is originally from Galveston and lived through Carla in the basement of a church on the island. We couldn't believe what we saw on TV yesterday of the destruction of that lovely old city.

Our best wishes are with you for a speedy clean-up and restoration of power.

 

[swift]

Glad to hear you are ok!! Hope they can get you some power soon.

 

[Makai Guy]

Hey, Hop. Glad to hear from you. Hope you at least got in a good vacation week before all hell broke loose.

 

[susieq]

All of the above!!! So glad you're safe!!​

Hope things will soon be back to "normal".​

Take care of yourself!!​

Sue

 

[shagnut]

Thank goodness you are ok. You are so lucky. So many many people weren't/ I cried at the pics of Galveston. shaggy

 

[dioxide45]

Here in NE Ohio Ike arrived yesterday and knocked down trees as well as did other damage. We are experiencing massive power outages (luckily, for me, my part of town is okay) that may not be fixed until the end of the week. There was a message on my answering machine from our local PD encouraging residents without power to seek shelter with friends or relatives.

We were without power for 24 hours in SW Ohio. The news says there are still 200,000 homes without power. Lines are long at the gas stations and with so many without power the restaurants are having a small economic boom. Wait times are sometimes in excess of an hour and a half.

 

[Hophop4]

Thank goodness you are ok. You are so lucky. So many many people weren't/ I cried at the pics of Galveston. shaggy

I haven't seen the pics yet since we don't have TV. My cell phone is back up. I was at doctors office all day yesterday they had power so while I was doing my chemo treatment I charged my cell. (now this is a whole new story about my treatment, I will post it later on)

We were able to get ice for coolers and my stove is gas for cooking so we ok.

 

[TUGBrian]

one of the pictures....truly tragic event there

http://cache.boston.com/universal/site_graphics/blogs/bigpicture/ike_09_15/ike11.jpg

its large...so ill just post the link

 

[Hophop4]

Hey, Hop. Glad to hear from you. Hope you at least got in a good vacation week before all hell broke loose.

We did have a good week. Only one day it rained but we left one day early on Thursday to get back home before storm came in. Hubby's office just open this morning so he he going in. He will take my laptop and charge it while there.

 

[thinze3]

one of the pictures....truly tragic event there

http://cache.boston.com/universal/site_graphics/blogs/bigpicture/ike_09_15/ike11.jpg

its large...so ill just post the link

Brian,
That is total devastation. WOW! The photo is of Bolivar which is a ferry ride from Galveston. Bolivar is much like the "West End" of Galveston, mainly homes and little to no commercial.

I have to admit, we often go to Galveston and rent hotels, bay houses and the like. My family LOVES The Historic Strandd District, but that area got water 9' above the street level (about 14-15' above sea level) and is also totally devestated. I sure hope they get it back up and going.

Terry

 

[Fern Modena]

Galveston is not totally devastated. If you have time (its a half hour video), go here. Frank Billingsley, the chief meteorologist for Channel 2 in Houston did a walking tour of Galveston along with a cameraman. Its very interesting. He goes inside some places, and shows the Seawall, the Strand, Post Office Street, and many other locations.

Many of the buildings in Galveston were made of brick or reinforced concrete. These buildings fared well. The wood ones along Fishermen's Wharf did not. Everyone boarded up their windows, which came through with no broken glass for the most part. The outsides of most buildings are fine, but many will have to be gutted and rebuilt inside due to the water surge. It can be done, it will take some time, though.

I only spent a few nights in Galveston, about seven or eight years ago. I really liked the place. It was very friendly and interesting, and there was plenty to do.

Moody Gardens, btw, seems to have come out fine. WillyG's, a restaurant we ate at, also seems to have come out well too.

Fern

Brian,
I have to admit, we often go to Galveston and rent hotels, bay houses and the like. My family LOVES The Historic Strandd District, but that area got water 9' above the street level (about 14-15' above sea level) and is also totally devestated. I sure hope they get it back up and going.

Terry

 

[thinze3]

The Strand was totally off limits (no man's land) only 25 or so years ago. It was then that George Mitchell began the redevelopement of that area which allowed it to become what it is today. Of course the 100+ year old buildings were already there and are still there today. They just need to be totally renovated on the interior.

I sure hope someone like Mr. Mitchell comes along again soon or The Strand will be back to where it was 25 years ago. Galveston officials have estimated that they have lost 50% of their taxable base with Hurricane Ike.

 

[seatrout]

Some picture of the other side of San Luis Pass

http://www.treasureislandtx.org/

 

[Karen G]

Galveston is not totally devastated. If you have time (its a half hour video), go here.

Fern, thanks so much for posting that link. That was a very interesting video, and I hope those areas of Galveston can be cleaned up and restored soon. It does look like such an interesting place.

 

[happybaby]

We are here in NW PA near the Ohio border. We lost our power at 745pm Sunday evening and just got it back tonight at 630pm.

We have no damage in our yard, but heard trees cracking and falling all over. Our neighbor had 2 trees down but luckily missed their house.

We tried to save some of our food by keeping on ice, but that didn't work. Grilled what I salvaged and today heated up a can of soup on the grill.

But food can be replaced. we are thankful no damage or anybody hurt. My heart goes out to all of you that have experienced the hurricane and much more damage then us. We only received the tail end of IKE...........I wouldn't want to be around where the hurricane actually hit full force.

We never expected this, so we weren't prepared either. Had to go out Monday for ice and batteries. Our local Walmart was throwing out all their freezer food since they also lost power for about 12 hrs.

There are still a few thousand in our area without power. Most sohould have it by midnight Friday and everybody else by Sunday. Glad we got ours back today. It was a long dark 4 days.

 

[Hophop4]

I havent seen Frank's video but heard about it on the radio. It is taking too long to load with dialup I am on laptop battery. We are still without power. It came on for 5 or 10 min around 5 pm tonight but looks like another night in the dark.

Update 8:45 pm

We just got power on little while ago hope it stays on now!!

 

[Texasbelle]

We live in the Spring Branch area of Houston; beltway 6 and I-ten [Katy frwy.] We were without power from 2:30 a.m. Saturday, 13th to Tuesday afternoon, the 23rd. Phone was out for one week. Cell phone [T-Mobile] worked, but recharging was a problem. Our home is intact [we "sheltered in place"]. We lost tree branches. Our 40 foot sweet gum tree is now 20 feet tall. We have wonderful neighbors. "Our new best friend" is the one with the chainsaw. The good, the bad and the ugly--good, neighbor helping neighbor; bad, no power; ugly, the realtor who cleared the tree branches from her listed property to the neighbor's yard.

 

[Rose Pink]

I am happy to hear that, despite the major inconveniences, you are safe. Just goes to show that we all need to be prepared. I think I'd report that realtor! Seems to me there is something illegal in that unless the branches were from a tree in the yard where she deposited them.

 

[chellej]

We live in the Spring Branch area of Houston; beltway 6 and I-ten [Katy frwy.] We were without power from 2:30 a.m. Saturday, 13th to Tuesday afternoon, the 23rd. Phone was out for one week. Cell phone [T-Mobile] worked, but recharging was a problem. Our home is intact [we "sheltered in place"]. We lost tree branches. Our 40 foot sweet gum tree is now 20 feet tall. We have wonderful neighbors. "Our new best friend" is the one with the chainsaw. The good, the bad and the ugly--good, neighbor helping neighbor; bad, no power; ugly, the realtor who cleared the tree branches from her listed property to the neighbor's yard.

I think for the most part it has brought out the best in people however there was a story on the news last night about 2 guys that got arrested - they had gone to a shelter and said they were hiring folks to help with the cleanup and took applications. Sad part - they weren't hiring they were stealing the information. ssn's, names , addresses etc. Fortunately they were caught quickly - hopefully they did not sell the personal info.