Checking in from Texas!

[AggieTexan]

We finally got our power restored late Sunday afternoon (Sept. 21st), so we were about 9 days without electricity. The hum of the air conditioning and pool pump sound like a symphony compared to the generators! I will never look at hurricane news on TV in the same way again...you don''t think too much about what it means to live without electricity for a length of time until it happens to you.

We are some of the very blessed ones, because the damage in my neighborhood from the falling trees is tremendous. We had a little water damage that happened not during the hurricane, but Sunday morning when we got 7" of rain and the water had nowhere to go because the storm drains were filled with storm debris. I would say one in every five houses in my neighborhood have roof damage from falling trees, and I''ve seen a couple houses that will have to be torn down and rebuilt because the size of the tree(s) that hit them literally crushed the houses. Now that our power has been restored, my life, at least at home, will return to normal fairly quickly. So many were not as lucky and I am truly grateful. That was probably the thing that kept me going when not having power started to seem pretty bad...I may have been roughing it, but when so many people have been displaced and lost their homes, or suffered serious damage, it seemed petty and childish to whine about the heat or lack of a blow dryer.

I know this was "only" a category 2 storm, but I''m not sure I would stay for another one even though I am not in a mandatory evacuation zone. We sat in the western eyewall for at least four hours during the hurricane, and the only thing I could hear over the wind was the sound of trees falling and transformers blowing. It was pretty scary. I stayed in Houston for Alicia in 1983, and there''s just no comparison, even though Alicia was technically a stronger storm, the size of Ike left a ton of damage behind.

I hope everybody who was impacted by Ike is slowly putting things back together and returning to a semblance of "normalcy."

 

[loriken214]

Date: 9/22/2008 11:05:19 AM
Author: LuckyTexan

Date: 9/22/2008 6:51:40 AM
Author: loriken214
We live in Katy and our power went out before the storm really started blowing....6 pm Friday night. It got hot inside the house really quick. I was in the back bedroom with our cat and DH was in the middle bedroom. Our two dogs were in the kitchen. Things kept hitting the house and I knew the roof was going to go. The first part of the storm was all wind....very strong hitting the front of the house. Then all of a sudden the wind changed direction and the rain started. The house was moving and creaking. We''re 85 miles from Galveston so I could only imagine what they were going through!

Anyway, we ended up losing part of our roof and got a leak that showed up in one of our bathrooms. We haven''t looked in the attic, either. It has already started to mold. We lost part of our wooden fence and a large tree in the backyard. We are VERY blessed! Our power came back on Tuesday evening. It was miserable during the heat and I will never take AC for granted again!

My DH''s Store was a disaster and they have been cleaning up and ordering new plants/supplies to repair the garden area. They are located on Dairy Ashford near I-10.

My Grandmother and Dad live near Hobby Airport and still do not have power. Their zip code hasn''t been mentioned and there is no telling when they will have power again. They are doing well, though.

My late parents'' (Mom and Stepfather) house, in Spring Branch, did really well, too, but they won''t get power for a while, either. This is the house that we rode Hurricane Alicia out in back in 1983.

My thoughts and prayers go out to all!

Lori

Glad to hear you came out with minimal damage too! I saw on the news that they were letting people back onto high island and parts of Galveston... but only if your house was in the database of houses that were still standing. Could you imagine finding out like that? SO SAD.

Have you had anything fixed yet? The mold issue is on my mind... part of my roof is gone too... and the leaks cracks are getting bigger everyday and they are over my living room and the vaulted ceiling above my entry/stairs area... they need to get more people down here!!!

Hi LT!

We patched our roof with the shingles that we collected from the yard and put a tarp over the part that was leaking. The mold is very visible on the bathroom ceiling and the seam is bulging over the toilet....my luck it would fall on me while I was on the throne....LOL! We still haven''t gone up in the attic yet....we have lots of stuff up there and I''m afraid of what we''ll find.

Our State Farm agent is coming to see the damage on October 6. We just found out that our deductible is $2592! We''ve never had to file a claim and this is a big shock to us! Anyway, we''ve already fixed our wooden fence and will replace the tree we lost. The refrigerator is completely cleaned out and the only thing in it is my insulin.

Alicia was a stronger storm, but Ike was much BIGGER...this storm took up the whole Gulf of Mexico and affected many more people.

My Grandmother and Dad got their power back yesterday morning. I drove by my parents'' house, in Spring Branch, and the power is still off. I did see a power truck down the road, though, so maybe it will be on soon. There are SO many downed trees in Spring Branch. That is a really old neighborhood and those trees have been around for many years. The streets are littered with trunks and branches. There is a lot of roof damage there, too.

DH''s late parents used to own a house on Tiki Island. They sold it a few years ago. We thought about getting a house down there, too, but never followed through. I wouldn''t buy there now....

My thoughts and prayers are with you and all who are going through the aftermath of Ike.

Lori

 

[bebe]

We still do not have power! I am not at home, it is too darn hot.

We connected a generator, but only to have a problem with it 10 hours later. We are having an electrician come out and hook us up once again.
All I want is a little breeze from ceiling fans and a few lights. Hubby wants the pool pumps to work - our pool looks like the black lagoon.

We have a gas cooktop, but it is difficult to cook without enough lighting. Of course, the frig/freezer is completely empty. I''m sick of ice chests!

Wed. am our insurance adjuster is coming out. So is our roofer. The roofer is a close friend of a close friend! I was shocked that this angel
agreed to see us so soon. We are very lucky, our damage could have been much worse. We can live in our house at least. So many cannot.
Just down the street from me, there is a new home, almost 2 million, that had 3 trees go alll the way through to their slab. So sad, it was a beautiful
home. We have 2 large oak trees that are bulging from the ground. I''m sure they will have to go. Our home is 10 yrs. old. During the past 10 yrs. we have
lost 5 trees due to wind and storms. It hurts because we bought this lot because of the trees!

Never again will I endure loss of power like this. We will install a natural gas generator in the next few weeks. It might be 10 yrs. before we use it again,
but it will be worth it!!

 

[ponderer]

Just got power on this afternoon!!!!

I am glad to hear that everyone is doing OK. The storm was fairly uneventful for us, we actually slept through most of it. Damage in my area was really minimal to residental houses (luckily) although I live in a heavily wooded area just north of the airport. The trees seemed to prefer to fall on detached garages and unsheltered cars instead of houses for some reason.

I know it was not fun, but my previous hurricane experiences were a lot worse. I will never forget the sound and feel of the tornados that Alicia spawned in ''83 or the 2 weeks with near 100 degree weather without power. I was just relieved that we had such wonderful weather for most of last week. It really made the last 11 days tolerable, especially without a generator.

I still have friends and family without power and one of my patients today was told his power would not be restored until Oct. 4.

We too are thinking of ponying up the 4K for a natural gas generator.Thank goodness there is another cool front due on thursday.

I wish you all luck in your recovery efforts and send encouragement to all of you still with out power.

 

[loriken214]

My brother and I were talking on our cell phones as he drove into his driveway just now and voila POWER...YAY! He lives in Magnolia and will be having oral surgery tomorrow morning. I''m SO relieved that he will have AC while he is recovering at home tomorrow. His power had just come on 3 minutes before he got home.

My late parents'' house, in Spring Branch, still has no power, but I went by there today and saw a CenterPoint Energy truck at the end of their street. I rolled down the window of my car and thanked the gentleman who was working on the lines. He was very appreciative and thanked me back.

I am thankful to have a full stomach while so many others are still suffering out there. I can''t imagine not having enough food to eat.....I support the Houston Food Bank on a regular basis and the need is so great, especially now.

Channel 11 is showing HUNDREDS of 18 wheelers full of food/ice/water that have been sitting at Reliant Stadium for days....loaded trucks with no instructions of where to go....SHAMEFULL!!!

Lori

 

[luckystar112]

My understanding is that FEMA asked for way too much ice, and as a result there is nowhere to put it anymore so they are just letting it melt in some areas.
I believe this to be the truth because there was a huge 18-wheeler down my street with a big "free ice" sign on the side of it and there was not a soul there to get any free ice.

 

[LuckyTexan]

Date: 9/23/2008 9:11:07 PM
Author: bebe
We still do not have power! I am not at home, it is too darn hot.

We connected a generator, but only to have a problem with it 10 hours later. We are having an electrician come out and hook us up once again.
All I want is a little breeze from ceiling fans and a few lights. Hubby wants the pool pumps to work - our pool looks like the black lagoon.

We have a gas cooktop, but it is difficult to cook without enough lighting. Of course, the frig/freezer is completely empty. I''m sick of ice chests!

Wed. am our insurance adjuster is coming out. So is our roofer. The roofer is a close friend of a close friend! I was shocked that this angel
agreed to see us so soon. We are very lucky, our damage could have been much worse. We can live in our house at least. So many cannot.
Just down the street from me, there is a new home, almost 2 million, that had 3 trees go alll the way through to their slab. So sad, it was a beautiful
home. We have 2 large oak trees that are bulging from the ground. I''m sure they will have to go. Our home is 10 yrs. old. During the past 10 yrs. we have
lost 5 trees due to wind and storms. It hurts because we bought this lot because of the trees!

Never again will I endure loss of power like this. We will install a natural gas generator in the next few weeks. It might be 10 yrs. before we use it again,
but it will be worth it!!

One of DH''s coworkers got one of those installed, and then a tree that was uprooted knocked a break into the gas line! So they spent all that money and were STILL without power!

 

[loriken214]

Date: 9/25/2008 7:29:10 PM
Author: luckystar112
My understanding is that FEMA asked for way too much ice, and as a result there is nowhere to put it anymore so they are just letting it melt in some areas.
I believe this to be the truth because there was a huge 18-wheeler down my street with a big ''free ice'' sign on the side of it and there was not a soul there to get any free ice.

Amazing....thank you luckystar.....beautiful avatar!

Lori

 

[bebe]

Power!! 13 days without. I''m actually looking forward to doing all the laundry that piled up. And vacuming and baking.....

I feel for all those still without power. It really upsets me those FEMA trucks are sitting out at Reliant with all that ice.
Katrina all over again. The city of Houston needs to get it''s act together and CenterPoint does as well.

Out insurance adjuster paid his visit yesterday. We will have to eat our damages because our deductible is $10,000.
Our damages are $7,000. Merry Christmas to us!

We are investigating a natural gas generator. We have a large home (5,200 sq ft.), but won''t get one to provide power to the entire home.
Just enough to run one AC unit, some lights, refrig and freezer, pool pumps, maybe a TV. Our initial research is that will cost around 4-5,000.
Kinda makes you wonder if it''s worth it, but after this power outage, yeah, I think so.

 

[elle]

Does everyone have power restored?

My dd goes back to school tomorrow after 2 weeks! Yay! Her school''s in Spring Branch ISD - they finally restored power this afternoon! It was odd that the high school across the street had power but the lower school didn''t.

 

[loriken214]

YAY Elle! I''m going to check on my parents'' house tomorrow. It is right off of Antoine and I-10....hopefully, there will be power.

I''m shocked that it took Channel 11 to finally get those trucks moving. What is going on with all of this relief for those who still need it?

Where is Meresal?

Lori

 

[appletini]

Just saw this thread. We got our power back on the 19th, so a week without but went to Mexico last weekend for a wedding so we were relieved to come home to power. We got our land line back on the 17th, and our cable & internet came back today. Most our neighborhood did not have their power restored until last night. Our debris was picked up today too, so thats a good feeling! We were very lucky no damage to our house.

 

[bebe]

We still have debris piled high in 3 piles in our yard/street. Life is slowly getting back to as normal as it can be. I went to our local HEB to restock the frig this morning.
It was packed!

My audio guy told me there are still people in the MOntrose/Heights area without power. He was heading there last nite to help out someone from his church.

Amazing all the damage this Cat 2 storm produced. I think we all will be better prepared the next go around.