After Ike

We Prepared...We Waited...We Saw...We Left...

Ike has since left Texas but his aftermath will be felt for some time.

First let me say ...I have really no news on my beach house. From what I know I can't get in and the roads are not passable. I have heard from the reports that the area is devastated so I'm not really expecting the house to be standing. In all honestly I would prefer that instead of dealing with a home full of water that needs repair. I'm hoping to be able to get into the area on Tuesday.

Our Governor has said regarding the West End of Galveston...don't come back, there's nothing here...it will be a couple weeks before you can get in. My beach home is only a few miles up the coast from that area. A nice 20 minute drive.

As far as my country home. It looks like a war zone. We lost around 20 tress, not too mention lots of tops of trees, branches and just tree limbs everywhere. As far as clean up, my home got the worse in the neighborhood. My only damage is one of the roll down doors on the shop and then the freezers and frig and all the contents.

We also lost power lines and I also lost the line that supplies power to the house. They are thinking 2 weeks before it is fixed. Needless to say not a fun thing to be without (A/C) in the state of Texas. The front part of my neighborhood (an acreage area) has electricity but not the back part of the neighborhood, which of course I'm in. It's like night and day from the front part to the back part...they barely received any damages....by the front part of the neighborhood you would of never known a storm rolled through.

I had a generator going to help my freezers and frig but then it starting leaking gas this morning...which of course needed to be turned off. By then I had, had it...I called Jennifer and said...do you have electricity yet...her reply no and I'm hot...I then said...are you ready for a road trip? She was like...where are we going? I said anywhere with A/C .She was game but Paul elected to stay behind. I packed a bag by flashlight, loaded myself in the truck, told my neighbor I'm leaving if you see looters shoot first then ask questions...called my brother in Jacksonville and said I'm heading 59 South towards Corpus or Mexico see if you can find me a place to stay. Which he did.

Jennifer, Howie (her dog) and myself are now in a nice Holiday Inn with A/C on 65, a shower and right now...life is good. The hotel gave us a 20% discount since we are "evacuees...which was nice but also weird at the same time to be considered an evacuee. There is no one here in Corpus, it's like any other day here. Know one left town this way along the coast...after all, it was thought Ike might make his stop here at first.

I've tried to load my pictures of my home but for some reason they won't load so I will have to show you later. The pictures are just unbelievable. Clean up will probably take us at least a month if worked on daily.

Today we have rain and more is expected so that doesn't help. Here's a little countdown of the last few days.

The Ike Countdown:

Wednesday 9/10 boarded up beach house

Thursday 9/11 got wood for country home started boarding home

Friday 9/12 finished boarding home and waiting Ikes arrival(and Happy Birthday Tammy)...that evening around 6 the wind starts rolling in, leaves blowing everywhere ...as the night goes on more winds.

Saturday 9/13 2:30 am we loose power..3 am power comes back on...3:05 am until 3:15 we loose power on and off..at 3:30 we loose power completely (apparently that is when the tree fell across the power line...the winds are loud and the house sounds differently...at 5 am, I can't stand it, I have to know what is going on, I look outside and all there is ...is blackness since there are no lights and the wind is strong...I turn the flash light on a look at the back yard and all I see is a line of tress down in the yard and I'm over come. At 6:30 there is finally light outside and I open to see I can't believe my eyes the devastation in my back yard and then I go to the front which is not as bad but still a mess...and then I see a huge tree that is across my drive at the entrance and leaning on and across the gate blocking the way in..or other words..."No Way Out" and power lines down. My son, a neighbor boy Joshua's age and a neighbor man moved the lines and cut the tree down so we could get out. The rest of the day is just unbelief.

Sunday 9/14 after sleeping one night without power left for Corpus and now happy with A/C but very curious to to know and see the area surrounding the beach house and having the question answered..."Standing or Not Standing" I need to know for sure.

I will keep in touch and hopefully will be able to post pictures soon. Hopefully I can figure that out with this lap top...my home computer will be down for some time.

Love to you All and thank you for your love, prayes, concern and phone calls.