Beach House Update

Hello All!

Earlier this morning I posted pictures of not only my beach house but the area, if you haven't seen them yet please scroll down the page to the 3 different slide shows. It's so much different seeing everything in person than on TV but I will say it wasn't as bad as I had thought with everything I heard on the news....but it does get bad as you go up the coast...but still it's bad. I would think clean up would take years. The debris is awful...I can't believe how much and things that washed away.

As you can tell by the pictures of my beach house pictures I was pretty lucky. I have a few shingles missing from the roof...the roof is still in tack...a few boards missing...my beach walk over gone but the thing that's worse is all the ground (sand) that has washed away from underneath the house, it's not the foundation but just a concrete parking area.

The main thing I lost was my lot that was in front of the beach house....it has washed away and the beach has taken over more than half of it....that is something you can't recover or insure so your just out the property and it's value. There is so much beach erosion it's hard to believe.

No water came in the house at all. The storm surge wasn't as high as expected and my house sits up higher than the surge. It looks as tough all that extra property in front of my house actually helped protect it..which means next big storm I don't have that protection.

So...the beach house is fine...minor...but the area isn't pretty anymore...it will take time for that to happen again.

Jennifer and I are planning on making another trip tomorrow to the beach house to clean out the frig since the island is out of power and will be for months. I think this time I'll walk to the beach and see how it looks looking at the house. Before from the beach it was hard to see my house because of all the protection and dunes but now that's not there anymore...it's all open.

Today we went to my house to help clean up there. Josh and his friend have done a lot...it's still a mess out there but you can tell the progress. My neighbor/friend, her daughter came over this morning and worked for several hours and then Jennifer did a lot as well. So much to do. Will probably make another stop tomorrow after we do the beach house run.

I will keep you all posted through this blog...when I know something I will post it. It's nice staying with Jen and Paul and being in a comfortable home.

God Bless you all...Much love...Robin

My Beach House: Post-Hurricane Ike

Before Ike

This is the back yard before Ike made his visit
Joshua and friend putting up boards on the home
This is the front porch all boarded up and ready for Ike...all porch furniture has been put up

Sorry...I posted this picture twice and can't figure out how to delete it without deleting everything and starting over...

Please look at the following post with pictures after Ike and my update on what happened during and after Ike.

I will post again when I have something new to report.

The latest report is that Jennifer has power so I think tomorrow we are going to leave Corpus and head to the beach house and then head back to her house. I will stay with her until my power lines and power have been restored.

After Ike Part 1

An up rooted tree in the back yard...The hole is so big you could bury someone in it...I can stand in it and it almost comes up to the bottom of my butt
Trees done in the back yard...this was our hardest hit area on the property
Another view of the back of the property
Back of the property
This is the front side part of the property...not too bad but lots of limbs

After Ike Part 2

This is part of the tree that fell down across the entry to the property you can barely see the top of the tree resting on the front gate
This is the same tree but a view from the other end...the truck...pulled up by the roots...this is also the tree that took out the electric line that feeds power to the property
This is Joshua standing in front of the tree...it's just a little visual to help show you the size of the tree
The tree across the front driveway entrance...hides the view of the house
This is a view front the backyard ... this tree blocks the view of the back of the house...it is also lined with trees on both sides and then behind me....There are so many other pictures but I think you get the point.

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.

Ike Update

Just wanted you all to know that I'm not having my permanent home in the country boarded...the eye is suppose to come right next to me and at a Cat 3 so we're preparing...I have also decided to shelter in place so I won't be leaving. Josh and Jessy are staying here at the house as well. Not sure when the next time will be that I can get on line. I plan on loosing electricity sometime late tomorrow night.

The beach house is going to almost take a direct hit the way it looks right now. the area is closed and they expected the water to be over the Hwy in front of my house this evening. This should be very interesting...2 homes to worry about. I guess as my blog say..."It Is What It Is"!

I will keep you all posted as soon as I can. Be safe!

Mandatory Evacuation

I woke up this morning with a text message from Tammy saying I just heard on the news that they are evacuating Brazoria County. Brazoria County is the county the beach house is located in. So, I jump out of bed to turn on the news thinking what the hell happened during the night while I was sleeping. I get the news on and they say Brazoria County has a voluntary evacuation but those in the zip code of _____ in Brazoria County there is a "Mandatory" evacuation. Which that was me. So I was thinking if this is mandatory I may not be able to get to the house tomorrow as I had planned so I better go now and take care of getting the house ready for Ike. So I threw on clothes and took off. It only took me a couple hours but I got it done ...but it did wear me out some. So if something happens I'm now prepared as much as I can be and if it doesn't then as the ole' saying goes better safe than sorry.

They called the mandatory evacuation because if Ike stays on track we will get the dirty side of the storm and they are expecting 13-15 foot storm surge. The storm could still turn north some and if it does it just brings it a little closer to my area of the beach.

So, for any of you wondering what's going on...that's it...I guess this one I won't be able to see until after it's over....no pictures of the wave action. I have Colton this evening so I couldn't stay at the house until tomorrow. It was a nice day today but hot. I'm hoping tomorrow if they don't have the town locked town I can go back for an hour or so and just see what the beach is doing. But I have a feeling that isn't going to happen.

I'll keep you posted as I know more. Until next time...Robin

Hurricane Ike

Looks like Texas is about to receive another unwelcome visitor. I guess this is what it's like to have a place on the coast...watch..wait...see...prepare. Not one of my favorite things. It's a little nerve wrecking to ask...should I or shouldn't?

So...I think I should. I guess Thursday I'm gonna go to the house and put up the hurricane panels just to be on the safe side. Even if we don't take a hit the storm is predicted to be pretty big and we could get a lot of storm surge and stuff. Plus I have a busy day planned Friday and won't have time to take care of this and Colton will be spending the night as well so I guess it's better to be safe than sorry.

There's a part of me that would like to be at the beach house to see what the water and all will be doing but I'll have that grand baby and that won't be the place for him.

I will keep you posted on what is happening in our area and think of me as I'm putting up those hurricane panels Thursday....not a day I'm looking forward to.

Happy Labor Day Gustav

Happy Labor Day!

I'm at The Beach House still and it's very nice with what we're getting from Gustav...Nice wave action and a breeze. The sun is out now in full force. It's a nice day to spend at the beach.

So...I'll share with you what it looks like here.

The first picture is of my Grand-Dog Howie...he belongs to Jen and Paul. He's standing on the beach where normally cars drive...the water is coming up that high.

Here is what the wave action looked like at the beach this morning.

This what it looked like this morning while sitting on the deck with my latte just enjoying the morning. The sun was trying to break through the clouds.

False Alarm

No threat of Edouard in my little area of the beach. After putting up the hurricane panels and deciding to head back to my home in country as not to experience and power outages...Edouard decided to make a little turn and that basically resulted in us not getting anything. Even when I had left the beach around 10 PM I knew this was different....maybe it's because we were on the opposite side of the storm than Dolly..but the water was calm at 140 miles away...Dolly being 300 miles away was really churning the waves. Oh well....as the saying goes... "Better safe Than Sorry". Plus I guess you could call it my dry run to prepare for the next one.

Tomorrow I will go to the house and take everything down. Josh is going to meet me out there. I was too tired this evening. I had a visitor all day today and his name was Colton (my grandson).

Until next time...Be safe! Robin

Here We Go Again

Looks like I'll be boarding up the beach house tomorrow morning. Didn't find out until a few hours ago that there was a storm in the Gulf...apparently it's a tropical storm right now but they expect a Cat 1 and land fall Tuesday morning in Galveston. I'm like 20 miles away. Jennifer and I were planning on going tomorrow for 2 days but now our plans have changed. More than likely we'll be putting up and trying out the new hurricane panels I had fitted for the windows. Hopefully it will change course but so far all the models show our area. I haven't really taken pictures of the house for insurance purposes ...so I guess tomorrow I'll be doing that as well. I will keep you posted.

Pictures of Dolly

Here are pictures of what the water at the beach looked liked as Dolly was approaching the Texas Gulf Coast near South Padre Island.

These pictures were taken about 20 hours before she made land fall and approx. 300 miles away.

Most of the beach was covered in water. We have a drive on beach and the beach was closed off because you couldn't drive on it with the water. The water never left the beach.

We usually don't have a lot of wave action, especially like this so it was pretty cool to see.

The smallness of these pictures doesn't do it justice. If your able to click on the picture to enlarge it do so...you can see so much better.

Hopefully this will be the closest I get to a hurricane but I'm not holding my breath...we still have 4 months of hurricane season left.

Dolly and Puerto Vallarta

Went to the beach house yesterday just to keep an eye on things with the hurricane...I knew we were far enough away for things to be okay but still wanted to see what the water and such would be like. It was cool and different. You could tell something was brewing out in The Gulf. I have pictures to share of the water but I took them on a new camera that has a memory card that doesn't fit my printer...wish I would of known that when I bought this one. So, I have to load from the camera to the computer and I'm having a hard time figuring it out. So...I may have to post them later when one of my kids can show me how. Sorry.

Also...I'm getting ready to leave for Puerto Vallarta in the morning so I still have things to do to get ready. I'm taking that new camera as well so I don't have to carry along the bigger one so hopefully when I get back I can post those as well.

Enjoy your weekend and I'll be thinking of you all while I'm laying in my cabana on the beach with my drink in one hand and my guacamole in the other...NOT...ha! Robin

Hello Dolly!

Looks like Dolly has found her way into The Gulf of Mexico and my area that the beach house is in is now under a watch (San Luis Pass). Last report it looks like we'll be fine but we all know with hurricanes it's any ones guess. Tomorrow I will go to the house and see how the weather is...the wind and all that. I will most likely stay the night in case I have to do anything to prepare for a change of direction. Hopefully she'll hit further down the coast as last expected and I'll be good to go. Tammy and I are scheduled to leave Thursday morning bound for Puerto Vallarta so I'd like to leave knowing that all is okay. I will up date you Wednesday night before leaving town. Say a prayer that Dolly stays away. Though I'm prepared some what for a storm to come my way ...I'm really not! Robin