Post Ike

So we made it through Ike and feel extremely fortunate to have such little damage and to have electricity back so very soon. The power went out a little before midnight Friday night. We didn't sleep much, mostly because the howling wind was so loud and partly because I kept listening for the sound of a 'Freight Train' since they say a tornado sounds similar. I was ready to grab Little Man and run to the closet under the stairs. Although I went through hurricane Alisha, I was a baby and don't remember it at all. And Rita didn't even hit us even though we were prepared for her. So this was our first hurricane to 'ride out'. I told Vim half way through Ike that I didn't know why anyone would try and ride out the hurricane, especially in Galveston or closer to the coast. At about 3am I had enough of the strong winds and rain and I was ready for it to be over. Then my husband let me know that the worst was still to come since the 'eye' was not past us yet. It was pitch black outside and inside. I could not see my hand in front of my face...even when I opened my eyes I could not tell they were open, it was so dark. The storm finally started calming down around 6am, but even at 9am there were some strong gusts. We emerged from our house a little after 9 expecting the worst. There were shingles all over our yard and driveway, a big branch and lots of leaves and debris around. But surprisingly nothing major. We had some roof damage, which caused a little bit of sheet rock damage in my closet....Vim temporarily fixed it with a blue tarp but we will need a new roof. We were loaned a generator by Vim's brother, which was a life savor till our electricity came back on (thanks Kirk!!). We only lost power for a day, and we were pleasantly surprised when it came back on...after surveying all the damage around the neighborhood, we really expected to be out of power for about a week. Our river house amazingly had no damage at all...I don't know how the 42 windows and roof survived but it did. Like I said, we are extremely blessed.

Unfortunately not all our loved ones were as fortunate. My parents are still without power and they are starting to loose water pressure. Finding groceries and gas is a chore and requires a lot of patients. Grocery stores are allowing 20 people in at a time, and do not have perishable items such as milk and meat and other shelf items are limited. Gas stations have extremely long lines, in some areas up to a mile long!

Vim's grandparents who I blogged about visiting just over a week ago in Galveston, are safe and staying with their son, but of course, they have not been allowed back into Galveston to survey the damage. Please continue to pray for them and all the other people who have completely lost there homes.

Our roof damage...

Little Man was a HUGE helper in the clean up process, here he is picking up the singles...

Sweeping the walk way...

Attempting to move a fallen branch...

PS. Cell phone connections have been pretty sketchy as you can probably imagine...if you have tried to reach us and we haven't answered or responded it is possible we haven't gotten the text message or voice mail.

This is why we thought we might not have power for a week...fortunatly we are not on that grid...