Hurricane Ike

Well, we made it through Hurricane Ike last week with limited damage (lost tree in the front yard, part of the fence in the backyard and a few shingles from the patio) and what a ride it was! I will say that I have never been through a hurricane before, and after that experience, not sure if I'd want to do it again, either. So much for "a few gusty winds," as I innocently told a few friends and people on Friday, as we were doing our last-minute preparations. Yeah, right. It sounded like a freight train for six straight hours, and was much scarier than I ever imagined. As the windows, doors and entire house rattled, and the four of us were nestled in the family room listening to a battery-powered radio about everything going on outside, all I kept thinking about was when the storm was going to end. Then they came over the radio and said we were under a tornado watch, and if we "heard what sounded like a freight train coming, grab everyone and go to a closet or safe place in your house due to the tornado." Great - except it ALL sounded like a freight train - how can you tell the difference?!

In any case, we were very fortunate and lucky to not have suffered serious damage and that all of us and our family and friends are all safe. Not the case with those on the coast, especially Galveston and the Boliver Peninsula, who lost everything. Our hearts go out to them.

We still don't have power - Centerpointe is telling us that Sugar Land will be back up by this weekend, or Monday at the latest - and have spent time at my parents' house and made due. It's a big pain in the butt to not have power, but if that's the worst that has happened in all of this, we can live with it. Most of Houston is still without power, so we are definitely not alone! It is very eerie driving around - if you can get gas, that is - at night, and seeing entire areas pitch black, or during the day where businesses are completely shut down and not open. This storm was a big one.

This was about 6pm on Friday, just was the clouds of Ike start coming in...

If you can read the large marquee on the highway, it says "Hurricane Warning in Effect." Yeah, no kidding!

As I said we had a slumber party in the living room downstairs and here is Em, all ready to go for the long night ahead, on the air mattress. She was oblivious to the entire thing, and was bummed only because the battery on her DVD player went out, despite charging before we lost power...

The downed tree in the front yard...
Looking down either sides of our street - downed trees, branches and leaves everywhere. Much of Sugar Land actually looked like this (and in many cases, still does today)...

I think the State, City of Houston and FEMA have done a stellar job with this disaster. Thank God we live in a state with a competent Mayor and Governor, who were well-prepped and did all of the necessary steps (i.e. contacting the feds and asking for their assistance BEFORE the storm hit) to get things going on clean-up and recovery as soon as Ike left town.