Houston, Keep Us Posted

[tdelorme]

OK, you folks around Houston, lets hear where you all are goning to be hanging out for the next couple of days.
You too, Hector. Livingston ain't out of the woods from the looks of things. You all hang in there and we'll all say a prayer for you.

[aggies09]

Loc,

Did you stay in Houston or did you get out?

[rmboies]

Loc,
Did you stay in Houston or did you get out?

Bob's brother lives just northeast of Houston and they said they are staying. At least they have a boat if they need it! We will certainly be keeping all of you in our thoughts and prayers....hunker down!

[Joe Cannarozzi]

From the outside looking in it looks like it is going to be ugly in Galveston.

Those who remain behind can not say they were not warned.

Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone down there who will be dealing with it.

[dreamchasers]

Update!

I live in Livingston, Texas, about 150 miles inland, North of Galveston. So far, only light winds. The news is reporting 12 - 15 MPH winds. Just another normal day.

However, I do expect things to change within the next few hours. The hurricane eye will pass within 25 miles of Livingston, as forecasted. It is forecasted for Livingston to receive winds of 70 MPH. We can handle these winds, with minor damage.

The real story is I am sipping a scotch and water watching all the drama on the weather channel. Lake Livingston is calm and we have not seen any rain today. Our elevation is 150 + feet, so storm surge is not of concern here.

I hope all enjoy Spearfish. I wish we could have made the trip.

We are new grandparents, with twins (boy and girl) that were born pre mature, two weeks ago. They are doing great, but will be in the hospital for a few more weeks.


Hector

[tdelorme]

Gosh, Hector, you sound a bit tense. Try and relax a little bit. We're another 150 miles north of you guys and you would think the world is coming to an end. All the local gas stations are out of gas and Jan just came home from a trip to Sam's where her description was "it's a zoo."
Anyway, it was good to hear from you one last time Hector and say hi to Lee.

[dreamchasers]

Hurricane Ike hit here (Livingston, Texas) this morning. Wow, what a display of the power of Mother Nature! We lost power at 6:00 am when the wind started blowing and blowing and blowing. My house faces the Lake Livingston on a south shore, so the wind was coming over large trees, over the house, then onto the lake. We would have suffered much more damage if the winds were coming from the lake. We did have a few tornados, lots of tree damage! We expect to be without power for a week. Everywhere you look, trees are laying on power lines.

Ike was a powerful storm with a tough punch. After living in the Gulf Coast most of my life, hurricanes are a part of life. But when one touches your life, it reminds you Mother Nature is definitely in charge.

We have no structural damage to our home. I lost a couple of trees, with tons of limbs laying in the yard. No boathouse or pier damage. But we are fine and consider ourselves lucky.

Hector

[garyde]

Hi Hector. Its good to hear your OK. Listening to the news it sounds pretty bad along the Coast of Texas.

[tdelorme]

So, Hector. the new bus barn made it through the storm ok? Winds here never got over 50 MPH and the rain was less than expected. The house is on generator power so no A/C. We'll stay in the bus for as long as the power is out so it's no big deal.
Our pier broke loose from shore but I'm sure Jan will swim out in the pond tomorrow and bring it in. Or not, as the kids say.
Still waiting to hear from Loc and Gary.
JDUB, being the sissy he is, ran to Oklahoma.

[Loc]

Thanks for the concern. We loaded up the bus and the Jeep on Thursday and headed to the Hill Country for a weekend on the rocks with the Jeep. I am glad that we left. We returned home yesterday. The neighborhood looks like a war zone with all the trees down. We had a tree (neighbor's tree that I told him needed to be cut down when he moved in) that fell on our garage. We had a little water in the house around the windows because of the wind. That horizontal rain is hard to stop. The biggest issue now is power and gasoline. We are staying in the bus about 50 miles west of Houston with some bus friends that have a 50 amp hookup. Finding an open gas station that isn't out of gas is getting to be a challenge.

[Gary & Peggy Stevens]

Peg and I have been out in the bus on Vacation since Friday a week ago. We headed West to Phoenix, and came back to Kerrville, Tx. the day after the storm hit on Saturday.

Sugar Land was hard hit, but our house survived from what my neighbors say without so much as a broken limb. No electricity for 3 days, but our neighbors pulled all the food out of the refrigerator so that helped us out a lot.

We will be leaving Buckhorn, tomorrow heading home.

Glad everyone is having a good time in Spearfish, and especially glad our Houston POG family seemed to make it through the storm with only minor damage.

Gary S.

[Jerry Winchester]

Well we made it in last night with only some small problems. I-45 was about shut down at Huntsville because of a truck stop that had fuel which created a line that was blocking the exit and backing up on the interstate. The State Troopers closed the exit and the lines for fuel were over a mile long.

I had stopped in Ardmore and rerigged my gear to include a 5000W generator, chain saw and a 100 gal fuel tank that we loaded on the trailer with the Hummer. That and about $600 worth of groceries / water and ice that friends and neighbors had requested.

While the power was out at our house for about 3 hours, we are the only neighborhood in 4 or 5 miles in every direction with power. We actually had people staying in our house starting the day of the hurricane and we had a house full last night. I have the coach parked in front of the house for more bed space.

The power was on briefly at our office then back off this morning. That also means we have no e-mail as the servers are in that building. I can get text messages and some cell service but our home phone is working fine an is the Internet service. Go figure. There is very little fuel to be bought, so we have resorted to draining AV gas out of the plane to run generators.

The David Wayne Hooks airport is a mess. Lots of hanger doors blown in on planes and several roofs gone. And lots of water. It was still running over the road when I was out there this morning and there were cars that must have been blown out of the parking lots into the ditch that are now covered with water.

I am headed back out to the airport to take my trailer to the hanger (which was undamaged) and I will take some photos. It's a giant mess.

But I was in Oklahoma during the storm watching the Cowboys play and enjoying having a nice place to stay that is better than owning a beach house in Galveston. Or more like a beach lot today.

[Jerry Winchester]

On the way to the airport

3460

3461

When I went out this morning, the water was up to the top of the hood.

3462

Hanger full of planes and now covered in crap.

3463

[Jerry Winchester]

3464

Just outside our subdivision

3465

3466

This tree caved the whole house in.

3467

These are obviously not that bad when you consider how it looks in Galveston and south of Houston.

[Joe Cannarozzi]

Ike came through Chicago yesterday and dumped 81/2 inches of rain in 24hrs. added to what we got the two days prior and it was over a foot of rain over 3 days.

We normally have a very dry basement but I was down there all day yesterday dealing with seapage from everywhere.

After watching the news we consider ourselves lucky.