Thanks all. She is a smart cookie so I am sure she is ok. You know how you get worried sometimes.
Hurricane Ike Landfall
I just got a phone call from CeeJays daughter.
They are completely without power right now and very uncomfortable
with the high humidity. Windows in the house do not open, and it's so
humid right now that opening the doors just makes it worse inside. They
do not have a generator so are hoping power problems will be fixed soon.
The big windows in their house survived, although there may be leaks in
them as well as other windows. The big windows are on the south side
of the house, and the storm hit the house more seriously on the north side.
They do have a lot of water damage and there is structural damage
to the pool among other things. Lot of plants lost and yard damage as well.
They have a big cleanup ahead of them.
Bottom line is that they are OK despite the weather beating they've been
through. That is good news and I just wanted to update all of you who have
been concerned.
June
This message was edited Sep 14, 2008 2:27 PM
Christi, has anyone heard from rjuddharrison? He hasn't posted since he posted from inside of a closet.
Debbie
I put a call in to Randy but we're still having trouble with cell phones. Will update as soon as I hear from him.
Thanks for the update on MamaJack. Appreicate. If anybody could still have a coupel of folks missing from the friendswood and Dayton area, if anybody knows how bad those areas got hit if at all.
That does not sound good about rjuddharrison. Sure hope that another person that somebody gets updated.
It gettign hard to try and get through land lines and some cell phones as they leavign lines open for emergency services and stuff first.
I'll bet Randy is fine. Just like everyone else....no power and spotty cell phones. If there were any catastrophes in his area we would have seen it with local media coverage by now. It'll just be awhile for some Houston folks to check in because of the local conditions.
Randy was at his friend, Margaret's home, about 2 miles from The Heights. That is where the closet is. I have looked everywhere and don't know where I put his number.
Going to make a wild guess he is at his home today trying to rescue his garden. Knolan if you hear, please let us know.
Thank you.
Christi
Just got a call from Randy. He sounds great. The garden is heavily damaged and he lost the back fence. It took him awhile to get to a place with a generator to recharge his phone. No power yet. He misses everyone and will be back as soon as possible.
Ric (Henry10) may not be posting for a few days. Their power is out, maybe for 3-5 days... I think he lives near Cincinnati? His cell works, though, and he will be trying to re-establish in touch with those still not heard from after Ike...
I heard the coast guard on the news said they charge 2 grand a person---for those who didn't evacuate and are now needing rescue.
dmj---I am just shocked at the damage your neighborhood suffered! I am just up the road from you, far as I recall, and I've seen no broken windows, only one house with gutters down, no trees collapsed on rooftops, etc. And our neighborhood is 30 years (seems like some of those fences might be original yet lol) and a few fences down but mostly all is still standing and in order. Almost all lost limbs from trees, few trees completely uprooted, but not to bad.... I am sorry to hear your area SO close to mine suffered so much. Do you have power there? We got ours up this morning about 10 am.
We stocked up on food when getting our generator last week to. Amazing how many people have few staples in their house. We were cooking on the BBQ tonight and a teen asked where we got the meat---what stores were open---we explained about the generator. I am surprised to how many folks in Houston or the gulf do not have them?!
Yes, wish we had a chainsaw now but anticipate it will be weeks before we can get one, they will be in short supply.
Thankyou knolan for the update on Randy.
Debbie
Anyone heard from Blue_Eyes (Kim)? How about from Dave and Trish?
Tir--the Harris County Sheriffs said it was tornado damage. Most of the houses have roofs stripped off to plywood somewhere and in sections as big as a normal sheet of plywood or bigger (and some more than others and 3-4 times as large as a sheet of plywood and in several different places). Most all houses have at least 2-3 out of 4 of the privacy fences completely down (me, 2 out of 4--the side and gate side that I had done in April, about the only one left). We got power back on yesterday about 1pm--but no one has had time to enjoy it or use it until tonight--and some have too wet of interiors to even turn it on. Yesterday afternoon and today as soon as it stopped raining at a lot of us on the street worked together and got tarps up, till we ran out--I got the last of some tarpaper my next door neighbor who had a little in his garage had--but no tarp. Two story houses with very steep pitches got hit the worst--mine is one story (and the cheapest in the subdivision--but also the oldest) but even all of us have a lot of roof damage.
And the "looters" are already casing the neighborhood--we see totally strange cars cruising the street to see what they can see. And we know who really lives here--they don't. And we would see the same cars, over and over, so we all got a bit paranoid.The fences are all propped by up with 2 x 4's again plus any other scraps of wood we all could find (including pulling landscape timbers up and using them)--but right now, you can't even find shingles in Houston. The back yard of my house abuts against a street, as do all the neighbors that pitched in, (not someone's back yard) so the back fence is a secuirity issue. I left the plywood up all of my back windows for extra secuirity. Secuirity issue is at least solved and that makes me feel a lot better (I live alone right now). Finding shingles?--probably will be about Wed or Thurs before HD or Lowe's has them---let's just hope the weathermen are correct about no rain this week.
Our trees all held up well--but they are all medium sized as they are only 15 years old--not many neighbors had tree damage (surprisingly enough--another weird thing). My bulb and LA Iris stock was all in the garage--did that and boarded windows in the day and a half notice we had.
I had plywood cut to fit all my windows and hurricane clips (a lot of my windows are surrounded by brick) back in April when I did my part of the fence and stored in my garage--I just had a hunch. So I had no broken glass--about half of us had our windows boarded up--while the other half laughed at us while we did it. Bet they do what we all did now. Those Hurricane clips were $28 for a bag of 24 in April--you have to use one every 24" for windows surrounded by brick. Only my 3 back windows were screwed in--but they were the largest windows.
I had to do all of my windows but the two largest in the back by myself--my neighbors all had to work Friday--but then we all started helping each other until we got everybodies done wellafter dark when they got home from prior to it hitting.
I almost hate to admit this and the neighbors laugh at me in amazement--but I slept in the hall from 1 pm until 7:30 during the height of it--alone. I was exhausted from the preparations. I guess I can literally sleep thru a hurricane but that thunder this morning at 3:30 woke me right up.
Sheila
While I haven't seen any postings from Kim since Fri or Sat (can't remember) I'm in south College Station and we have electricity. I don't know about Kim's neighborhood but other than limbs down we just didn't get the level of damage that folks to the south and east of us. We got lucky.
Anne
To those people in Texas that have had damage occur please check out your contractors!!! We've had a lot of fly by night crooks operating here since Katrina!!! They move from disaster to disaster. BEWARE!!!! We can call and see if the contractor is licensed and insured!!! It's important that you check this info also. They should have at the least worker's comp and General Libility!!! If they don't then if something happens it cost you directly and your homeowner's insurance. It's terrible how these snakes prey on you when things are turned upside down and you may not be thinking as clearly.
N hwy 6 is saturated with contractors I grew up with--that won't be a problem for any one of us--its just waiting the 8 weeks for the insurance adjusters (we all already have claim numbers--at least the 5 of us neighbors that are working together) to arrive--and they are Katrina, Rita, Gustov, and now us burned out--so we aren't holding out high hopes of getting what we really need as far as funding goes. There are 3.6 million people living in Houston--this will probably break the insurance companies backs. Not to even mention the large numbers of claims from Galveston and those surrounding counties.
We won't be preyed on here. I have so many friends in construction, its not even funny. One of them is the next door neighbors.
Very good advice, Jeri11. We all need to be very careful.
Be very grateful!!! There have been some awful people that swarmed in here after Katrina. So far with Gustav out of about 15 contractors that I've called only one has even called me back an estimate and it's ridiculous!!!
Debbie~So glad to hear you're okay and weathered the storm well. Did all your plants survive?
Let me know if anyone needs cuttings. I'll be glad to help replace any plants that I have that Yall lost!!! We're so thankful that Yall are safe. God Bless thru the rough time ahead putting the pieces back together!!!!!
Jeri
Glad to hear Randy is OK!
Ike paid us a pretty good visit yesterday afternoon.
It intensified to TS winds here from a TD as it slid past us.
We were on the dirty side.
Sustained 40 MPH winds, Gusts to 76 MPH (highest ever recorded except in a tornado).
Absolutely no rain or tornados.
675,000 homes w/o power last night or 90% of the area.
Down to 575,000 now. (we are in the Lucky 100,000 who got restored)
Trees and limbs were falling like mad everywhere around here.
This area is not geared for winds like this.
Sadly there were 4 deaths from trees falling on houses and one falling on a Motorcycle of all things.
I did find out one of my lighting ideas for the new room we are building will in fact work.
And is GREAT for emergency lighting too.
We brought our LED Solar Spotlights inside.
(3 Light sets I removed one light to conserve the batteries)
We put one set in the LR and one set over the bed.
More than enough light for reading and moving around safely.
They are still on thhis morning.
AND we can just move the Solar Collector back outside today and recharge.....
This should work well, especially down South where the sun is more intense.
Here's a TOP limb from a giant White Oak that is over our neighbor's house.
Luckily the wind blew it away from the house.
Be Safe!
Ric
dmj, I appreciate the detailed descript of your area. I am just shocked! So close to me! I'd heard hurricanes can cause tornadoes but don't know that we were hit with them here.
cheapskate looters casing your neighborhood---goll that just irks me to noooooooo end.
Tir--you have the same damage in the old part of copperfield in some of the homes--I have one friend from there with extensive water damage here this morning (and his next door neighbor has it too) and putting his clothes in my empty bedroom; about a third of the houses here have generators, must be your immediate neighbors that don't. Now the problem is finding gas for their generators. Its definitely cool enough to open windows here and live without ac this morning. I haven't seen it this cool since April--and we will all need it with all the work there is to be done.
I'm off to help him pull carpet out of his house and try to find me some tarps or shingles for my roof, somewhere....
My home is on Crystal Beach....well my used to be home. We evacuated early to Austin. This is my first month to be retired. Plans for retirement didn't include being homeless!!!
I'm sure my garden didn't appreciate being "overwatered"!!!
Oh well "It's just stuff" as they say. We will relocate permanently to the Austin area. I've had my fill of hurricanes!
Becky
It's been awhile since I worked with them but I'll remind people who were hit that the Red Cross is there to help with disaster relief. They used to help with direct payment or low-cost loans for home repairs. Some of this may be FEMA's job now, In which case - good luck!!
After what happened with Katrina, FEMA will be looking to do better. They don't want more bad press. If you have a neighborhood group that can approach them, this might be effective. Include a "reporter" and take names, get whatever you can in writing.
Good luck to all of you.
katiebear
Sorry to hear of your retirement plans being changed Beck3465. When you get settled and ready to do a garden post on Daves the story and I am sure you will get an offering of seeds/plants to start again.
Just checking in - no power, no cell service, and land line was out till last night.
I pruned and shredded limbs before Ike, but Ma Nature did not think much of my work - brush pile is now 50 x 12 x 5 - probably will take 2-3 days to shred all that.
Did get lucky and got a generator Sunday at Home Depot - learned that they diverted all shipments to the houston area - good price, too. And the employees were clever - loaded a cart with Generator, 2 5-gal cans, a 100' #12 cord and a 3-way, and a fan. I grabbed an extra cord - the yellow ones with the lighted connectors.
Only real damage at the house was from the west blowing water under the patio door - so some soaked carpet.
Glad we have a cool front - low humidity and a breeze this morning.
The restaurant also survived and did a HUGE business yesterday afternoon, but our ice vendow is shut down. We may run out of buns and bread today.
Bubba--
Good to hear about the business and your home. Its good for everyone to remember ALL their Texas businesses and vendors. Help us ALL to help ourselves by buying Texas. You are helping ALL of us to repair and rebuild our lives when you buy from TEXAS vendors and businesses.
After reading all of the damage done in Texas and even up into the northern states, I am extremely grateful that Ike missed DFW on the way north.
Once you all have your lives and homes back in order and are ready to rebuild your gardens then just let us know what you need! I'm sure that a lot of us on here would be more than glad to collect seeds, make cuttings, or dig and divide to help you get back what you have lost, and make your gardens better than ever! I have never had anything this severe happen to me, but when I do have to redo something I always think how much better it will be after the second try, with the benefit of past experience.
Dennis
I was surprised on Saturday to see Ihop running! Only had a few people in there though and restaurants next to them were boarded up.
dmj, on our street we only noted the noise of 3 generators! Glad we got one but wish could have had the "whole house" kind our neighbor up the way did, his whole house was lit!
So glad t hear from you Bubba. I've been wondering how you fared over there.
Tir--they don't have power, I just went to WestGlen to get an electrician friend to help me with something and they have no power. Power is not on in this entire area. HD at 529 is closed--no power.
This message was edited Sep 15, 2008 1:39 PM
Bubba - you're close. I'm cooking a spaghetti dinner and you and Linda are more than welcome. We have power! We're heading out in a little while to find some supplies but should be back by 5:00.
Thanks for the invite, Knolan - but we have some meat in the house we have to cook tonight - I brought the 2-burner stove I use for the fish fry's home and set it up on the patio.
Went by Phil & Deb's place - he cooked 17 racks of ribs - gave us a couple and took the rest to the Missouri City fire station. He had 3 freezers full - so will be cooking again today when he finds a place to exchange his empty propane tanks.
Hope we hear form Randy soon, too.
Just called Lowe's at 529, open til 6.
Sharing with the Fire Station is a wonderful idea. The first responders often get thought of last. They too have families without electricity and water.
they were closed at 10am
Glad to see a bunch of you all checking in. When ya get ready got plants and seeds to help ya rebuild your gardens. Don't be afraid to ask. Lot sof here to help with what we can for ya.
it is great to hear that so many are O.K. but we haven't heard from Maggiemoo, Mary yet, I hope she is O.K. too.
Josephine.