This is what the average house got from IKE in our neck of the woods.
Of course, the bad news is the brief but devistating visit from Hurricane IKE. In Huntsville, though the storm was still a catagory 1, the damage was minimal - the worst being no electricity for 4 to 9 days (and still counting for some folks.) Imagine a storm so powerful that it remained a catagory 1 for over 100 miles after it hit land!
My most memorable moments were (1) my grandson and I sitting in a big chair together before anyone else was awake listening to the huge storm whistling for two hours while tree limbs bombarded the roof. And (2) sitting a couple of hours later, watching out the French doors of our bedroom while the eye of the storm passed over Huntsville and not a SINGLE leaf stirred on any tree !!
Before the storm, I had gone to get my mom from Houston and my son and his family came in here to weather the storm. The morning Ike hit here our lights went out. My son and family went back home in Katy (west of Houston) where they had all utiltities and cable TV . . . everything in tact. We took Mom and went to their house the next day for three days. Then, we took Mom to meet my brother who has a lake house in Corsicana which was unaffected by Ike. Next, brother no. 2 (in birth order) came from Klien (Houston) with my SIL and spent the night with us. they have no power and were on the way to the family lake house in Livingston to pick up a generator. We had great visit and now I remember what it was like pre-TV and pre-computers -- when folks could talk for hours and really enjoy each other without distraction. When brother no.1 returned to work in Houston last Friday, he brought Mom back to us as her lights are still not on in Houston!
A bank downtown in Huntsville, Texas
With all that trapesing up and down I-45, I'm sorry to say, I got no pictures of damage from the storm. There are some fantastically horrifying images of trees cutting through houses and cars in my mind. (The first photo above is a house from another neighborhood.) Our subdivision was hit hardest in the Huntsville area. Probably because of all the trees. But first, the wind just huffed and puffed and blew the Elkins Lake sign down:
(after) (before)
I did get a few pictures of the first hole on the golf course -- only because its clean-up is not first priority and I was out today with my camera.
My most memorable moments were (1) my grandson and I sitting in a big chair together before anyone else was awake listening to the huge storm whistling for two hours while tree limbs bombarded the roof. And (2) sitting a couple of hours later, watching out the French doors of our bedroom while the eye of the storm passed over Huntsville and not a SINGLE leaf stirred on any tree !!
Before the storm, I had gone to get my mom from Houston and my son and his family came in here to weather the storm. The morning Ike hit here our lights went out. My son and family went back home in Katy (west of Houston) where they had all utiltities and cable TV . . . everything in tact. We took Mom and went to their house the next day for three days. Then, we took Mom to meet my brother who has a lake house in Corsicana which was unaffected by Ike. Next, brother no. 2 (in birth order) came from Klien (Houston) with my SIL and spent the night with us. they have no power and were on the way to the family lake house in Livingston to pick up a generator. We had great visit and now I remember what it was like pre-TV and pre-computers -- when folks could talk for hours and really enjoy each other without distraction. When brother no.1 returned to work in Houston last Friday, he brought Mom back to us as her lights are still not on in Houston!
A bank downtown in Huntsville, Texas
With all that trapesing up and down I-45, I'm sorry to say, I got no pictures of damage from the storm. There are some fantastically horrifying images of trees cutting through houses and cars in my mind. (The first photo above is a house from another neighborhood.) Our subdivision was hit hardest in the Huntsville area. Probably because of all the trees. But first, the wind just huffed and puffed and blew the Elkins Lake sign down:
(after) (before)
I did get a few pictures of the first hole on the golf course -- only because its clean-up is not first priority and I was out today with my camera.
Tee box on hole 1 at the Hills Golf Course, Elkins Lake, Huntsville, Texas.
Golf, Anyone?
Golf, Anyone?
(Be sure to click on these images to see the trees down in the backgrounds, too.)
Finally, this morning I climbed up on our short retaining wall, held my camera over our fence, and took pictures of the humongous tree in my neighbor's backyard that fell across my back door neighbor's fence. The root ball upended the deck walkway across the back of the yard.
Well, that hurricane and the horrible destruction it wielded on our neighbors, friends, and family to the south was definitely the bad news. Our prayers go out to the family of Sandi Tykol and all the thousands of others on the Gulf Coast whose lives will not be the same after that horrendous storm.
The good news? Well, besides the grace of God that kept that tree in my neighbor's yard from falling 15 feet further over onto my house and through the very bedroom in which my precious son, daughter (in law) and grandchildren were sleeping -- that is blessing enough, for sure. And besides getting to see and visit with almost every person in my immediate family - which was awesome... But besides all that - someone gave me a thrill yesterday that I'll tell you about in the next post.
The good news? Well, besides the grace of God that kept that tree in my neighbor's yard from falling 15 feet further over onto my house and through the very bedroom in which my precious son, daughter (in law) and grandchildren were sleeping -- that is blessing enough, for sure. And besides getting to see and visit with almost every person in my immediate family - which was awesome... But besides all that - someone gave me a thrill yesterday that I'll tell you about in the next post.
Thank God you and your family are all okay. We know how small we are when we are hunkering down, trying to protect ourselves against such a tornado.
Posted by: Sher | September 22, 2008 at 05:36 AM
I'm so happy that you and family are OK. What a close call!
O love thrills and I can't wait to hear about yours.
Posted by: Sharon @ norah'S | September 23, 2008 at 12:45 PM
This all looks so familiar! I'm so glad you're all safe and sound. I'm sorry about your friend...
Posted by: Deryn Mentock | September 23, 2008 at 08:15 PM
Sally, Like Deryn said, this all looks very, very familiar. We live in Katy proper, and for almost 7 hours we had strong wind and gusts of up to 90 mph. It was NOT fun. We had a limb fall in our front yard, just missing our house (see post). And what a mess afterwards! We lost electricity for 16 hours, but always had water and hot water and a gas stove. We had it easy compared to most. And, the poor people who still don't have electricity is just so sad. I work DT and had to go back on Monday. It was tuff to see the mess, but we are slowly coming back to life.
I am so glad you were spared of much distruction, and so glad you had precious time with your family. That means more than anything else in THIS world.
Hugs~diane
p.s. thanks for sharing pics of how it looked in your part of the world....
Posted by: diane cook | September 23, 2008 at 08:30 PM
I was a victim of Ike, too! Now all I can seem to be drawing is trees in my sketchbook!
I posted pictures on my blog:
http://e14studio.blogspot.com
I just discovered your blog and will be back to visit often.
Sharon
(Houston, Texas)
Posted by: e14studio | September 30, 2008 at 10:43 AM