Ike

I live in Houston. 76% of the city is without power, downtown Houston is mostly destroyed, along with the Bolivar Penninsula, and Galveston Island-most of which is under water. Just today, stores are beginning to open back up. Yesterday select HEB and Kroger stores opened up, but there were LINES with an hour plus wait time to get INTO the store. The lines to get gas were 10 to 15 cars long. I’m currently in Northwest Houston, 290 and Barker Cypress. I’m staying with my boyfriend’s family. He and his dad work for Center Point Energy, so we have air conditioning and running water. Yesterday 81% of the city was without power, today, thanks to the hardworking forces at work, we are down to 76% without power today. That is still over 3 million people in and around Houston.

I live in Tomball near the Woodlands, Tx and my family is without power also. A few of the roads to get home are flooded so I’ve been stranded here. The main intersection near my house, 2920 and Kuykendahl (Kirk-in-doll), last I heard had high water, and my parents didn’t think my car could make it through. (They were surveying damage in either their truck or SUV)

This area, Cypress, Texas, doesn’t appear to be suffering. The worst damage is a few street signs and fences blown down. Many trees fell, but we have only seen one that hit someone’s house. My boyfriend’s sister lives in the Medical Center part of Downtown Houston and brought pictures. I didn’t get get a chance to look at them yesterday but Ive heard downtown is devistated. They said yesterday on the news that the hospital, UTMB near Galveston, would take a whole week to get power back to, and they are #1 priority, as a hospital. They are saying it will take up to 4 weeks to get power restored to the entire city, but I know my boy and his dad have been working 16 hour days, 5AM to 9PM trying to get the lights on for folks.

There is another forum member who had her location listed in Houston, but I don’t remember the name 🙁

Here, the weather has cleared up, the skies are blue, and the temperature is down to maybe upper 70’s…yesterday it was at 81*F. I am very glad, because at least the folks that dont have power can open their windows and doors and still be comfortable. The weather in Houston most of the time is unbearably hot and humid. We CAN have a sunny day at 100% humidity. I’ve heard of people dying in their houses when they loose power.

Last I heard, there were 4 unconfirmed dead…a good small number considering the damage the winds did. Ike was a category 4 Hurricane while in the Gulf of Mexico, and hit Texas as a Cat. 2. Part of the state is gone. We’ve seen pictures on TV of Galveston Island and the Bolivar penninsula…few houses are even left.

A side note on Galveston-prior to 1900, the island flooded often, but nothing anyone couldn’t deal with. In 1900, a hurricane hit Galveston and left the entire island SUBMERGED. Horror stories of orphanages washed out to sea, nuns forming human ropes, holding on to children’s hands while the sea tears at them. When the water subsided a bit, people came back and raised THE ENTIRE ISLAND up 17 feet. They built The Seawall to prevent such future tragedies from happening again. There is even a mansion called Moody Mansion (the Moodys were a prominent family in Galveston) that had such a tall fence around it, that even after raising the island up so much, part of the fence, a good 4 feet of it, is still sticking out of the ground. Apparantly the storm surge has surpassed the seawall even, leaving a large part of the island under water.

More updates next time I get access to a computer.

Good luck! I hope they get the power up soon.

Thanks for the update! 😯 I’m glad you and your family are all okay.

Stay safe everyone who’s down that way.

It’s actually Houma, LA. Some parts were affected worse than others. Hopefully her and her family and pets are ok.

http://www.houmatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage

I hope power returns for your family and the rest of those homes affected.