Ike whipped our asses down here in Houston. we went under mandatory evacuation for my zip code, which started noon on Thursday. I had no time to prepare and so I left a ton of stuff on the font porch. We packed and were out of the area by 2 pm. Came to my mom's in NW Houston off Interstate 290.
The hurricane made landfall at 2:15 a.m. Saturday morning. That means the eye made landfall then, so coastal areas had been through about 4 hours of horrible conditions already, and the flooding was bad enough to be a grave concern half a day earlier. Here at Mom's, the wind started picking up around 10 and by 2 a.m. we had scary gusts coming through. I managed to fall asleep in the midst of it at 3 by deliberately not giving a shit. I slept in front of a window on the floor.
Saturday when we got up to assess the damage, it was impressive, even up here. I will have a photo link later in this post. Sunday, by sheer force of will, I left here to go home to check on my house and my cats, who had to be left behind. The damage to my neighborhood was far more extreme than damage up here, but I still only saw minor structural damage-- awnings, partial roofs, fences, and of course there were trees and power lines down. Our house was intact, and the stuff on the porch was still there. This is especially freaky when you consider that we lost four mature trees, one of which fell on the power line between the road and my house, along with the fence between us and our neighbors.
I am online right now with a generator powering this computer, and a functional dsl hookup. I can only get on sporadically and briefly, but I wanted to let everyone know that I am alive, everyone I know is fine, and we still have a house. Our cats are fine, if a bit peeved at us. I hope to go home tomorrow or the next day, though honestly that is probably not very realistic. I should go check on the animals again if nothing else.
You can text my cell or call me at 281.684.6507. Thanks to Lavana who left a very nice message, and thanks to Lupa, Sarenth, Cally, and Zhyndra for your concern and willingness to keep in touch. It means a lot, especially when people I'd hoped to hear from failed to reach out. :(
This is a stressful situation with serious potential for post-traumatic stress. It took me a couple of weeks to recover from Rita cuz I was sure I was going to lose my house. This time, I deliberately tried to distance myself emotionally from the situation, and it's helped a lot, but the recovery is much, much longer and there is so much to do when I get home. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't stressed and anxiety-ridden.
Hope to see everyone soon. The photos are uploading now and will be at http://s153.photobucket.com/albums/s235/shetakaey/ . Give them a few minutes to load and a few more minutes for me to add the text.
The hurricane made landfall at 2:15 a.m. Saturday morning. That means the eye made landfall then, so coastal areas had been through about 4 hours of horrible conditions already, and the flooding was bad enough to be a grave concern half a day earlier. Here at Mom's, the wind started picking up around 10 and by 2 a.m. we had scary gusts coming through. I managed to fall asleep in the midst of it at 3 by deliberately not giving a shit. I slept in front of a window on the floor.
Saturday when we got up to assess the damage, it was impressive, even up here. I will have a photo link later in this post. Sunday, by sheer force of will, I left here to go home to check on my house and my cats, who had to be left behind. The damage to my neighborhood was far more extreme than damage up here, but I still only saw minor structural damage-- awnings, partial roofs, fences, and of course there were trees and power lines down. Our house was intact, and the stuff on the porch was still there. This is especially freaky when you consider that we lost four mature trees, one of which fell on the power line between the road and my house, along with the fence between us and our neighbors.
I am online right now with a generator powering this computer, and a functional dsl hookup. I can only get on sporadically and briefly, but I wanted to let everyone know that I am alive, everyone I know is fine, and we still have a house. Our cats are fine, if a bit peeved at us. I hope to go home tomorrow or the next day, though honestly that is probably not very realistic. I should go check on the animals again if nothing else.
You can text my cell or call me at 281.684.6507. Thanks to Lavana who left a very nice message, and thanks to Lupa, Sarenth, Cally, and Zhyndra for your concern and willingness to keep in touch. It means a lot, especially when people I'd hoped to hear from failed to reach out. :(
This is a stressful situation with serious potential for post-traumatic stress. It took me a couple of weeks to recover from Rita cuz I was sure I was going to lose my house. This time, I deliberately tried to distance myself emotionally from the situation, and it's helped a lot, but the recovery is much, much longer and there is so much to do when I get home. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't stressed and anxiety-ridden.
Hope to see everyone soon. The photos are uploading now and will be at http://s153.photobucket.com/albums/s235/shetakaey/ . Give them a few minutes to load and a few more minutes for me to add the text.