For those that haven’t heard from us directly…
Ike passed last night. It was windy, it was rainy.
Power went out for good around midnight. Internet went down around 2 AM, and T-Mobile went down at 3-3:30 AM.
As of now… we still have no power or internet. T-Mobile coverage (how I’m posting) is improving, but still fragile.
We’re told that power could be 2-4 weeks… but Centerpoint has had trucks in the neighborhood, and one of their guys very optimistically predicted “1 hour”. (That was 3-4 hours ago.)
We sustained very minor damage. For those watching the webcam, none of the trees fell… but one large branch did break and fall. It missed all houses, but broke a fence board or two.
The only damage to our house was that our DirecTV dish decided it wanted a new view… it’s still up there, hanging by it’s wires. When it pulled out, it left 5 small holes in the roof from the bolts, which allowed some water in. Fortunately, we caught it before substantial amounts of water came in. Life goes on.
As for family… I’ve heard briefly from Tom & Linda, both have reported being fine. Lindsey and Scott are doing fine, lots of damage to their roof, drywall, etc…eek! Lindsey was in Minnesota and desperately wanted to get home (she got back on Tuesday). No word on Tom’s boat. Keith & Lindsay are fine and report no damage. Kevin, Melanie, Keira, Ken, Kathy, and the dogs are also fine, but have apparently sustained some roof and interior water damage. I don’t know exactly how bad, but I got the impression it wasn’t too bad. None of us have power, and phone service is extremely un-reliable. We’ve really only been communicating via text messages.
We understand that the national media is going a bit overboard, and have focused on the negatives. While I understand that the coastal communities are devastated, and there’s some nightmarish damage to downtown Houston – the majority of the inland Houston area seems to have fared pretty well. All of our neighbors have been out all day helping each other clean up, having block parties / BBQs, etc. It’s worth noting that a power outage is far more effective than the “national night out.”
That’s all for now. We have some interesting photos and video to share when bandwidth and power permits. Until then, BBQ in Missouri City!