Ike

Ike is going to be a name that's going to be remembered for a while. I've been glued to the TV and the Houston Chronicle since the week of when Hurricane Ike made landfall on Sept. 12th. Adrian says I'm just a disaster junkie, but he doesn't know what it's like growing up along the Gulf Coast and how EVERYONE is glued to the tv during hurricane season. They taught us how to track hurricanes starting in elementary school! And then I remember at the local grocery store (we usually went to Kroger's) and at the end of the checkout stand they always had hurricane tracking charts posted there, too. So when it looked like Ike was headed straight for Galveston, I started getting worried.

Mom and Dad live in League City, on Clear Lake, which flows out into Galveston Bay. (Here's what I never understood: isn't a lake a body of water surrounded by land on all sides? So then how can it be called Clear Lake if it flows out into the bay? Do I not have the definition of lake correct?) My parents never felt like they were going to flood. On the street side of their house, Dad said they were about 17 feet above sea level. Here in Colorado all the town signs have the elevation on them as opposed to the population of the town. I think the elevation, or how high above sea level you are, may serve the people on coastal towns better than it does here! I digress...so Dad didn't think they were going to flood but Mom was nervous. I think honestly she was just tired of me calling and worrying and wondering if they were going to evacuate, so I think she convinced Dad to go and head to Dana's in Blanco (San Antonio). Mom did tell me that she told one of her friends that she was going to evacuate "to ease my kids' minds." She did it for us! I'm glad they did...

My friend Jamie and her family decided to ride it out at their house in Dickinson. She made me a nervous wreck! I was just so nervous because the news kept talking about at least a 20-foot storm surge and she said their house was 22 feet above sea level. So if that were the case, then they'd have at least 2 feet of water in their house. My friend Tif and her family (who live in the same neighborhood as Jamie) had evacuated to Granmommie's in Mineola.

So Ike hit land around 1:00 a.m. on Saturday morning as a category 2 hurricane and thankfully there wasn't a 20-foot storm surge. Mom and Dad didn't flood but their neighbors said the water came up into about halfway in the backyard. That means it came up and over the bulkhead. Yikes. They have a second story back porch on the backside of the house and those two bedrooms that are on the porch have double-french doors. Dad thinks that the 100 mph winds and driving rain came right through those doors because the carpeting was soaked. They had to pull up the carpeting in those rooms and they have peeling paint. Then there were shingles everywhere so the roof was a bit damaged. They've already had some help with getting the roof repaired and the carpeting has been been pulled up from the rooms. Thankfully, no trees were down. They were without power for a few days, but they've been really lucky.

Jamie's house didn't flood. They didn't have much damage thankfully. Tif's fence is down at her house, but not much damage there either.

I think more of the damage happened in the older neighborhoods in Dickinson. They've got these really old pine and oak trees all around town, and it seems that at least every house or every other house has some trees down and/or trees on their house. Found these pictures: Hurricane Ike--Dickinson.

Galveston is a mess and I just can't imagine what it must be like to see it in person. The pictures online are scary enough. Those poor people of Bolivar Peninsula and Gilcrest...

Seeing all the coverage made me so homesick. Probably sounds a bit weird, but I think that part of TX will always be home and I recognized so many of the towns and landmarks on tv. I grew up there...I can't say that I'd really want to move back there, but it always will hold a special place in my heart.