Hurricane Ike

As most of you know we were hit by our first Hurricane since moving to Texas. It is an experience that I will never forget and would like to never have to go through again. Although living down here I'm sure it will be certain that another one will come. It is strange how part of your daily routine is checking the forecast out in the Atlantic to see if any storms are forming. Or if there is one, trying to figure out where it may hit and praying it does not come your way. A person starts to feel bad or guilty cause it is almost like you are wishing disaster or death on another innocent person.

However, as Ike got closer it was almost certain we were either going to be hit by him or at least have the effects of it because we would be on the "dirty side" as they say. So a couple days before hand we, or I should say Mark, boarded up the house and we packed some clothes, food, photos, important papers and anything else you could possible think of that you didn't want to get ruined or could not live with out.


On Friday morning at 4:00 AM, we evacuated with our neighbors to their parents house in Northwest Houston. It was about an hour away, and at that time to the west of the eye. Our main reason for going was more of a precaution if I went into labor, beings I was 38 weeks pregnant. So we "hunkered down", as they say in Texas, and rode out the storm up there. We lost power around 12:30 Friday night and the storm went over sometime early Saturday morning. There was no damage to the house we were at but their neighborhood had lost several trees. On the plus side we did have a generator there so we were able to run fans and keep cool.

Mark and Lewis, our neighbor, went out on Saturday to see if they could make it back home to see what damage was done to our own houses. They were successful and determined that we could return the next day. So come Sunday we loaded the cars back up and drove home. There was lots of flooding, trees down everywhere and some damage to buildings. It took us slightly longer to get home but we didn't mind as the car had a/c and our house did not. Once getting home we assessed the damage...We had some limbs down with our front tree and some slight water damage to the carpet in the living room. By Sunday night we had our power back and by Monday night we had Internet, cable and our phones back. Oh the power of prayer!! Thank you to all who were praying for us!














Our neighborhood is now, pretty much put back together. Monday was a big work day for everyone. It was very nice to see all the neighbors helping each other out and everyone was really positive. Our lives are slowly going back to "normal" but there are still several people in the area with out power and some with out water even. Most should be getting their power back within a week but I have heard of several that could be out for a month or more. I pray for those who are with out and just hope that they know God is watching over them, even though times are tough right now.