Hurricane Ike - Galveston

I'm a little late, but here are the pics from the work party that went to Galveston back in late September.

Here we are gathered around waiting to see where they are going to send us. We had a Sacrament Meeting a little earlier. It was awesome.

This was our first house. Holy cow!! This pic was taken early in our quest to muck out the house. The piles got a little bit higher by the time we stopped for lunch. Good thing for you they haven't invented smell-o-vision!!

Sister Allen in the kitchen.

The road where the first house was located.

Lunchtime on the seawall.

Here's our second house. It was WAY easier than the first. The people who owned this house had already taken everything out. All we did was go in and pull sheetrock out. Not that that is especially easy, but at the least the smell didn't want to knock you over every time you stepped inside.

A little down time before we left.

Just before you leave the island there is a huge lot of land off to right where they bring all the trash and flooded out cars. You can't tell from the picture, but this place was massive!

Another angle of the trash lot. People mucked out their houses and large dump trucks and front end loaders would go down the road loading up all the trash. This is where the trash wound up. Mounds and mounds and mounds of what used to be people's treasured belongings.

When I got home this evening from book club I was talking to Arlene and I was telling her about the swarm of mosquitoes that came into Stacey's house as we were all leaving. I was telling her how huge they were.

We spoke of a few other things, but then a few minutes later Stephanie walks in the house moaning and groaning about the mosquitoes and how huge they are!

We laughed cuz Arlene and I were just talking about it.

Stephanie proceeds to tell us that the lady she was just babysitting for says that the large mosquitoes are called coastal mosquitoes.

Arlene pops up and says...

"Dang!, even the mosquitoes evacuated!!"

Weird, But I Like It

The worst is finally over and freakishly good weather is on its way.

I have now lived through two hurricanes and volunteered to help others during the aftermath of both Rita and Katrina and after each of these storms, the weather was horrendous. The storms pass, the sun comes out and the August/Sept heat creates unbearable conditions exacerbated by the lack of electricity and a/c.

Yes, we had some scary thunderstorms roll through the area this morning, many of us lost electricity for a second time in as many days, and many streets flooded again, but with that bad weather has come some seriously abnormal weather.

The thunderstorms this morning were caused by a cold front that's moving through.

A COLD FRONT!!

By the grace of God, we have a cold front that's blowing out the humidity in the air and bringing "cool" weather to the area.

I feel blessed to have weathered the storm without much damage to my home or car, but I know there are MANY in my town that are not as fortunate and the next few days/weeks are going to be spent without electricity or water. If there can be bright spots, it will be the opportunities we'll have to volunteer our time and talents to help our fellow friends and neighbors while they recover.

Thankfully we'll have good weather to do this.

Anyone know of any volunteer opportunities? Let me know.

The Aftermath - Part II

Here's a couple of pictures of the damage in the backyard. You can't tell it, but the tree in the middle of the pic was uprooted and is leaning over the back portion of the house. Paul Thomas and one of the Torbit boys came over and cut off the biggest limbs that were sitting on the roof.


Here's Arlene (and me) cleaning up and working off our "Ike 15." You can see where the fence was knocked down in a few places.

The Aftermath - Part I

Arlene and I faired pretty well. I was awake until around 4:30 this morning when I finally fell into bed completely exhausted. I had my windows open and listened to the wind and rain lash against the house and through the trees.

For the 2.5 of you who are just chomping-at-the-bit to see some exciting video, here you go. :)

Make sure you're sitting down before watching; they're pretty boring and you may fall asleep while watching!

This is the backyard at about 7am Saturday.

This is the frontyard after about 8am Saturday.

Our power was restored at 1:30pm this afternoon.

Guess Its Time For Bed

Electricity went off at 11:30pm. A few minutes prior I had let Arlene's dog, Bonnie, in from the backyard. She's a quiet dog, but she came in whining and paced the living room for several minutes. It wasn't until the electricity stopped flickering and went off for good that she calmed down and went to sleep.

Did she sense what was about to happen or was it a coincidence?? Who knows.

See ya on the flip-side!

Hunkering Down

I was reading my friend Stacey's blog earlier. She was talking about the new phrases she's been learning thanks to Hurrican Ike.

"Run from water, Hide from wind."

She has coined, "The Ike 15." It's the weight gained from eating all the comfort food during this weekend. I went to the store this afternoon to get a few "essentials" to carry me over during the storm.

Bread
Soda
Oreos
Crackers

____________

The video below was taken around 6:30 this evening. Since Arlene and I are hunkering down, I thought I would try and chronicle the storm somehow. We'll see how well I do.