We survived Hurricane Ike.

Wow, what a crazy couple of days. After living in Houston for nearly 12 years, we got socked with our first hurricane.

We had a very hard time deciding whether or not to evacuate. Technically, our city had a "voluntary" evacuation. Chris really wanted to stay behind at the house to try & take care of any possible damage asap & avoid any troubles of getting back into the area post storm. We are so proud of our new home & he has been working so hard to prepare it for Baby Gerty. He wanted to do everything in his power to protect it.

He wanted me & the pets to evacuate to Vicki's cousin's home in Katy, TX or even just 20 mi north to the Scovilles home in the city of Houston. I had a really hard time with the decision as I did not want our family to be separated.

Almost all of our neighbors on our street decided to "hunker down" at their homes. Afterall, we all spent 12 -36 hours on the disasterous evacuation of Hurricane Rita. It made me feel a bit more secure knowing that all our neighbors were staying; if we stayed we would not be alone, and could pull our resources & skills together if needed. We spent Thursday night w/ our next door neighbors who prepared a fabulous "pre-hurricane"meal for us... trying to empty out their fridge.

After only a couple hours sleep on Thursday night, I woke on Friday morning at 3:30 AM & watched the news. The highways were completely clear of all traffic and I told Chris.... I want all of us to go to Katy. I had a clear mind, and I was just so worried that one of our big oak trees would come crashing through our home & endanger us. I just kept thinking, I can replace a house but I can not replace my family. When he looked into my eyes, he knew I needed him to come with me to Katy. There was no way I could survive the storm not knowing how he was doing.

So by 6 AM, we all piled into our vehicles and hit the streets. Chris, me, the 2 dogs, cat & necessities in the Highlander and Vicki & her 2 weiner pups in her SUV. Off to Katy to stay w/ Vicki's cousin in record breaking time. We all took naps that afternoon and relaxed knowing that we would be safe, but still worried about our homes just a bit southeast of us.

By afternoon, the winds picked up. We watched an amzing sunset & enjoyed a nice dinner together. By 8 PM, we knew we were in for a real douzy of a storm. We were glued to the TV watching the news from Glaveston & Clear Lake. We knew that we would not see what they were seeing for another 2 hours. By 10 PM we lost power. The pressure continued to drop. The interior of the house started to get warm due to the lack of A/C. By midnight the winds were houling. By 2 AM the winds were gusting & the rain started smacking against the house. By about 3:30 AM I was frightened and prayed that we would all be ok & that our home back in Friendswood would survive. Chris & I had to move to different locations throughout the house a few times to prevent us from being near a window that was getting direct blows by the wind. I estimate that we saw wind speeds of about 70-80 mph in Katy, while I know that our home saw 100+ mph wind speeds. Sometime between 3:30 and 5 AM we fell asleep for abit. Everyone awoke at 5 AM to listen to the news on the crank radio to hear of all the destruction in Galveston, Clear Lake, Beuamont, downtown Houston, and so many other locations. The storm was still taking place at 5 AM but was definitely winding down.

After the storm died down and after confirmation from friends and the news as to which streets & areas were flooded, Chris headed back home to Friendswood to asess our damage before anyone else really got back out on the road. From the couple of conversations we have had this evening, I can tell you the following:

* Most of our trees are down, leaving debris all through our yard.
* Luckliy none of the trees fell on our roof or crashed through our windows.
* However, one our trees crashed into our neighbor's house but luckliy only broke 1 of the 2 window panes....resulting in no water damage to their home.
* As we had suspected, we are at a high enough elevation where the storm surge did not affect us. Our neighborhood was not flooded.
* Somehow water managed to find its way into our dining room. We have some damage to the ceiling & hardwood floors in the dining room. Chris is speculating that water found its way into a weep hole on the exterior wall between the 1st & 2nd story and ran down through the ceiling onto the floor. No water to be found on the 2nd story floor above though.
* All of our furniture is ok (which is great because we just bought new bedroom & family room furniture in the last 2 months)
* We are w/o power in Friendswood along with 2+ Million other people throghout the greater Houston area. At this time, we're not sure when it will be restored.
* I'm still in Katy with Vicki & the pets enjoying electricity & AC that was restored at about 6 PM tonight.

Baby Gerty is fine, still doing somersaults and kicking & Mom is certainly more comfortable now that there is AC and not having to deal with 90 deg F & 90% humidity! Chris is "camping" at home & enjoying the company of great neighbors & friends.

No telling when Galveston, Clear Lake, or Houston will be fully restored. We'll have our house cleaned up & repaired in time (hopefully for our 10/11 Oktoberfest party) but more importantly our family is all safe & well.

Although we still have not decided on a Baby name yet... one thing is for sure - 'Ike' is not on the list!

-Maureen
Post Hurricane Ike on 9/13