Hurricane Ike Update

After losing power at 3:30am on Saturday when Ike made his way to our house, we finally got it back today!! It's been a rough week, but we were extremely fortunate. We had no trees down and our house stood like a castle, not budging an inch during the storm. The rain and wind pelted us for about 13 hours on Saturday. The hardest thing was trying to convince the two Ridgebacks to go out and use the bathroom, as they aren't exactly water dogs! Our creek in the back yard, which usually has all of two inches of water in it, was overflowing as you'll see in the following pictures. The horses fared just fine in the barn, although we did have one big branch come down on the roof it it. It only left a small dent in the side though. We did end up with a ton of debris in the yard.

Our backyard Saturday afternoon

The creek in our backyard, filled to the brim

We weren't allowed to leave our neighborhood initially, due to all the downed power lines and lack of power at lights, etc. When we were able to drive around, we were amazed by the strength, power, and damage brought by Ike to our little area. It almost looked like a tornado ripped through, with all the trees down and damage to folk's houses. We always joke that Mike has a guardian angel on steroids watching over him, and he certainly must've been protecting our house after seeing all the damage.

Saturday night, Mike got a bunch of meat out of the freezer and we had a BBQ, sharing with the neighbors so it didn't go to waste. Mike has about 18 flashlights, so between those and all the candles we have, we had plenty of light in the house. Although, it did smell quite odd, as all the candle scents of leather, gardenia, cinnamon bun, etc. mixed together each night!

Debris in our front yard
Our major problem over the past week was our septic system, which is run off an electric pump. We have an indicator in the yard and kept watching it rise toward full. So, once allowed, we would pop up to friend Candy's house in College Station every other day to shower, get some hot food, watch the news, and enjoy a little air conditioning.

God truly blessed us by delivering a cool front right after the storm, so the temperature has been quite pleasant and we've had all the windows open all week. Mike also had a little TV that we put batteries in, and we would turn it on for a few minutes each day to see what was going on. At night, we would watch a movie on one of our laptops, which we would charge up at Candy's. Another big issue was our cell phone and land lines not working at our house, so we'd have to make calls, etc. from Candy's as well. We were able to get text messages periodically at the house though. All phone service is back up now as well.

Mike burning the debris piles

One day while up in College Station, the news said to call and make any insurance claims as soon as possible, so I called our insurance company, USAA (the best ever!), and told them we were alright for the most part but lost all our frozen food. We went through the value of it and they transferred the funds, with no deductible, straight into our checking account (we also bank with them). So, that was really nice.

As far as friends and neighbors, our buddy Doc who lives down the road owns quite a bit of land and probably has 50 big trees down. Friend Matt's in-laws in The Woodlands had a giant pine tree crash through their house during the worst of Ike. They were there and took cover in a safe room until the storm passed. Other than that, most folks just had a lot of debris to clean up and the inconveniences of lost water, phone, and power.

Yard down the street from us with several trees down

My office was closed through Wednesday, but they did open it up for a few hours on Thursday and Friday for folks to come in if needed. I popped in yesterday to get online and catch up on some things, and Swift had sent out an email to employees asking if anyone could use a generator. I put us on the list, as we really could use one for the septic system if nothing else. Today, they called about an hour after our power came on and were going to deliver the generator to our house. I was extremely thankful but able to decline it. Mike has been on me all week about getting a generator though, so we made a compromise. We are planning to get a living quarters horse trailer in the next year, so I told him he could order a generator before then as long as it as one that would work with the living quarters as well, so it could be multi-use.

Gas Station between our house and College Station
Mike's three counties he is over Liberty/Hardin/Chambers bore the brunt of Ike. There is massive flooding, debris, trees downs, loss of power, and everything else imaginable over there. He's waiting for his next marching orders and dreading the upcoming months of added work due to disaster programs sure to be established due to this.