Post-Ike Houston

My son started off this semester as a freshman at A&M at Galveston; he is finishing the semester at College Station. Talk about culture shock! But they anticipate starting the spring semester back on Pelican Island. Most of the buildings survived Ike, except one dorm and the student union both lost part of the their roofs.

As for our home, we only had minor roof damage, some fence blown over, and a few tree limbs down. We consider ourselves very lucky.

We were downtown during the hurricane. Had locked up the houses nice and tight, and gone to stay at the Hotel of America - Hilton. That's where most of the Police, Firefighters and Emergency Personnel were. I saw the windows shattering and raining glass down on the streets below, heard the wind howling as it tore up the palm trees around the Toyota Center. It was scary.

The hotel was on a generator for almost a full day and the water had been turned off to keep contaminates from getting into the air conditioning units and water supply. The day after the hurricane, we were basically stuck downtown with no way to get home. The streets were flooded from when the bayous jumped their banks and the tree branches that had built up dams. We had five people basically living on top of each other in one hotel room, that only had two beds. Mom, brother, sister-in-law, nephew and myself.

Four days later, we were finally able to get to our homes. Power was out. Water was on. The carport and back shed,both totally destroyed. Fence was a bunch of toothpicks, but the backyard was relatively untouched except for my Mom's small trees destroyed. My dad and stepmom weren't so lucky. Their house and rental had this big sweetgum tree come down on the roofs in addition to everything else. They also just got power back on last Monday. My brother and sister-in-law and son just lost power, even though the main street to get to their home was still flooded.

It took us two weeks, but we've gotten everything rebuilt except the shed, and we've got lights.

Intelligence isn't about how smart you are, or what you know. It's about knowing when to use what you know.
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Many Paths Entwined (2007 - Winner)
(2008)

Well everyone I live true East Houston in the city of Baytown, about 10 minutes from Chambers County. We stayed here, living outside of the flood zone we decided to risk it.

I have an aunt that lives on Trinity Bay and by noon Friday the water was already half way up the hill to the neighborhood they live in. They did ride out the storm in the house and did ok, but before the storm we went and retrieved all of the important documents and paperwork and brought them to our house for safer keeping.

That was the fun before the storm it was during the storm that was the real fun. The change in the wind sounds signaling a tornado was scary, the branches blowing across the roof even worse. Then around 4 we have the eye of the storm. Now this is my first hurricane to be here for (well I am only 22) so we go and explore the damage already done.

Walk around outside, the tv attena is down, tree branch dangling from power lines some trees already completly uprooted. We also had barns missing panels of their roofs and the fence on the chicken yard is down (No chickens were hurt during the storm). Now the winds are starting to go again and we head toward the house again, No wait My car with no battery is in the garage with its windows down and it has to be the barn with missing panel. Head back to the barn to put tarp over car (save some water damage). Now back to the house for round two.

Next time any hurricane heads towards Galveston again I am going to be the first one out of town.

It was after the storm that things got really intersting. Never put 5 people in a house without power when they dont get along. We end up fighting and screaming and calling each other names. It is dangerous to everyones health. We yelled and screamed we were hot, we were tired of clean up and really did not want to spend another night in the livingroom as bedrooms were too hot. But we did survive (my car did not, my cousins husband fell on it trying to fix the barn, we live we learn right. I also get a new car now all is good)

Hope everyone else had a intresting time like i did if not lucky you!

Well, I think we caught a break on our end of the line. To the east of us is a small forest which served as a wind break.. it's part of Alief Park.

To the south there was more trees and houses so we got protected on that end. Our house is not exactly a house, but a single story apartment, the second one in from the street. It's sturdy and the only thing I had to do was make sure to tie the gates together, then anchor them to the trailer and the back of the van.

When the Hurricane came through, our power held out for a little while, then it went POOF. The next morning, we were in good shape. Some of the boards needed nailing down, and we had to clear some small branches and minor debris out from the patio, but we were find.

It took a week and a couple days before we got power back. Thank the diety of your choice that the weather was cool and there was a slight breeze. Unfortunately, we realized that all the batteries in the house were corroded *they were very old* and we couldn't find any batteries anywhere... So we read by candle light and whatever power was in the flashlights.

The good part about all th is was that we had running water, we had non perishable items like rice and Ramen Noodles and Soup, ect. AND... hehehehe The Food Stamp office reimbursed me a hefty sum for all the food we lost in the fridge.

But, other than that, we did pretty good. Everyone else in these town house style buildings did good too. Just a few fences torn up, but that's about it.

Me? I was going through Withdrawls not being able to turn on my laptop and tell people I was fine.

My dogs? Well, my dogs are just plain senile. they're 8-9 years old, and they hate storms. They were grafted to my legs throughout the entire thing. :D Poor things.

But, other than that we were fine.

Out in the cold
Hear me calling
Cold
Out in the cold
Please rescue me

Judas Priest 'Out in the Cold' lyrics

I'm not in The Woodlands, and I'm not in Conroe either, but they are both close enough that that's where I do my business.

We were pretty lucky. Our fence is down, and a tree tore off the eaves on one side of the house. There were shingles everywhere after the storm, but we never figured out whose house they came from. We had no power for about a week and lost everything in our chest freezer and refrigerator. That was really about it.

What interested me about the whole situation is how you get to see the most real side of people there is. Help came from the most surprising sources, and, even more surprising were people who didn't help. I was touched every time we had to go to the POD to get ice so we could keep things like milk and orange juice cold. I am not the type of person to accept help easily, and it was a humbling experience.

I'd say I learned a lot from this hurricane.

So my question is, how did Ike affect your 2008 project - or will it?

In my case, i had a story pretty well outlined with a climax in what we know today as the 1900 storm in Galveston. After Ike, I just lost all heart over writing up the destruction of Galveston and the deaths. So am starting over from scratch and just filed my old idea away for now.

What about you?

Well, my story is rather vaguely outlined for now, but I may pull some natural events into the storyline. My basic premise is to follow the latest attempt by a god-figure in creating and sustaining a world. It obviously isn't going well with the past attempts, and the story takes place in the latest one. Natural disasters could come into play, but I haven't decided how.

2008 - In Whose Hands (Winner!)
2007 - His Shrouded Soul (Winner!)
2006 - The Last of the Romanata (Winner!)