hurrican ike ---- we are hunkered down

[Diane Amberg]

I'll be thinking of you all...It's going to be a long night. Stay safe.

[flo]

giester and Ms. Bear, most likely neither of you have power right now, but am praying that you are both safe and okay. 

[Catwoman]

I have a good friend who is making do in Houston without power.  She was smart enough to fill up the tubs in the house with water, so that the toilets could still be used and a spit-bath could be taken.  My thoughts and prayers will be with all of you who are trying to get through this time.

[Diane Amberg]

I've been watching more of the live streaming. Houston downtown has lost a lot of glass in the tall buildings, the Reliant Stadium roof had some damage and Galveston really got swackered. The old Balinese Room that was out on the pier is on the beach and just toothpicks and the causeway is full of debris, including buildings. At least 20 homes collapsed and several burned. Many were severely damaged. No power, no safe water, but the people generally seem to be in good shape. No death toll as of yet, too soon.

[Ms Bear]

We have so many wonderful people that work for power companies from all over the United States and Canada here and amazingly they had my power back on Thursday Sept 18th at about 9:30 pm.  The store at work at didn't get power until Friday so we haven't been able to stock meat and perishables, risky when the only power is from generators and gas is hard to find.  Now that we have power on they will start receiving the meat tomorrow and we will all be helping get it stocked.

This storm was so much wider than most and caused a lot of damage to a lot larger area than usual.  Still a lot of people without power and could be as late as Oct 5th.  I didn't have cell phone signal for several days and lost land line phone service Saturday night, called the phone company last night to report it and it was on my end.  I got it working this morning and now I have phone and DSL.

I ran from Rita but opted to stay for this one and I was okay by myself but wasn't emotionally prepared for how lonely it would be until I was able to get back to work or in the evenings with no tv or radio.  I will have a battery radio for the next one.  Went up town today and Sonic was open, a good sign.  Still have a lot of trees down and roofs missing around town.

We have been very blessed with temps in the 70's in the daytime and 50's at night.  So far have seen very many mosquitos which are almost always a problem here.

Thanks to all of you for your prayers.
Ms Bear

[patyrn]

Where are you located, Ms. Bear?

[Mom70x7]

Glenn Illg, of Howard, is in Louisiana right now, helping out. Don't know for sure where exactly. He's been there a couple of weeks already.

[Diane Amberg]

Ms Bear, it's nice to know you are alright and taking tiny forward steps toward normal. I've been keeping up still with the Houston TV stations and I'm very impressed with how much you all are helping each other. They said the mosquito planes have been up and will keep spraying, so hopefully not too many folks will be carried off by bugs. Didn't you say you are northeast of Houston? We had some electrical trucks from here go down too, so there must be lots of people from all over trying to get the power back up. I'm glad you cooled off some, I just can't imagine how awful it would be in that usual heat and no power.

[Ms Bear]

I am at Cleveland, about 50 miles Northeast of Houston on Highway 59.  Conroe is about 20 miles west of us on I-45 and I have heard they had a lot more damage than we did.  We haven't heard about any tornados but from the way the trees look we think there were some.

Not enough good can be said for all the people who have come to this area to get power restored and trees cut.  They have several places where they have them staged, portapots and tents, ways to feed them but we have talked to some that are sleeping in their trucks.

Ms Bear

[greatguns]

My nephew went down there to work.  He's with a tree crew.  They left on the 12th.  They have been sleeping in their trucks.  He thought he might be gone at least a month.  Glad it is him and not me.  Oh heck, he's young he can take it.