Ike did NOT take a hike...

This blog is being brought to you from a satellite location.....

I am quite thankful to tell you that we are fine and have minimal damage from Ike. We completely underestimated this intense storm, but have come through it just fine. In my pre-Ike post I told you that we were prepared for Ike, so much so that we even made cookies on Friday night to pass the time:

Kiera could not wait for frosting, so she just grabbed a cookie and started munching away, sprinkles in hand.

All the neighbors came out to enjoy the nice cool weather that graced Houston before Ike. The wind was quite nice after the intense heat and humidity we had been experiencing. Of course, no one was complimenting the wind anytime after this particular evening.

My very smart neighbors, Chris and Jerry, boarded up their house. Please notice that they painted their window covers to match their house. Very nice touch!

Kiera enjoyed herself on the skateboard at our prehurricane party.

The wind really picked up; look at her hair.

We even did some kite flying!
The clouds came rolling and were quite spectacular.

I saw a sign that said IKE stood for Intense Killer Evil. My thoughts exactly.

A nice touch to welcome IKE:

Now, all of the previous pictures were taken before the hurricane. Words cannot describe what we went through Friday night and early Saturday morning. I have searched every corner of my brain to explain what 18 hours of intense wind sounds like, and I have come up completely blank. The wind started about 5 pm on Friday and as you saw we were out enjoying it. About nine or ten, it really picked up and the power flickered. About 10:30, the power went out and that is when worry set in. We had previously decided we should all sleep downstairs just in case. We set the craft room up for a tornado shelter since it is in the middle of our house and has no windows. We set up a mattress in the living room, and brought Kiera down for the night...just in case. From 11 pm to 7 am, the wind absolutely howled. We were not worried about storm surge or flooding, we were worried about wind damage and tornadoes. I wished several times that we had boarded our windows because I just knew they were going to blow out. I wasn't sure how we were going to hear a tornado, when it sounded like a tornado for at least eight hours. But, I found comfort in having my husband near and a God who loves me. We all had little cat naps here and there because there was no way anyone could sleep through the chaos that was going on outside. At 5 am, we thought the worse was over and had a nice candlelit breakfast of Cheerios:

Turns out that the worse of the storm hit us around 6 am. The wind was truly incredible, somewhere around 90 mph is our best guess. Around 8 am, we opened the windows and for the first time all night, Kiera actually noticed we were having a bit of weather. She pointed to the wind and said, "That's rain!" We chuckled to ourselves and were quite thankful that she was oblivious all night. At 2 am, she said, "Light ON, TV ON!" As if it were that easy. She then just wheeled her baby around in the stroller in the candle light.

After the wind subsided, we opened the door for some fresh air. Orion looked outside as if to say, "What exactly went on out here last night?"

The only damage we suffered included about six feet of fence damage and we lost one tree. We also had some rain come through the backdoor, but the rain water was nothing we couldn't contain. One of our pine trees fell straight forward and broke its roots. We tried to save it, but were unsuccessful. Here is Kevin's attempt to upright it:

Now, it is Monday and we are still without power.

This is why:

What you are looking at is the entrance to my neighborhood. Please notice the power lines lying across the signs to the neighborhood signs. Six huge electric poles snapped in half at the entrance of our neighborhood. The poles fell and were stopped by a brick fence. Had they not been stopped, they would have crashed into houses and surely killed people. Amazingly, they fell in the backyards of one story houses. If they would have been two story houses, the damage would have been fatal, I believe.

There is sign damage everywhere. We sort of find it funny that Burger King's signs ended up in McDonald's parking lot. Here are some signs very close to our house:

Here is a view of the six poles down. We believe that these particular poles snapped because they are directly across from an empty field. I am sure the wind ripped right through there and caused the poles to snap.




Most likely, we will be out of power for some time. They have dropped new poles off, but that is it. Luckily many of my friends have power, so we are fine. We are staying with some friends for the time being. I know it could have been a lot worse, but it was pretty bad. I sure am glad it is over!