Hurricane Ike and ASF members

[TRK]

At least a couple of Alamo Studies members live in or fairly near the area that's taking the brunt of Hurricane Ike (phil/tmdreb comes to mind). Other members in Texas and the Gulf Coast may feel the pain from the storm as it passes through their areas. Here's hoping you are out of harm's way, and come through this ok. Keep us posted.

[Jim Boylston]

Hope all you guys weathered the storm. Let us know!
Jim

[Herb]

The latest report is that 4 million people in the Houston area/SE Texas are without power, and that it'll take at least 2 weeks before it's fully restored.

It seems after Gustav, when so many people evacuated, and it didn't turn out to be as bad a storm as predicted, alot of people chose to ride this one out.

Fortunatly this thing is moving fairly fast, but after Gustav a week ago and the rains this week, the ground is already saturated, and flooding will be a major problem. Power outages are expected to only get worse.

While it's going to be bad here in East Texas, it looks like Ike is going to "share the wealth" and everybody from Missouri to the Upper Ohio Valley will feel this one.

[Paul Sylvain]

We're not getting much in Grapevine (way north of Houston, and a good was west of where the storm is currently tracking) except a little wind and some rain. Man, I saw the pix from Galveston-Houston this morning, and they were pretty amazing ... and humbling. I hope our Gulf coastal brothers and sisters are safe and well. This booger was a monster. My prayers are with you all.

Paul

[sloanrodgers]

It was pretty bad, but many thought it would be worse. We may have dodged a hurricane bullet. Austin didn't get anything
from the passing storm. It was simply hot and humid. I mowed my neglected yard and drank a lot of lemonade.

[doc]

Gents:

Victoria managed to dodge the bullet. Not a drop of rain, not a gust of wind, not a twig out of place.

For a while it looked as if Ike was headed for my front door, but then he jogged northwest and visited our friends in Galveston and Houston.

Tonight, our thoughts and prayers are with our fellow Texians.

Doc

[sloanrodgers]

Sept 13, 2008 22:41:09 GMT -5 doc said:

Gents:

Victoria managed to dodge the bullet. Not a drop of rain, not a gust of wind, not a twig out of place.

For a while it looked as if Ike was headed for my front door, but then he jogged northwest and visited our friends in Galveston and Houston.

Tonight, our thoughts and prayers are with our fellow Texians.

Doc

That's the problem with hurricanes, you never know which way they're going to jog at
the last moment. I really hope the death toll isn't too high and that quick rescues can
be effected for the survivors that stayed behind. At least the storm has vamoosed.


P.S. Hey Doc. Did you see my pm concering
Hurricane D that I sent recently?

[Allen Wiener]

I'm glad you guys dodged this one, but the views of Houston look awful. I hope everything gets put back together and that casualties are minimal. From what I'm reading, it could have been worse, but it was bad enough as it was. Hope everything gets repaired, but it looks like a lot of damage, flooding and huge costs, not to mention physical injuries.

My best to everyone down there.

AW

[doc]

Many thanks for your concern.

When Katrina hit New Orleans and the Gulf coast, the citizens of Houston opened their hearts and homes with a generosity unmatched by any other community in the nation. Now, in their time of need, I hope the rest of us will remember that.

Forgive my ignorance, Ranger Rod, but what is a pm? How might I find one? If you need to contact me, don't hesitate to zap me an E-mail: [e-mail]

Doc

[Jim Boylston]

Steve:
A PM is a private message delivered to your mailbox here on the board. When you log on, look up by the "Alamo Studies" banner on the main page. There's a message that says "Hey, doc, you have __ messages, __ are new." If you click on that message, you'll access your forum mailbox where you can view all the "in house" emails that came your way.
A lot of us use that function.

Glad to hear you fared well in the storm.

Jim

[Herb]

I was pretty lucky, I haven't checked everything yet, but so far no major damage. Not everybody here was so fortunate. Within this county 12 homes (houses not trailers) were destroyed and last night over 100 roads were blocked with down trees or power lines.

This morning estimates for this county and the adjacent ones are 100,000 homes without power (and of course millions south of here). We had a minimum of 30 mph steady winds from 7 AM until last night. At one point the wind was so strong that it was pushing water uphill! We spent about 8 hours either in the eye of the storm or within 60 miles of it. Fortunately, it was "only" a Cat 1 hurricane or tropical storm for most of that time.

I know these storms are "freaky", but with the devastation all around here, and to come out of it virtually untouched, all I can say is I'm thankful.

[doc]

Jim:

Well, how about that?

Thanks for the lesson. It works just like you said. Maybe you CAN teach an old dog new tricks.

Doc

[sloanrodgers]

Doc, we're jus' a helpful friendly bunch, but don't hold it against us. I'm glad you enjoyed
that little pm item and hope you give the perfessor our best.

[tmdreb]

Thanks for the concern!

Well, we finally have power and water back at our house. Other than a few limbs down from our magnolia tree, we suffered no damage. Our neighbors across the street have no fences in their backyard, and there are trees and fences down all around. Some trees landed on houses.

Grocery stores and restaurants in the area seem to be opening up again, which is a good thing. I haven't seen an open gas station nearby. FEMA is apparently all around passing stuff out, but we don't need anything and haven't gone looking for them.

We were fortunate that my in-laws 5 minutes away were without power for only a couple hours, so we stayed with them. Ironically, we've actually been having a good time. Our power came back on after two and a half days. The water pressure all over the city was low or off for about that same amount of time as well.

I've only been watching bits and pieces of the news, but what I have seen of the coastal areas is near total devastation. Galveston Island is predicted to be without power for a month. A news crew flying over Bolivar Peninsula estimated that 80% of the structures they saw were destroyed and 95% of the remainder were damaged.

[Jim Boylston]

Glad to hear you made it through, Phil. Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone out there.
Jim