Go away Ike, Tina isn't here!!

[jestmaty]

Heard that somewhere regarding Hurricane Ike.. Ya know Ike and Tina Turner?

Anyway, I'm reliving my concerns from 3 years ago when Katrina hammered New Orleans, my home town. About 3 weeks after Katrina, Rita got me really, really, worried.

We prepared as much as we could, feared the worst, only to have it turn at the last minute and pummel Beaumont and parts of Louisisana. Rita was probably 100+ miles away from us Houstonians who live on the west side of Houston.

Now, for those of you who don't live in coastal, hurricane prone areas, let me give you some insight as to what happens. You watch the news, just like you do everyday, but now they've put up a bright red line running from the Gulf waters through the map of the local area.

It is the same map you see everyday, but now you notice that the red line ( hurricane eye track projection ) runs right over your neighborhood. You think, " That kind of sucks for me seeing how I live about 75 miles from the coast." Projection at this time calls for 100mph winds in my area.

Not too worried about flooding, but am concerned about wind damage to all parts of the house.

The best estimated time frame is for the weather to go bad as early as Fri mid morning and getting worse as the eye is supposed to get here in the wee-hours of Saturday am.

You would think I'd have a plan. Well, I do sort of. Both cars are gassed up fully. I filled up my boat, which holds 21 gallons, as well as my lawnmower gas tanks. My neighbor and I have an agreement that we'll share his generator power if necessary. It is one of those 3000watt, Chinese made models.

So.. between the 2 of us, we have about 90 gallons of gas for getting around and running the generator if necessary.

BTW, it is 6am right now, and the news media is reporting that gas is already becoming scarce on Thursday am. Remember, landfall is projected to be late, Fri pm or early, early Saturday am.

I want to go help my father-in-law get his house prepared, but he lives right on the coast, and the 'red' line goes over his house!!!! Now I know the brunt of the hurricane is 36-48 hours away, but he is exactly 100 miles away. Anyone who saw the freeway mess back in 2005 with the Rita evac, knows that I'd probably get stuck there as the roads jam up to a standstill.

He spent the last year building his own log home, piece by piece. In fact, he just moved in July 4th weekend. Good thing is... although he chose to live so close to the water, he used resources and city engineer input to build a home that is supposed to withstand CAT 5 hurricanes. We'll see......

Plenty of water, batteries, food, extension cords, flashlights, gas, candles, weather radio, etc....

So, all you can do is take everything surrounding your home down and put it in your garage or inside the house! Watch the news until you lose power and/or satellite tv. Listen for unusual winds, which could be an impending tornado. Keep yourself and your wife/children calm.

Oh well... it's my son's 12th birthday ( Sept 11 ), and there is drama again. He was too young to remember the Sept 11 horror of 2001. Schools are not canceled yet.

My wife contracts for BP, British Petroleum about 10 miles from our home. They use a building complex of 4 buildings, with a couple of em about 20 stories tall. They gave the order yesterday ( Wednesday ) that the 'campus' would be closed until Monday. Believe it or not, they are very, very safety conscious now. She can't go to work today or tomorrow. That will cost us a LOT of money.

Just keep us Piloteers down in Ike's path in your thoughts. We'll be back online with reports as weather allows....

[Roger]

Take care and best of luck to ya. I live in Virginia Beach, VA and just finished cleaning up the yard after TS Hanna (it was a non-event here but there was still lots of small tree debris).

[spikeitaudi]

Jestymaty, Our thought and prayer are with you and the others in the path of the hurricane Ike. Stay strong and lets all hope for the best.

Also, to all the people that have been affected by 9/11, my prayers and thoughts go out to you and your familes.

[Big_D]

All the best to you and your family. Hopefully it will be a fast mover.

Id rather deal with Earthquakes...

[Sunday Rider]

Good Luck Jestmaty

I hope the reports are wrong and the thing drops to a tropical depression. At least everyone seems more prepared this time.

Hang in there and best wishes.

[jestmaty]

OK.... it is already breezy here in Katy, and the storm is still about 250 miles away from Galveston. From my house, via freeways, Galveston is 75 miles away.

As the crow flies, remembering that hurricanes don't take the freeways, we are about 75 miles from the coast.

Couple of pics to show what my main priority is pertaining to hurricane preparation...

[jestmaty]

2nd pic....

The car cover over the Nissan 240SX will be reomoved shortly.

I must admit that I'm a packrat and the garage was REALLY, REALLY messy. It took about and hour and a half and 6 Bud Lights to get it clean enough to get the Pilot in the garage.

THe Pilot had just been washed, waxed, tire/black moulding dressed on Monday. I just couldn't stand having it get pummeled by wind, hail, debris during this storm.

I've lived in the house since July 2006 and the Pilot has never been in the garage before. It used to kill me during firework season, as my 2 boys MUST pop obscene amounts of air-born fireworks. They always seemed to fall back down on my Pilot and in the pool in the backyard.

[jestmaty]

This is kind of what the garage looked like just a couple of weeks ago.

Too many toys and too much crap!

[Preludetundra]

How far are you from The Woodlands? One of our sons and his family live there? My thoughts and prayers will be with everyone in Ike's path.

[jestmaty]

Originally posted by Preludetundra
How far are you from The Woodlands? One of our sons and his family live there? My thoughts and prayers will be with everyone in Ike's path.

Thanks...

We're probably about 30 miles southwest of The Woodlands. Mapquest says 44 miles, but again, that is by freeway. Looking at the map, I guestimate about 30ish.

As of 11:35 AM, Friday, lots of the coastal regions are flooded and eroded away. Parts of Galveston, Surfside, Freeport, Sargeant, Angleton, are underwater. The storm is still about 200 miles off the coast of Galveston.

We're getting some pretty good gusts already.

I think some of Galveston has already lost power. Local news is showing huge chunks of asphalt being ripped up from the roads due to storm surge. They are maybe hyping it up a bit, but some are saying it is could be the stongest storm since Alicia in 1983.

Even long time residents that were going to stick it out are looking at the water coming in so early... and they're fleeing now. They have some kind of 'early warning radar' built in their heads that is warning them that this one could be bad, a killer.

[Sportymonk]

Jesty, I hope you got out. Sitting here watching the news it looks bad.

Does Texas turn both sides of the Interstates to one way outbound? Some states do I think. I have always thought it was stupid to see one side bumper to bumper stopped and the other side empty.

For those who haven't been through a hurricane it is far more than you imagine. I turned down a position in Jacksonville NC on the coast as I didn't want to get hit by a hurricane. When I accepted a position in Greenville NC (much further in land) somebody took us to Raleigh and as we neared Raleigh I asked why all the tree in one area were down pointing the same way? Did a tree company cut then and forget to get them? No, hurricae Bertha did that!! You mean a hurricane can come this far inland? yep! We latter got hit by hurricane Floyd. My first hurricane. WOW. Minimal damage but what an experience. I feel for those that get hit by the main force.

Good luck. Know you won't be able to respond for a while. Hope everybody comes through ok.

[jestmaty]

Well... got hit hard.



Sitting here at my neighbor's house on generator power.

It was bad, bad... He lost a few shingles, his back fence is leaing precariously, and one of his two beautiful bradford pear trees took a hit. Broke it in half right about 2 feet off the ground. Only hurt a gutter when it fell.

I lost a few shingles, luckily can't see any plywood, so it is very minor damage. Lost about a 12 ft section of my back fence and one of my solar screens bit it. Found it curled up in the corner all bent up.

All of Houston except for downtown and the Medical center is without power.

I/WE are very, very lucky to only have only minor damage. Electricity?
Don't have any idea of when it'll come back.

[jestmaty]

The news channels are showing severe damage all along the coast and downtown Houston

I see downed fences and trees all over my neighborhood, which again, is about 30 miles west of downtown Houston. We were on the clean side of the storm and it was awful. Can't even imagine what the dirty side was like....

[Sportymonk]

CNN just said the Houston power company said 90% of the customers have no power and they estimate 4 weeks for everybody to get back on line. They say in 80 years, they have never seen it this bad. Hope you get power back quick.

Here in Raleigh NC area, some gas stations are running out of gas due to refineries being closed.

Good luck.

[colorider]

Good Luck jestmaty!!!

(moved to Off-Topic)