"Hurrican Ike" Remembered .

Last year on this day I was under voluntary evacuation orders to leave Seabrook ,TX as Hurricane Ike was raising his ugly head out in the warm waters of The Gulf of Mexico.

My wife and daughter had already begun packing , Her company had emergency support satellite office in Austin TX .

They stayed that night and left for Austin that Thursday afternoon of the 11th .

I stayed behind that day and night to raise all our belonging up off the floor onto any thing we could use. I put up the hurricane protection on our windows . shut down the water , tied all the outdoor furniture down to the deck and got a cocktail and hung out for the evening.

The day of the hurricane Friday the 12th ,That morning I started by checking everything I could think of and packed the F150 and headed into the Houston area to stay with my mother at her home inside the city limits.

The following events played out during the next 12 hours Friday night , we lost power around 10:40 pm that evening . we got some sleep but not much and woke to the rain falling and lots of tree damage on her small block of 12 homes .

The old neighborhood looked a shamble. I got to work cutting and pulling tree tops off cars , homes , middle of the street , out of swimming pools , I think ya get the picture. The neighborhood had all chipped in and got it done before 11:00 am Saturday morning the 13th.The storm was still moving off the coast into the Houston area.

I confirmed a room for my mother in Austin and hit the road @ noon ,
It was already getting crazy around town by now , From living on the coast for so many years I knew what to expect in the aftermath ,no power , no gas ,water mandatory boil , etc , etc, not a good place for anyone to be , I was fortunate to have the ability to leave and meet up in Austin with my mother and know that the family would be safe,

We did not return for 23 days after the storm . We left Austin after 8 days in a 5 star Hilton paid by my wife's employer ,We where very happy to live in the cabin in Ft Davis for the next 2 weeks while displaced during the storm ,The power company's did a great job resorting power , although ours was off for 21 days and some didn't lose it for more than 6 hours !!!

Here are some links from our local CBS station with slide shows and raw video taken the 13th Saturday.

http://www.khou.com/perl/common/slideshow/sspop.pl?recid=12198&nextimage=0

http://www.khou.com/perl/common/slideshow/sspop.pl?recid=12175&nextimage=0


http://www.khou.com/perl/common/slideshow/sspop.pl?recid=12113&nextimage=10

http://www.khou.com/perl/common/slideshow/sspop.pl?recid=12139&nextimage=0


http://www.khou.com/video/index.html?nvid=282911&shu=1


http://www.khou.com/video/index.html?nvid=282606&shu=1



The raw video's are the area view's of where we still live in Seabrook on Galveston Bay.

I had already been through a few other storms that hit the Houston Galveston area . This storm was by far the most destructive I had ever seen ,

and that's the way it was , one year ago !

cheers !

.bb