Aftermath of Hurricane Ike

Wow, it has been a really long 5 days since the storm first threatened the Houston area. I'm not really sure what to say about it. You can read about the details of the storm on Shelly's blog. She was very good about posting every day and throughout the storm itself. It has been one wild ride.

For those of you who have asked, we have not sustained any significant damage - a leaning fence, dirty pool, couple of leaning small trees. Unfortunately, a good many of our neighbors were not so fortunate. There are many many houses out here with trees on them, some just "resting" and some through the roof, many trees on the roads and on the ground. We were the exception in our section of the neighborhood by not having damage. Our electricity was out until Monday night and the rest of the neighborhood (including David & Leah, Aunt Pam & Uncle Jack, and Aunt Kay) have all had power restored tonight. Fort Bend Co. is slowly returning to "normal". No long lines for gas and the grocery stores are pretty well stocked. School is scheduled to re-open on Monday provided the rest of the schools can regain power this weekend.

I have truly been amazed at Texans and Houstonians during this storm. We are proud, resiliant, and friendly people who never shy away from helping others. If you can remember how Houston rose to the occasion to help out Katrina sufferers, you can only imagine how we have responded to helping our own. Everywhere you turn, there is evidence and stories of neighbors helping neighbors, stangers bringing food, water and ice into neighborhoods and people without power going out of their way to bring refreshments to power workers. No one is fighting while waiting 2 hours for gas, or over the last bag of ice. If you drive through some of these neighborhoods without power, you would think you stumbled on a block party. Everyone sitting out with lawn chairs, grilling all their meat before it spoils, kids playing in the street and people really getting to know each other. This storm brought destruction to our city, but also a blessing in bringing our city closer together.

While Houston and our surrounding areas are on the road to recovery from Ike, the same cannot be said yet for Galveston and other coastal cities. Galveston received a direct hit from Hurricane Ike, which carried with it a much greater storm surge then was expected. I have no doubt they will rebuild - they've been through worse, after the 1900 storm - but they will need all our prayers and support as the cleanup and rebuilding effort begins.