Living in the Gulf Coast, this time of year is always scary due to the fact that hurricanes love the month of August and September. We've had several this year unfortunately and we just got hit with a pretty big one, Ike. Several weeks ago we just had Gustav hit Louisiana, so I guess this time it was our turn.
The reality of it really started to set in on Tuesday before the hurricane. My family was discussing what we would do, should we still be in the path of Ike as it made land fall. We decided that we would evacuate to my cousin Eric's house in Palestine, Tx (north east and about 3-3 1/2 hours away). I believe (this is all blurry to me now kinda) on Wednesday people were starting to evacuate from Galveston heading up north. My dad and I boarded up our house and started getting things out of the yard that could be projectiles and cause damage.
Thursday came and Ike had moved more towards our direction (it was looking to hit more along Matagorda bay, but now it had turned pretty much dead on to Galveston). They had mandatory evacuations for certain zip codes and we were one of them. I left work early on Thursday and went home to start packing. We were ready to go and then got a call from FI's family that they were staying. We felt like we needed to stay so that we could help them get ready for the storm. I called my parents (they had already left) and they were ok with it. My mom of course was worried, but dad knew I was in good hands, and plus I would be there to be able to access any damages afterwards. So Thursday afternoon we go to Home Depot which had just gotten a huge shipment of plywood in and luckily we were able to get plywood for FI's family's home. The line there was ridiculous and it was just the beginning of the mayhem.
We got all the windows boarded up and kept our eye on Ike. We watched the news like it was going out of style, hoping to hear updates that Ike had turned, but nothing. Early Friday morning I had gone home to get more things from my house to take to FIs. For some reason, I felt like if it was with me, then it was safe (silly I know, but that's how I am). I had sent my beloved wedding dress with my parents which was a big relief to me. I don't know if I was crazy when I was packing up more stuff to take to FI's but of all the things I could think of to take, I took my over 100 DVD collection. Soo silly, but oh well. =)
Later Friday, FI and I drove around looking around to see what all was open and closed. Just about everything in Baytown was boarded up. Of course Hartz Chicken, Popeyes and KFC were open, I guess tehy wanted to get rid of the chicken so it wouldn't get bad =) we weren't about to wait in that line though. We found a Texaco down the street from FI and went in and bought some snack'ums =). Throughout the day we continued to watch as the waters were rising in Galveston and already covering the streets. Yeah the waves already going over the 18 foot sea wall and the storm hadn't even come yet?? That was pretty crazy. I know our bayou had already started getting high from the storm surge early Friday, and that was pretty scary since it runs behind our house!!
Friday night was kinda just a wait and see type thing. I fell asleep I think (just a nap) until the power went out and then it was on. Winds were howling, rain was pouring. We were camped out in FI's parents garage (his dad had parked his truck long ways against it, so we were kinda protected) but we could see the winds just blowing, Tranformers blowing up, and the eerie noise of what resembled a whistle blowing in the distance. We got battered pretty good the first go around. Ike managed to knock over a tree in FI's yard and part of their back fence. The eye passed over us and it was creepy calm. FI and I had parked our cars in the neighbors across the street drive way and we went and looked at them and they, luckily, were just fine!! I was worried soo much about our cars. We were kinda walking down the street to look at some other houses to see if we could see any damage but couldn't really. A electrical tower that was across the street and in the field was sparking all up and down and that was VERY scary.
We decided we should probably get back inside before the second wave of stuff came around. Around 5 in the morning I somehow managed to fall asleep on the couch, but woke up at 7 to the sounds of the wind banging the windows and howling. I can still remember the sounds of it and I will never forget it. It was the creepiest scariest noise, and mother nature sounded soo pissed. It was very unnerving to see the wind doing what it was doing since there was more light outside. FI's family lost all of their fence now and had lots of branches down in there yard.
Brandon's front yard tree that fellFinally fell back asleep and woke up at 1030. The storm had now been over for about 20 minutes. First thing I wanted to do was go to my house. I left fi's, it was still raining but the winds had died down. As I started driving down the road, I could see the damage that had been done. Trees everywhere, debris scattered about, it was a mess. As I crossed over the bridge that the bayou ran under my heart sank. Seeing how high it had risen was just alarming.
This is the bayou that runs between my neighborhood and the neighborhood next to us. This is the first time
in 22 years that I've seen it this high.
As I drove through the first neighborhood before you get to mine, I started balling. I saw pine trees on top of houses, huge branches everywhere ( I was too busy looking that I forgot to snap some pics), and I immediately thought that our house didn't make it. My yard has 7 pine trees alone in it plus some oak trees (one of which is a leaning tree, that the kidss love to climb up).
I could barely drive because I was crying soo much. The devastation that I saw that Ike left was unbearable. I finally reached my street. I couldn't drive down it becuase a tree had fallen across the road, blocking it. 
These are pictures looking out at my street from my house, the top one is of the tree that fell across the road.
Our sidewalks were flooded as was my driveway. Luckily to my surprise we had no trees down. Just some huge branches! Our back and side fence were down also, but we kinda figured that would happen.
Our sidewalks were flooded as was my driveway. Luckily to my surprise we had no trees down. Just some huge branches! Our back and side fence were down also, but we kinda figured that would happen.
The creek that runs behind our house (which you can see in the above picture) was as high as I had seen it. After I inspected our house, I went inside and luckily our land line was still working (which was amazing cause we had a huge branch fall on our phone line). So I called my dad, bawling still and he calmed me down. He had me go throughout our house, looking for any leaks that we might've gotten. We didn't have any, and that was really good, then I went to the attic to check it out, cause our chimney leaks, there was a little bit of water that was dripping (my dad had tried to repair prior to Ike) but it wasn't anything horrible. I drove around my neighborhood and took some pics and here is what I took:
This house is on the corner right down the street from my house. The tree that was by their front porch fell over and the sidewalk that was
around came up with it.
Sorry this one is blurry 
I left my neighborhood and went back to FI's house to wake him up. I wanted to drive around town and take pictures. So we left his house and went driving around his neighborhood to see all the damage. (I've decided I"m going to post all of the rest of my pics in a seperate post becuase Blogger is dumb in how you put the pics in your post and it's getting on my nerves!) So we drove around town, it just looked horrible. We were in total shock the whole time. Baytown just didn't look the same. What saddened me the most was a church that we have in town. It sits right on the edge of a HUGE bayou that feeds in from the bay. The church got 6 inches of water in it. When we pulled up to it, the entire parking lot was still flooded. The church has a cemetary behind it and all of the head stones were covered with water (like headstones from the 1700's and 1800's) it was soo sad. My best friend had gotten married there and my uncle is the sound guy there. It was a beautiful church with stained glass and pipes in the sanctuary. My uncle told me that they had to tear up all the flooring, the pews, the sheetrock in it. THey aren't sure if insurance will cover it for them to fix the problems or to just rebuild in another location.
Well for the first time ever, I got to experience what it was like to live off of a generator and no a/c. It was quite an experience. Every two hours we would be refilling the generator with gas cause it would turn off (and yes this included in the middle of the night and that was not fun). Standing in line at the FEMA P.O.D.s (Points of distribution) was interesting, and waiting for hours in line for gas like you would never be able to get gas again, was quite entertaining, after all, I did see a fight break out! And also being told that there was no more gas when you were the next one in line after waiting for two hours, yeah that kinda sux.
After going through all of this, I realize that I am lucky. I am lucky to have my house, to have my loved ones and everyone around me safe. Not everyone in this storm was that lucky. Many lost everything, including family members, and I cannot bear to think what that felt like. Who cares that we don't have power or cable, atleast we still have our home we can go to, soo many do not. My heart just goes out to those who are sifting through remnants of belongings and knowing it will never be the same. I pray that they find a light at the end of the tunnel and know that God has a plan for everyone and he will help see you through it, you just have to trust him.
Ok, I think I have written enough. I just wanted to get most of my experience out into the open, it felt all bottled up inside. There is still soo much I could write about, but for now, this should be plenty. Thanks for letting me get it out!! =)
