IKE

Wow, what a week. It's hard to know where to start. So I'll try and start from the begining and try to answer all question. First and formost we are safe! What a blessing. This has truly been a testimony building experience. For those who read this blog that don't know of my faith. I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. We believe that Jesus is the Christ.
It started Wednesday, September 12th, 2008 when the news that Hurricaine Ike was more than likely to hit landfall in Galveston on Friday night. I am one whom my biggest fear is tornadoes, and wind is my second biggest fear. Not a night I was looking forward to. So my husband and I decieded to stay with my parents on Friday night while the storm came in. We are 80 miles from Galveston which we should have experienced some strong winds and rain.
Any ways that night we stayed up and enjoyed playing games with the kids, watched Nim's Island (cute movie), ate popcorn surprise. Had a great night. The winds started coming about 10 p.m., we lost power at about 11:30 p.m., my parent neighbors didn't loose power till about 4:30 a.m. Emma was up every two hours wanting to be held by her mommy, standing up no sitting! So I kept on edge just wanting it to be over. I knew that the worst was yet to come. They said that The Woodlands wouldn't get the eye of the storm until about 6:00 a.m. About 5:30 a.m. Jimmy and I were woken up by the sound of a tree breaking. And we were up the rest of the day.
As the sun came up we were able to start assessing some damages. Mom and Dad had three tree's fall on their property, none hitting the house! One took out the corner of their fence in the back yard. And a lot of branches and debris in the yard. From the front and back porch things didn't look too bad.
My dad started getting calls from people at his church and was needed. So him and Jimmy headed out at about 9:00 a.m., the storm was still raging when they left. Jimmy wanted to see how things were at our house. Things didn't look too good at our house. Jimmy and dad couldn't get down the front entrance to our house and they had to go through the back side. The pine tree (that got struck with lightning in May) next to our house was snapped at the top. Jimmy could see a piece of it impailed into our roof. And the rest of the top of the tree was on the other side of our neighbors house laying in pieces with half of their fence. A large chunk of our neighbors roof was missing. Jimmy went inside to our house and the tree came into the atic above our master bathroom. It did leak a bit into our ceiling, but the leak of water ran right into our bath tub. Just about as good as you could get! It also hit the center beam in our rafters and splintered it a bit. So Jimmy and dad in the rain and wind placed a tarp on our side of the house. Just after lunch Jimmy took a nap and dad needed to get back out and check on some people from his church. So I went for a ride with dad. I coudn't believe how much destruction there was. Apparantly Ike didn't slow down much once he got up this way. Besides south Houston to Galveston, Montgomery county (The Woodlands, Conroe) were some of the hardest hit areas (until it reached Louisiana). This storm was incredible for a cat 2.
When dad and I were out the winds were gone it was the heavy rain at that time. In less than 24 hours we had 14 inches of rain. There was some major flash flooding. Dad was trying to reach a family that was an elderly couple with their 93 year old mother living with them. On our way the streets were flooded and the fire department was trying to evacuate all of the residence. Luckly when we got to their house they were safe. Their house was the highest point of this area.
The day came to a close we were all back at my parents house. All of us were safe, everyone we knew that we could get in touch with were safe. Some damage to houses but all in all we were safe.
The past five days have been very interesting. There has been no electricity, and my parents had no water. We had running water at our house, but mom and dad had a generator. So we continued to stay at mom and dad's house for the past 5 days. It was wonderful to see to community come together. Many of neighbors helping eachother get their lawns cleaned up, getting trees out of houses, lending their house for electricity or water usage. It was wierd not being able to communicate with the outside world. We had a little communication through cell phones, but even that was hard to get through. So you felt trapped like there was so much out there going on, but all you could see was what was right around you.
I've learned once again how important family is. If it wasn't for my family I don't think I could have made it through this past week. Our church for as long as I can remember has always asked us as church members to have a 72 hour kit (clothing, food, first aid, water, flashlight . . .) together that you can just grab and go just in case you need to get out of town. We did take those with us, we didn't have to use them. Only because the church also has asked us to have a two year food storage, complete with as much water as you can store. This week was a strong testimony builder to see how food storage and water storage came into play. My dad is also smart enough to have filled up all his gas cans before the storm hit. We were able to make it with a generator and using his truck to get around with the gas that he stored. Gas just started becoming available yesterday to the immediate area. There were some things Jimmy and I could have done better to be prepared such as having a gas stove, more gas storage, more water storage, and even a generator. Other than that we would have done well on our own.
I know that Heavenly Father watched out for the saftey of my family. The house is a minor thing to deal with. My children couldn't have been any better at dealing with all the emotions that come with a disaster. I bear my testimony that Jesus and Heavenly Father are there for us at all times, and at times of need they are even closer at hand. I am truly grateful for my church and all of the things that it has taught me in preparation for things such as this.
My dad asked Landon what his favorite part of the huricaine and Landon replied "Grandpa there's nothing good about a huricaine." I would have to agree with the huricaine itself nothing good about that. But what it can do to help rebuild a community and alow neighbors to become better aquainted was amayzing. I hope no one has to go through a huricaine in their lives, but I hope everyone has the oprotunity to spend time with their communities.
Here are some pictures of the good and the bad.
Hope all is well with everyone. As for us we're back in our broken home this evening and loving being here! Love, Audrey
Night of the huricaine, Emma was surfing the table while playing a jumping frog game.


Landon was very into the game.








What a kiss! She LOVES her grandpa! He's one of her favorites.






Landon in his Star Wars PJ's ready for the long night ahead.

Landon wanted to go out into the rain with grandpa, so we got him a jacket.














This was the neighbors Oak tree that woke Jimmy and I up early that morning. This was a very large Oak that dad prayed very hard that it would not fall on his house.

Emma was checking out the storm herself.












This was a little over a mile from my parents house, the beginings of the flash floodings.

A telephone pole taht was down by the old couples house that dad and I went looking for.





The flooding in one of the neighborhoods that was being evacuated. The water was us to the mail boxes.






Water pouring off of a front lawn.












This is the street leading to my house that was impassible. There was 8 trees down on this street.

This is our pole. (It use to be a pine tree).













If you look closely you can see part of the tree that is impailed into my roof.













Our ceiling starting to cave in from the weight of the water.












This is the top of the tree down in the ditch.

Parts of our neighbors fence that was missing.











This is where the tree hit our center beam of our roof.













A better view of where the tree was in our roof.












Our neighbors side of the roof. You can see two places where the tree is sticking out and part of the roof that is missing.

Me with our log that came in our house! It was very heavy!












This is what our bathroom looked like when our ceiling finally did cave in.









Our hole in our ceiling.

Our top of our tree in a nice neat pile, with our neighbors carpet.