I finally spoke with my brother last night who lives in Houston. He lives in the general vicinity of the Gulf Freeway and the South Belt Tollway. This was near the approximate path of the eye wall of Hurricane Ike. I would say probably within 7-8 miles west of where the eye wall passed.
His family decided to stay at the house which was boarded up and sealed up as best as he could get it. The reporters at KHOU who covered the storm in the Galveston - Houston area referred to this as "hunkering down". I suppose my brother and his family were "hunkering down".
Lance said they lost power around 11:00 PM on the night (Friday, September 12, 2008) the hurricane began to approach the area. The electricity was turned on Friday night the 19th. One week. He was so excited that the cable was on he checked e-mail and watched a movie until 2:00 AM. Pam was tired and went to sleep.
Lance was looking forward to getting up early on Saturday morning in order to tend to untended business on the computer. (Read that as checking on and paying bills again.) He went to the computer; no Internet. He went to the TV; no cable. AAARGHHH! Now it was off to Kari's house with the laptop to take advantage of the Internet.
I suppose the worst thing that happened was my brothers fence blew down courtesy of the near constant hurricane force winds for several hours straight on Friday night and early Saturday morning. There were also a few lost shingles but not much else. No flooding fortunately.
My brother is now retired living a life of leisure. Pam still teaches math in Clear Creek ISD. She learned that her buildings roof was torn off and many classrooms flooded; probably her own. Clear Creek will not be ready for teachers until Friday, September 26 and students returning the next Monday. Under this situation I don't think a 12+ day vacation at the the beginning of the year is very enjoyable.
Lance said his family made the decision to stay because the storm was only a Category 2 and they did not think it would be as bad as Alicia many years ago. They stayed in Houston for Alicia and the eye wall passed over their house. He told me that he remembered walking out and looking at the calm blue sky. Didn't happen this time around.
Having said all of this all things in their world are slowly returning to normal.
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