Ike was a beast!

[Toby]

We lost power about 11 PM last night. No idea when power will be restored, could be days or weeks. We're on generator power for now, but it's limited to what we can have plugged in at any given time and no A/C.

The trip to Atlanta is going to be a welcome relief.

Here's a few quick photos of the neighborhood.

Our front yard - photo

Neighbor to the west - photo

Neighbor to the east - photo

Neighbor across the street - photo

[bluemoney]

Originally Posted by Toby

The trip to Atlanta is going to be a welcome relief.

Looks like you folks came out okay all things considered.

PS. I'll have a bottle of whiskey waiting

[MRock]

I know it sux not having power Toby, we had none for 9 days from the hurricanes of 2005. Good to see you're okay and your house is still standing though. Hopefully the power company will get you up and running again quickly.

[Nymph]

I'm glad you came out of it all ok. If I was doing the Atlanta thing, I'd help you celebrate making it through

It only looks like minor damage at your place, mostly trees from what I can see from the pics...easier to clean up that than to have to replace a roof or worse.

[Top_Of_Google_Man]

I watched a lot of it live on khou - what a mess.

[Toby]

CenterPointe Energy has 2.5 million customers in Houston. 2.1 million of us are without power.

7000+ emergency utility workers have been brought in to restore service, but...

First priority is Hospitals, Fire Stations, City Services. Second priority is Galveston Island. Then residential service. Could be a long hot muggy couple of weeks, or more

[DannyCox]

When we had the ice storm up here back in 1998, we were without power for 9 days. We managed to buy a generator down in the US, bring it back up to Montreal, then hook it up at my Aunt's house where she had a gas furnace. Needed the power to drive the furnace fan for heat. Had about 25 of us all staying at her place.

It's never any fun.

[TheEnforcer]

Damn.. sorry to hear that man... gla you are ok and hope power is restored quickly...

[Toby]

Originally Posted by TheEnforcer

Damn.. sorry to hear that man... gla you are ok and hope power is restored quickly...

A cool front came through late yesterday, so it was much cooler overnight. I actually got some decent sleep for the first time in three days. Water pressure was back to normal this morning, so I took a longgggg hot shower and washed away several layers of hot & sticky. I have a much more pleasant aroma and disposition today.

However, this camping out in your own house is getting old quickly.

Bush Intercontinental and Hobby airports reopened today with very limited service. The same flight number today, that I'm supposed to fly on Thursday was cancelled. In fact there are no Delta flights from Hobby to Atlanta today. That pretty much tells me that Delta isn't flying out of Hobby at all today. I phoned Delta and didn't really get much more info that I'd already found out online. I'm going to check that same flight tomorrow morning, and if it's still cancelled then I'm going to drive to Atlanta instead of fly. At least my Cadillac has functional A/C.

[boobbucks]

Wow. My heart and prayers go out to all of you who were effected by the storm. So much devastation and at a really hard time too.

[EmporerEJ]

Originally Posted by Toby

We lost power about 11 PM last night. No idea when power will be restored, could be days or weeks. We're on generator power for now, but it's limited to what we can have plugged in at any given time and no A/C.

The trip to Atlanta is going to be a welcome relief.

Damn Toby, keep your head down!
Looks like the trees took most of the hit.

And who'd a thought, there, in that little suburban neighborhood, lives a porn mogul?

[EmporerEJ]

So, Toby's post begs the question.....
Why do you people continue to live where these damn hurricanes hit?

We had, like, one brush up in my lifetime. Agnes, back in, like 1967?
no direct effect on us. A little flooding down by the river, but nobody else.

I saw this lady on a sound bite, on CNN. She was crying, "Just like last year, flattened our house, it's just awful."
And I'm like, "lady? That's mother nature's way of saying, DON'T put your house here!"
It's simple...move someplace safe, and stop jacking my insurance rates.

[WebBilling.com]

We were really lucky in South Florida this time, I thought we were getting Ike for sure...

[Toby]

Originally Posted by EmporerEJ

So, Toby's post begs the question.....
Why do you people continue to live where these damn hurricanes hit?

You might as well be asking why people continue to drive cars. Far more people die in car accidents than hurricanes.

The last hurricane of this size to bullseye Houston was Alicia in 1983. Prior to that Carl, in 1961. I think I can live with once every 20-25 years.

I survived another storm that was even larger, on the Oregon coast of all places. Although to be honest I don't recall much of it. Columbus Day, October 1962. Winds measured during that tropical cyclone would have been classified as a category 4.

[softball]

Although to be honest I don't recall much of it. Columbus Day, October 1962.

It was Typhoon Frieda and it blew our garage roof off. Storms here are nowhere near as dangerous.

[LAJ]

Connor from YNOT got his electricity back on last night... fortunately only 5 days without!

[TheEnforcer]

man.. that did soem serious damage.. glad thigns are starting to come together though...

[softball]

Originally Posted by LAJ

Connor from YNOT got his electricity back on last night... fortunately only 5 days without!

During the great eastern blackout a few years back, a huge amount of Toronto lost power for up to two weeks. We were lucky, it was only overnight at our house. But when shit like this happens, you realize how fragile our civilization is and how dependent we are on power and how easily everything crumbles when it is gone. A whole lot of old people were trapped forty stories up with no elevators or running water. Five days is a long time.

[Toby]

FINALLY! After 15 days and 17 hours off the grid, we have power back on!

[Dravyk]

Originally Posted by Toby

FINALLY! After 15 days and 17 hours off the grid, we have power back on!

Congrats! Um, I guess. You know what I mean.

I'm just in a state of shock though. Why so long? And how did you make it?

[Toby]

Originally Posted by Dravyk

Why so long? And how did you make it?

Our neighborhood just seemed to be well down the priority list for whatever reason. When there's 2.15 million customers without power it just takes time to get all the tree limbs cleared, poles and lines replaced as needed, etc.

We had ten TREES INC. crews in our neighborhood all day Sat and again on Sun morning. In addition to the hurricane damage they also cleared away all other branches that were over and into the power lines. That will prevent many future outages. They were also working on replacing two power poles south of us, between us and the nearest sub station. Once that was completed they flipped the switched.

We had a generator, so we had refigeration, coffee, Internet, etc. We just had to juggle cords depending on what we needed, but no A/C, no stove, oven or microwave (it blew the breaker). We ate lots of sammiches, cooked on the gas grill, and ate a fair number of meals out.

We were in far better shape than many, but it still got pretty old after about 3 days.