Ike's Aftermath

Hurricane Ike is gone..... but it's mark will be here for a long time. We have been trying to make the experience an "adventure." The boys have easily embraced this, and we count our blessings as so many people are going through much more than we are.

The night of the hurricane, we all gathered in our master bathroom where Joshua and Caleb would spend the night. We prayed for protection for all of our family and friends. We specifically asked for a covering over our house and cul de sac and asked God to put His angels on guard around us. The next morning, we all knew that His protection had been there on us all. In fact, our neighbor commented after walking around the neighborhood and surveying the damage, that our cul de sac "appeared to have a bubble over it." Joshua looked at me and smiled. We knew it was not a "bubble."

We have been without power now for 11 days as of today (9/23/08) and it has been quite an experience.

One of the last scenes on tv before landfall. A beautiful sunset.....such vibrant color.

Caleb's sleeping place for the storm and the week following.

Joshua right across in the other closet. We turned on a sound machine, and they slept right through the night.

Prayers before bedtime.

Ike made landfall around 2 AM. During the storm in the morning, we had the boys stay in our bathroom where there were fewer windows....a great team project building this track!

We ventured out around 2:00 pm, this tree was down at the end of our street. The root diameter was about 3 feet taller than Caleb.

These trees are on power lines by the school around the corner from our house. It may be the reason we still don't have power on day 11.

Our pool....34 palm fronds down....but whose counting?

Glad John sunk those chairs or they probably would have ended up inside through a window with the 80 mile an hour winds!

A house in a nearby neighborhood. There are so many near misses by trees downed near homes.

We had the neighbors over for barbecue and a swim party the first night after the storm. We had gone to church in our gym without any power in the morning, and they offered that we could take meat that was left in the freezers from the barbecue the week before. We were able to share this along with tilapia and tamales from a local restaurant that needed to clear out it's freezers. Having a gas grill, gas stove, running water and plenty of candles and batteries, we really were quite comfortable for the first few days.

An after party "community" shower. I don't know that our shower has ever had 11 kids in it at once before. But, we figured it was a nice easy way to get them all quickly cleaned and ready for bed (in their own homes, of course :-).

Caleb and the other kids saved this praying mantis from the storm.

We didn't count the bags....but it was quite a bit of work. No complaining here though, we are happy to just be cleaning and not repairing.

The newly formed cul de sac scooter club. With the kids out of school all week, they had a blast playing together.












John took this photo on his first day back to work downtown after the storm. It is the Chase tower, the tallest building in Houston. We are sad to see all the damage (the windows blown out). A friend described the street below as resembling 9/11 with all of the papers, broken glass, computers and office equipment laying everywhere.

The guys wanted to have a fire and roast "smarshmallows" (as Caleb says) since the weather was so nice. We settled for the indoor s'more set given to me one year for a Christmas gift. It worked quite nicely in front of the fireplace.

No power? Why not have a picnic? Again, the friends from the cul de sac gathered for PB and Js. These were actually the only sandwiches eaten last week thanks to the 2 huge coolers and 14 bags of ice we bought just before the storm hit. We didn't even have to raid the pantry since we were able to maintain the cold food for so many days. We did heat quite a few pots of soup and water for our neighbors though who didn't have gas stoves or coolers. We were so glad to be able to help them.

One week after the storm, the weather started getting back to its's seasonably hot state, so we pulled out the slip 'n slide. We put it on a hill in our neighbors yard so the kids could get good "speed."

Here is the eEmail from John to family and friends on 9-18-08

We are in Day 6 since Ike ripped through Houston, and the community continues to heal and restore itself, but is not there yet. More than 50% of Houston residents still lack electricity, but much of the major repairs have completed and more and more stores and gas stations are coming online. Of course, with schools and businesses still closed, and gas and ice still in short-supply, we have a long ways to go. As for Galveston and other shore front areas, they may never be the same. The island is still of limits to even the residents as crews work to restore roads, sewer and water service, and electricity. It will be another 7 days before they can even visit their homes or what is left of them.

We are still without power, and not too hopeful for an immediate fix given our location in the back of our subdivision. Until the folks in the front have power, we know we have a longer wait.

I went into work for half days the last two days despite calls for essential personnel only as I had to prepare for a business trip to Holland this weekend. Downtown is still recovering, with many traffic signals not working, and broken windows in move of the skyscrapers. Heather and the boys went to the neighborhood school yesterday and helped clean the school grounds. There are still downed power lines on the property so they had to avoid that area. In addition, Heather re-opened the Puca Independent School District (PISD) yesterday with a lesson focus on our solar system. The boys made replicas on paper and using fruit and a flashlight (the sun of course). Today they enjoyed the library and a play date at a friends, while Heather dealt with a dead battery in the van. Probably from charging our cell phones and blackberries in there all the time.

Cooking on the grill (we made a pizza last night) and living by candlelight is sill charming, but much less so than it was 5 days ago. We are ready for normalcy to return...to run the dishwasher, wash some clothes, use the oven, and perhaps even watch the news or Spartan football this Saturday against Notre Dame. But we also know that we are incredibly blessed, and have so much more than many others. God is good.

I attach a picture of Houston and the path of Ike. If picture is a clock, our home is at 1:00. You can see that the storm went directly over us. I don't know if we shared this earlier, but we did experience 2 hours of calm in the middle of the night when all the blowing and raining stopped. This was when we were in the eye of the hurricane. It was a very eerie time, but it did allow for some sleep. Looking back, Heather and I are still amazed (and thankful) that Joshua and Caleb slept through the whole thing....in the safety of our closet of course.