Monster In Our Midst Part II
Saturday September 13, 2008
Well hurricane Ike made its way into Galveston, which is about 1.5 hours southwest from where we live. I brought my laptop with me to Grand Prairie, TX where we evacuated and was able to monitor a local weather station using WeatherBug software that’s located at an airport about 1 mile from our home and saw wind gusts upwards of 90 mph. Sustained winds were hovering around 60-70 mph. I received some vague info about our neighborhood, but will not be comfortable until that info is verified. I was told that our homes appeared to be ok, but I left a voice mail on a neighbor’s cell phone that stayed during the storm asking if he would walk around the house to make sure. Other cities around us didn’t fair as well though. Lots of trees and power lines down, also tornadoes that decided to visit. We were under a flood watch due to the storm surge that was expected to be at 20 feet. The elevation of our small town is only 16 feet, so this had us all worried. We later found out that water had not reached us, but did inundate two nearby towns- Bridge City, and Orange Texas. Some areas have six feet of water in homes. Galveston was hit very hard. We’re not sure how much longer we will be here in Grand Prairie. It depends on when the community leaders decide on when it is safe for our return. An interview with our city mayor will be posted soon on a local news website that hopefully will shed some light on the condition of our small town. I’m sure that we will be without power for up to two week, possibly three. Just so our homes are ok…that’s all that matters. I have two generators and 25 gallons of gas stored. We will use a small air conditioner to cool one room of our house at night for sleeping. Once we get home and get settled in I’ll try and post the conditions. I look forward to everything getting back to normal. It may be awhile before I can post any nature-related blog entries so please bear with me.
Well hurricane Ike made its way into Galveston, which is about 1.5 hours southwest from where we live. I brought my laptop with me to Grand Prairie, TX where we evacuated and was able to monitor a local weather station using WeatherBug software that’s located at an airport about 1 mile from our home and saw wind gusts upwards of 90 mph. Sustained winds were hovering around 60-70 mph. I received some vague info about our neighborhood, but will not be comfortable until that info is verified. I was told that our homes appeared to be ok, but I left a voice mail on a neighbor’s cell phone that stayed during the storm asking if he would walk around the house to make sure. Other cities around us didn’t fair as well though. Lots of trees and power lines down, also tornadoes that decided to visit. We were under a flood watch due to the storm surge that was expected to be at 20 feet. The elevation of our small town is only 16 feet, so this had us all worried. We later found out that water had not reached us, but did inundate two nearby towns- Bridge City, and Orange Texas. Some areas have six feet of water in homes. Galveston was hit very hard. We’re not sure how much longer we will be here in Grand Prairie. It depends on when the community leaders decide on when it is safe for our return. An interview with our city mayor will be posted soon on a local news website that hopefully will shed some light on the condition of our small town. I’m sure that we will be without power for up to two week, possibly three. Just so our homes are ok…that’s all that matters. I have two generators and 25 gallons of gas stored. We will use a small air conditioner to cool one room of our house at night for sleeping. Once we get home and get settled in I’ll try and post the conditions. I look forward to everything getting back to normal. It may be awhile before I can post any nature-related blog entries so please bear with me.
Labels: Hurricane Ike
posted by Jace Stansbury at 7:27 PM
4 Comments:
I hope all is well on your return.
Mosura,
Thanks for your kind words.
Jace
Hi Jace, I weathered Ike @ my home in Tomball and faired well. It sounds like you did not get the flooding, thank goodness. I had a lot of displaced birds—even during the storm I had cardinals hanging onto my window screens, trying to find safety after being ejected from their nests. As soon as it was safe, I got the plants propped back up, tree damaged cleaned and feeders out. Hummingbirds were there within 30 mins, nature recovered quickly up here. I look forward to your blog again, careful with clean up—you should see plenty of our snakes.
pleintexas,
glad to hear you made out ok also after the storm. Glad you enjoy the blog. Hope to have more interesting stuff soon.
Jace
Post a Comment
<< Home