TimesToCome

Cleanup continues, what a mess. Together with the two neighbors right of me we have everything cut and bagged across the yards except the pine tree stump. That’ll get done tomorrow I hope.

I scored a gas chainsaw at Lowes this morning. There were three guys looking at it reading the label. I walked up and asked if that was a gas chainsaw. Someone said yes so I grabbed it and ran like hell. Don’t know what we would’ve done with out it. I’m still trying to figure out why all my neighbors in the city seemed to already own them?

While everyone one was out sawing, raking, sweeping one woman sat outside and watched. She didn’t even bother to rake her grass. She has had a dead tree with in striking distance of out home for over a year. Late afternoon she waddled over and asked if that was our tree in her yard. Told her ‘yes’ it was. Asked when she was going to take down dead tree. She said it cost money. Do ya think? Then she announce she worked for Entergy. I had to walk away, the conversation could only go downhill from there. That tree is hers now.

Left of me they had several large leaning trees, we have all those on the ground now and mostly cut up. It was scary watching the guys cut those ones down.

Some grocers are open. There are some fresh fruits and vegetables. We’ll be vegetarian here until the power comes back. Gas is not to be found. The few stations I found open had enormous lines. I figured they’d be out by the time I got to the pump so I didn’t try.

Noisy here, generators, power saws, I’ll be happy to return to modern living.

Entergy has not one but two power plants under water. What moron built two power plants in flood zones? They say it’ll be at least three weeks before we have electricity. Last storm it took two weeks and a court order for the idiots at Entergy to get their act together.

Cars are getting low on gas and we’re getting low on clean clothing. Net access is spotty with the Sprint card, non-existent on the ATT iPhone.

We’re running the laptops, phones, and a couple of lights for reading off a car battery, Stove is gas, sure wish the oven was too.

ATT phone data service has been flaky, the Sprint card even let me down this afternoon. I have both back but at dial up speed. No electricity yet.

I’m trying to check the electric info online but some bozo designed a high graphic, high javascript page. So it is taking a very long time to load. Entergy isn’t the swiftest. After the last storm three years ago, that missed, we had rolling blackouts for 12 hours a day for two weeks after the storm.

There’s a serious thunderstorm out there now. Lots of loud thunder and it is really pouring. It’s a good thing we went out into the yard today and cleared debri that was blocking water drainage. We picked up the back and I cut all the damaged plants way down. Out front we still have two good size trees to cut up. No power tools and no power. That’s tomorrow’s project.

Mostly the area is just a mess. We have many trees down, a few homes with windows broken, some minor trim damage on homes, but nothing serious. All the site seers today stopped and took video of our home. It must look really bad. I just see all clean up yet to be done when I look at it.

Photos, once we have a decent internet speed again. I’m really glad for that car/ac-dc gadget I bought. We have lights for reading and I can recharge gadgets while we wait for electricity to be restored.

The refrigerator keeps leaking. I think it is the ice maker. Next refrigerator is not going to have one.

No word from relatives in Porter yet.

The gardens are beyond trashed. I have one very large and several small and medium trees down all over the yard. But the house and garage are still intact so we’re fine and all is well.

The wind is still remarkably strong and the rain has been coming down in sheets for hours. We have several more hours of rain and wind yet to come.

Some neighbors stopped by and asked if they could swing our tree out of the road. Told them sure, I can’t see as it would do any more harm. Since then at least a dozen cars have driven out of our tiny neighborhood. I can’t imagine where they are going. There can’t be more than 100 homes in here.

Another neighbor called to check on her home and offer us a place to stay. She’s at her mom’s and they have a generator. It was very nice of her. I’m hoping we don’t have to take her up on it.

6″ of rain so far. The front and back yards are several inches deep. Cleanup is going to be a mess and if the yards get much deeper it might become a more serious problem.

No word from the relatives yet. I hesitate to call in case they are getting some much needed sleep.

The electricity went out somewhere between 4 am and 6 am. It may be days before we see juice again. The ATT data network is more down than up. I may have to get another Sprint phone. I just wish they’d get some cool ones. I really love my Sprint data card.

I really hate when hurricanes come over at night. You can hear the trees tipping and crashing and all sorts of noise, but you can’t see anything. Hurricane Ike will be upon us at night. Looks like The Woodlands is in the direct path, front and center. In our favor we’re about 100 miles from the coast, and the pine trees far out number the hardwoods here.

I had an email this morning from a local relative ‘WE’RE ALL GOING TO DIE’, but it’s been great knowing you’.

Just heard on Twitter that gun and alcohol sales are being banned in coastal towns. I think that’s a bad sign.

City of Houston Wind Data tells by zip code what to expect for wind speeds. We’re looking at about 80mph sustained winds here.

Harris County Office of Emergency Management has some information

National Hurricane Center: Ike

Storm Pulse, It’s like NHC but with better graphics.

Hurricane portal

Transtar has traffic webcams

Houston Chronicle, local newspaper.

Houston Community Newspapers cover many of the smaller towns around Houston.

The Woodlands is only about 25 years old, and we haven’t had a major hurricane in that time.  No idea how well the homes are built. We’ll know by this time tomorrow.  There have been no storms to thin the trees since construction began so  I’m expecting we’re going to lose a good percentage of our trees.

Latest projections have the eye still going overhead, winds averaging about 70mph with gusts up to 90mph.  The hurricane force winds should be with us till after noontime Saturday.  That’s a big difference from storms up north.  This one will still be moving very slowly when it goes by.  Instead of 6 hours of intense winds we are looking at 12 to 18 hours.

It’s so quiet in the nieghborhood.  I’m not sure if most of the neighbors fled or if they are hunkering down watching the storm news?