IKE

Matt waiting for Ike to be over with so he could go out and help clean up. It started to rain around 11:30 p.m. on Friday night and did not stop until around 3 p.m. on Saturday afternoon. Then another storm dropped 6 more inches that night. Altogether, we got over 17 inches in 36 hours. The hurricane was between 400-500 miles wide with sustained winds (by the time it reached us) from 60-80 mph and gusts up to 100 mph. As far as we know, the eye (which was 30-60 miles wide) went more or less over us. But it was too early in the morning to appreciate the clear skies. Oh well. We'll just have to hope for another one to come over us. It took at least 11 hours (3:00 a.m. Saturday to 2 p.m. Saturday) for the storm to pass us. It was a rather boring time as it was hard to sleep with the wind beating on the house and the heat (our power went out at 3:30 a.m.) since our fans turned off. We got our power back the following Saturday night. Our casualties included most of our fridge food, but that's all. We found some friends with generators where we stashed a lot of our freezer food (that which we hadn't already eaten). In anticipation of the power outage, Matt ate the remainder of the ice cream Thursday night (there was no school Friday). School was out for the entire greater Houston area (and beyond) from Friday Sept. 12 to Wednesday Sept. 17. Nothing like being in school for 3 weeks and then having a 2 week vacation. We didn't board up our windows, though some people here and there throughout town did. Being 70 miles inland, I wasn't too worried about our house. And since our neighborhood is so new, there are not even medium sized trees. You couldn't even tell that a hurricane came through our neighborhood or that 17 inches of rain was dropped on us either.
Video of Ike.