Our Hurricane Ike Adventure (with Pics)

Well I am back from Austin and I just wanted to let you know about the Manty family’s adventure with Hurricane Ike…

Last Friday we were prepared to ride out Hurricane Ike at our House in Cypress, TX (Northwest of Houston), but around 7:00pm Friday night our plans started to change…

The Power Outage – Friday Night

At around 7pm Friday night our power flickered off and when it came came back on our air conditioner stopped working! That really messed up our plans. We were hoping to cool the house off before we lost power, but instead our house was 85 degrees and getting hotter. After a bit of discussion we decided to evacuate to my wife Jill’s aunt’s house in Austin. We packed up the car around 8:45pm Friday night, just before the Hurricane made landfall. It was INCREDIBLY WINDY! We left our driveway at 9:14pm and headed out 290 to Austin. I think that the both Jill and I were in a bit of daze, because the trip to Austin went by so fast that we didn’t remember most of it. I am VERY glad we evacuated!

Austin Was The Smart Choice- Saturday and Sunday

The kids would have had to go through the storm and our 3 month old baby would not have been happy with the heat. Instead we spent the day playing games in the backyard, learning about Uncle Keith’s cool second life conference room that he set up for the University Texas, and in general having a good time.

The Trip Back To Houston – Sunday Afternoon

Our neighbor told us that our power was back on Sunday morning and that’s when we decided to come back to see what our house was like. We packed up, ate lunch, checked the roadways on the Internet and headed home mid-afternoon Saturday.

The Rude Awakening – Sunday Evening

In Austin, everything was fine, but as we were traveling home we knew we were heading the wrong way. My wife and I played a game on the way back called “count the generators”. We were counting how many generators we saw in people’s cars and trucks heading back to Houston. Jill won the game, but it was a little sad to see so many people bringing back generators with them.

The devastation Ike left is unbelievable.

We were quite surprised when we turned off 290 onto the main road that leads to our house… the traffic lights are twisted all over the place, fences are down everywhere, traffic signs are twisted around in crazy ways, trees are down, lots of tree limbs and debris everywhere. It was a very gloomy/eerie feeling when we got back.

When we got home I tripped over some debris unloading our car and sprained my ankle, but that is really no big deal. Neither was the damage to our property.

The important thing is that my family is all safe and we have power in our area!

The Damage Report

We did suffer some minor property damage. Our back fence blew down so we can see straight into the park behind us, plus our side fence blew down so we can see straight into our neighbor’s yard. Also our neighbor’s tree fell on our house and is laying right beside our house. It appears as though the only damage from the tree is that the storm gutters are bent. All in all, not so bad from what I can tell. Having been through hurricanes in South Florida (where I was born and raised), I know it could have been a lot worse.

The Stories

I have heard lots of stories from various friends and family in the area. On the day of the storm while we were at Jill’s Uncle’s house, her Uncle got a call from his brother who was working security in a building downtown. Apparently, all the windows on the 6th floor had blown out, along with other things that blew out from the windows. He was safe, which was the important part.

One of our friends barns was flattened and his garage roof was hit by a tree. When he went outside to clean up the next day he stepped on two nails and had to go to the ER. When he got there, they told him that he could wait there until about 5:30 in the morning or go home and come back the next day to get treated. He decided to go home and come back the next day. These are just a few of the many stories out there. Ike was a horrendous storm and I hope nothing like that happens again in this area for a long time to come.

Pictures

Her are some of the pictures of our house…

Our new view of our next door neighbor’s back yard:

Our new view of the park behind our backyard:

The tree that fell on our house during Hurricane Ike:

We were very blessed to only have minor damage. I know people who weren’t so lucky. A lot of people are still without power, gas and food supplies are low, and many of the roads are a mess. Please, pray for all of us as we recover from the widespread damage that Hurricane Ike has caused in Texas.