Running Hurricane Ike thread

Here's a miracle: I have family living in west Houston, near Katy, and their power came back on this morning.

 

That's amazing...

For Wilma, I got my power back about four hours after the storm -- and then lost it for a week.

 

Family just returned to that same Katy area and everything appeared to be fine. Aside from some water damage, naturally, but not anything that can't be recovered. However family in Houston wasn't as fortunate. They're not ruined but seriously considering leaving Texas.

 

Hey, Ike! BLOW ME! He's made it to Cincinnati with just strong winds at this point. Lots of downed trees, lots of power outages. Power just went out in the grocery store, and I've been detoured five times by downed power lines just getting home. Thankfully, my power's still on, though.

 

Sounds like an ad for Bounty paper towels.

 

Major problem here at Indianapolis. During the MotoGP race, one of Ike's bands or an Ike-created storm blew through the track with wicked force. There were 50-mile-per-hour gusts and heavy rain for about a 10-minute period.

Worse, the wind blew down one of the huge Yamaha merchandising tents in the infield, twisted metal and damaged bikes, etc., everywhere, and it damn near blew on to the backstretch straight.

There are injuries. My news instinct crept in and I went out there to see if anyone was hurt. I saw at least one person hauled off on a stretcher myself who seemed pretty badly injured. I had an eye witness tell me he knew of two more people in the tent that were hurt and had not yet come out. This was a good five-to-10 minutes after it happened.

As I stood there, the Kawasaki tent across from the damaged Yamaha tent began to deteroriate ... and I was right in harm's way. After I stepped aside, it never totally came down, the cops cleared the entire area and they kicked me out.

From my vantage point in the media room, I can see an ambulance out there in the area where the tent was destroyed.

The race itself was red-flagged with eight laps to go. Conditions were absolutely brutal. Fuck off, Ike.

 

UPDATE: Two fans injured and transported to Indianapolis' Methodist Hospital. Injuries are non-life threatening.

 

Well, I must say that was the worst 12 hours I've ever had to endure.

I am fine, as is AlleyAllen and all of our family.

There was damage at my property, though my home is OK. We had limbs come through the roof in my sister-in-law's house (my seconary house that they are living in) and it leaked in four places. Needless to say there is considerable water damage in the house. But the house did survive and eventually, they will still have a place to live.

We had three enormous trees that were completely uprooted by the winds. Each one of them was well over 100 feet tall. The root span of one of the trees is well over 12 feet across. That one missed all our houses. One of the other uprooted trees barely missed my house and landed on the fence in the back yard. We watched this tree as it fell, believing it was going to hit my home. How it missed my home is a miracle I can't explain. The third uprooted tree fell on our warehouse (that houses my business and my husband's) and also hit his truck.

We lost cell service the entire time and just now got it back, though it is very sporadic. Lights are out, of course, and we are expected to be without lights for a minimum of two weeks. We do have a generator in the camper and that is where we are staying until lights come back on.

I look at the destruction that my property has become and I have to remind myself that my family is fine and we do still have homes to go to. That is better than others can say. Having said that, this has been a hell that I don't want to ever have to live through again.

Thank you for all the well wishes and I hope that anyone else here affected by this storm is fine and anyone with family in the area receives good news.

 

Glad you're safe, LiesIntx. Sounds like a storm that hit my house as a kid. Trees down everywhere, relatively minor damage, considering what could have happened. Watch for downed wires.

 

Cincy update: wind gusted up to 74mph, 2 dead (pair of motorcyclists struck by falling tree), and 650,000 (of 850,000) Duke Energy customers without power. Luckily, I still have my power and all is fine at the Killick abode. Local Fox affiliate also off the air.

 

The worst-hit area outside of Houston appears to be the eastern Islands - Bolivar Peninsula, High Island and Oak Island.

Pictures of Bolivar Peninsula are here: http://jakeabby.com/cb/

 

Apparently, Mr. Sanz is all right. He just e-mailed me and said he survived.