Seabrook After Ike

Seabrook is a beautiful coastal community about 20 minutes from our home. Jason and I like to spend afternoons taking a walk or birdwatching at a park in Seabrook.

We were so sad to see the terrible damage that was done to the houses in that neighborhood, and also to the fishing pier on the bay.

Returning to Houston after Hurricane Ike

We stayed in Louisiana for five days. The positive aspect of evacuating was having time to spend with our family and our nephew, Brady!

We got in touch with our neighbors, who let us know that there was no visible damage to our home. They let us know that our backyard had the left side of the fence down, and tree limbs and debris scattered in both the front and back yards. They also told us that our other neighbor's metal-pipe type chimney had fallen off and landed in our back yard.

We also found out that we had electricity, which was a big luxury--considering that a large percentage of Houston did not get power back for up to two or three weeks.

Fluffy was allowed to ride freely in the car for part of the way back down to Houston. She did not tolerate traveling in a cat carrier very well, but was remarkably good when we let her out in the car.

The cats were happy to return home, and we were thankful to have our home. So, many people in our neighborhood had trees on their houses, siding blown away (revealing the beams underneath), and roofs that had leaked. Once we arrived in Houston, the drive was not like it normally would have been. Destruction was visible everywhere. We saw many businesses with their signs blown over, roofs blown off, or debris everywhere with trees down. We saw yards with debris piles 8-10 feet tall.

This is our backyard afer the storm. There is debris that is difficult to see in this photo...everywhere! Also, the left side of our back yard fence is blown down.

Debris piled up in our neighborhood when we got home. These piles grew to 2-3 times this big, and they were everywhere...not just our neighborhood, but every street around in Southeast Houston area.

This is looking at the neighbors directly behind our house--They share our back fence.

Once we arrived at home, we turned on the TV to see what was happening in Galveston. The destruction there was devastating. Many, many people lost everything down there.

The way people responded to the disaster was heartwarming and gave me a deep sense of American pride. American pride came from the fact that people came from all over the US to help. There were hundreds...no maybe thousands of workers and volunteers who immediately came to help and stayed for weeks. Leaving behind their families or other responsibilities, they came to help put Houston back together.

Currently, there are still volunteers and workers who are replacing roofs, building fences, and making life better here in Houston. Galveston is a whole other story--thousands have given aid to the people down there, and have given time and manpower to do as much as possible to rebuild Galveston. The progress there is going GREAT, however they have a long road ahead.

Please pray for all who were affected by Hurricane Ike--that God will bless them and restore their lives to be even better than they were before the storm.

Hurricane Ike Evacuation

We woke up Thursday morning, September 11 (the date is kind of ironic) and started our normal morning routine. Jason was dressed, breakfast and lunch packed, and was about to kiss me good bye...as I roll out of bed. It was about 6:30 a.m. Jason had been listening to the news, which is not normally part of his morning routine, and we heard that there would be a news conference with city officials any minute, so Jason decided to stay and listen to it. They put our zip code on the screen as in a mandatory evacuation area beginning at 12 noon.

I couldn't believe it! I had thought about the storm, and worried about it a little, but I didn't want to evacuate. I figured I could survive the heavy storm conditions, and maybe have to be without electricity for one day or something, but I DID NOT WANT TO EVACUATE!

One of the big reasons, was that we have four cats and a chinchilla as our pets. The last time we evacuated was when Rita was heading towards Houston--we didn't have pets then, but we did experience the worst day of our lives as we spent 20 hours in two cars creeping up to Dallas/Keene where I used to live. So, I was very worried that we would again be in the car for 20+ hours, but this time with four cats and a chinchilla.

But like it or not, we had to go. So, I immediately put some clothes on and headed out to get gas in the car and pick up two more pet carriers, some pet food, and a few other supplies we would need for the evacuation. Once I returned, it was a flurry of packing luggage, preparing supplies for the cats and our chinchilla, and loading everything into the car. Our last task was to "catch the cats"... not too terribly hard, THANKFULLY! And so we were off. Heading out to Jason's family in northern Louisiana.

Once we started driving, the cats began a mournful chorus of meows. They continued for about one hour. Finally three of them took a nap, while Fluffy was briefly let out of her carrying case to see if she needed to go to the bathroom, or something. She did not like the confined space, but we couldn't have her out for the remaining seven hours on the drive, so we put her back into the carrier. She promptly went to sleep. They rode quite well for the rest of the trip, only complaining a few times.

The cats stayed in Jason's family's shed, which was a wonderland for exploration. Unfortunately, our chinchilla did not survive the trip--we believe the stress of the eight-hour trip, the changes of temperature, and the loud noises of the car were too much for him to handle. We were very shocked and so sad to find that he had died when we took his ventilated carrier box out of the car.

The trauma of carrying pets during an evacuation added to our already high stress level. We watched the weather channel and news channels almost constantly while we were at the Sasser's house. Once Hurricane Ike arrived and began its path of destruction, we prayed and watched...wondering about the condition of our home.