Hurricane Ike

[58limited]

Sorry for the month long absence. Hurricane Ike hit my area and I didn't get internet back until this past week. Power was restored by the 8th day, the power company called in crews from all over the U.S. and restored power to about 2 million customers in 12 days. During the past month my internet provider, Time Warner, was conspicuous in their absence. Once they finally came and started replacing the cable lines, they were pulled to another job for a week: they had to get the city offices hooked up first.

I was able to evacuate my cars 50 miles north so they received no salt exposure. My house had minor damage: 13 inches of water in the garage, 1 inch in the kitchen only, and minor roof damage (no leaks). My standby generator shorted out (it was elevated 8 inches, flood water was 13 inches). There is a five foot high wall of debris, mostly cane and salt grass, across the length of my back yard. By back yard "fence" is the seawall. It is 17 feet high and really saved our bacon here in Port Arthur. The other towns around us got 5-8 feet of flood water through them. Here is a picture of the water behind my house at 1pm Saturday 9/12/08 (about 10 hours after the eye made landfall):



The water is three feet below the top of the wall. I did not stay during the storm, but drove back in at noon (I have a first responder pass). Here is the debris:



And a lot of these were in the debris:



This is a cottonmouth (or water moccasin), and aggressive venomous snake. The Corps of Engineers is going to clean the debris - they have a 30 foot easement and it is their job to clean it. Many of my neighbors have already paid for clean up, but why should I pay a couple of thousand dollars (or more) when the Corps is going to do it anyway?

[dvonk]

wow, sorry about your house... but im glad your cars are ok! hopefully you can get your life back to normal as soon as possible.

and watch out for those snakes!