I don't like Ike

We did get hit by Hurricane Ike. Even though we are about 65 miles from the coast this hurricane was so massive that by the time it came to our city we still suffered from hurricane force winds and wind gusts. Fortunately we didn't have any flooding. Our electrical power was out for several days but came back on Sunday. We lost cell phone, telephone and Internet service too but fortunately they are back now too.

We were very fortunate not to have had any injuries to our family or damage to our home. A metal fence in our back yard was broken and swinging in the wind, a large maple tree in our back yard lost most of its branches and may have to be cut down, and we had a lot of leaves, a few shingles (are they ours or the neighbors???) and branches all over our yard. So not bad, as it could have been much worse. The biggest thing we lost (according to Gary) was the ability to watch and record the BYU vs. UCLA game! Quite a win with the cougars coming out on top ...59- 0. Wow!
The funny thing is all of the (above) pictures I am posting is the damage and debree from just one maple tree! We lost most of the center branches from our tree.

We provided housing for 2 then later 6 missionaries from our church who stayed with us during the storm. They were from areas closer to where the hurricane made land fall so they had to be evacuated. Originally the mission president feared it wouldn't be safe for them in Sugar Land (what about us?!?) but in the end it turned out to be not as bad as they feared.

Many people evacuated but we decided to stay to keep an eye on things. (Hide from wind, run from water.) We prepared well with lots of food, ice, batteries, and paper goods. We cleared our yard of things that could be carried by the wind and cause damage to us and our neighbors. We also made sure that our laundry was all done and the freezer and refrigerator were well organized in case we lost power. We stored lots of water in case the cities supply became contaminated. Everything we could think of to do to get prepared so we would be as ready as possible.

The wind started picking up by mid-afternoon but the hurricane force winds were predicted to arrive around midnight so I stayed up most of the night keeping an eye on things by flash light. The wind was wild and our dog was freaking out but we made it through just fine. Everyone else had gone to bed and I think they slept just fine knowing I was on patrol and would wake them if there was any thing to worry about! (Hello ...tornadoes!) They reported that the straight winds in Fort Bend countly reached about 65 miles per hour with gusts up to 90. This is much less than originally predicted which we were very grateful for.

The cities of Houston, Beaumont, Galveston and others didn't fare as well. They suffered much greater destruction from the wind and the water surge. We have had and will continue to have for some time a lot of opportunities to serve, as we help our neighbors and friends in the recovery process. The following pictures are of some of the damage that happened to our neighborhood and surrounding community. The last picture is of the tree that took out the power lines and caused a lot of homes to lose power for several days.