I'm sure it might be a while before many from TX are able to get back on the board here (we have wireless internet). Wireless phone service is improving in the area but some may still have problems calling out. My husband's office is in The Woodlands and he does have power for his complex...one of the very few.

Our home is 2-3 miles directly east of his office and I-45 and sustained no home damage, just trees uprooted in the backyard.... glad we took the time to board up our windows. There was a fair amount of temporary flooding in the area but it did not impact us.

We actually headed out Sat. morning around ten a.m. and drove to College Station, TX, Durant, OK, and Oklahoma City, OK for specific supplies to make sure we could wait the aftermath out for quite a while if necesssary. We got back to The Woodlands/Spring area around 6:30 a..m. Sunday morning.

A generator powers our home so we can continue pretty much as normal and will not need food or fuel for a week or two. Stores in the area are out of grocery items (Wal-mart is open but little food for those out) and yesterday the closest fuel available was College Station and Franklin. There are some stations opening in the morning. Thank goodness for my Excursion's 44 gallon tank and hauling capacity (large SUV's do have their +'s) as I filled up before getting back to the area.

Living in Missouri (ice storms/tornados/floods) and Minnesota (floods/blizzards) has been a good living experience in learning how to be prepared...Though you can always think of a few more items every time your faced with living conditions that will make you do without "modern perks" we have all become conditioned to.

Glad you are alright. My prayers go out to all the people that have lost their loved ones, homes and etc.

So glad to hear you are doing okey. Thank you so much for the info. My nephew is going to College there and is living in Spring. So your info was very usefull to us. He and his dad and sister (Who live in Kemah) came to Vernon on Thursday and are leaving to go back tomorrow, as Garet has to be back in school on Thursday of this week and my brother and niece have to be back at work. They both work at the BP refinery. So your information came at a good time. I will be passing that on to them.

I live near Humble, TX and it is still bad here. No lights, low fuel and slim pickings on the food. It is easy to wait 3 hours for gas. At work we are on a generator so that is good. We are very fortunate to have no damage to our home. Has anybody heard from Sandy or Shea? Their areas got hit hard and I was worrying about them?

thanks
gail

I live just west of Houston and our area was hit but not like Houston or Galveston. We lost power for about 10 hours. My brother lives in Clute (they were broadcasting the weather channel from there) and works in Freeport. He had to work "hurricane duty" so his wife and 3 kids (all under 5 years old!), their dog and my friend's dog came to my house. It was chaos at my house!!!

I have to say that someone was looking over us because we escaped basically unscathed (other than the damage done by my niece and nephews and the dogs!!). We had some small branches in our yard and lots of leaves. One street over from our just now got power back on. Our subdivision is only 7 years old, so we don't have the large trees that could have done major damage. My ex lives about 5 miles from me and he did have minor damage to his house...and just got power back on today.

The dentist office next to my daughter's day care lost its roof...it landed in the parking lot. My boss lives in Clear Lake and she texted me and said she tried to come home on Sunday but couldn't since the interstate is flooded...there was a ton of debris (and a boat!) in the middle of the road. I've heard they finally got power back on at my office...which is near downtown...so the building is open tomorrow, but they have closed schools the rest of the week since most of them in the district haven't had power. I'm not sure I will chance going in since the roads that I take to work have been underwater this week. I might venture out later this week...

I haven't heard from Sandy...I have tried to send her a text, but I am having trouble getting them to go out. I can get them, but for some reason, I cannot send them.

Glad to hear everyone is ok.

Kelli, I will send Sandy a text to see if I get a reply.

My family left today to go back even tho there is not any electricity. They live in trailors and have generators and my brother filled up the massive water tanks before they left. He left here with gas cans with about 100 gallons of gas in the back of his truck to fill up all their vehicles. He talked to the park manager today and she said that there was a big tree laying where their trailor used to be there in Kemah. He had pulled the trailor in to The Woodlands. He got lucky there. Please let us know when you hear from Sandy and Shea.

Glad to hear you are alright and made it through the storm. Prayers to all of you for a quick clean up and to get life back to normal as soon as possible.

I know the areas to the north of The Woodlands (Willis and Cleveland) and Magnolia to the northwest are still out, as are we (north of Spring).

Entergy is "staging" their workers out of the Cleveland area. Some areas around/in the Houston area might be out until early Oct. Sat. and Sun weather forecast is for rain which will slow or stall repair efforts.

The weather has been great considering the time of year for this area. It's really a miracle it's been so cool/dry. The run of good luck in the weather department might be coming to an end but it was extremely helpful while it lasted.

It's so hot in Texas people hate to cute trees, but that was one of the first things I noticed about the area...the Utilities don't seem to have an aggressive tree trimming program. It's a necessary evil if customers want to minimize electrical issues. My hometown city is very aggressive and it took several years of chaos/angry exchanges between citizens and the utilities...but it really does payoff when bad weather arrives. Now of course it wouldn't help cities/counties close to the coast but would have some merit in the counties further away. JMO

Please say a prayer for Shea and her family. I got a text from her a few min. ago. She is in the Woodlands and they still have no power or water.

I saw on the news last night that Cleveland will be without power until October 5. I still haven't heard back from Sandy...my text messages are going out now. Keep her and her family in your thoughts and prayers. Her daughter just gave birth to a little girl a week before the storm hit.

Keeping everyone in my prayers. ((Hugs))

Kelli....no reply from Sandy for me either when I tried.

You got it girl! Tell her we are all thinking about her and her family! And if anyone hears from Sandy please let us know how she is doing.

I just texted Sandy as well. Have not heard anything. I will be sure to let you know if I do.

Sending prayers for all those affected bye IKE.

On the phone with Sandy now...

They have a generator that they are running on and off, so they have some power at times. No water except when the generator is running. Lots of trees down on their property...her and her hubby have been working to clear them. Luckily none of them hit their house. They did knock down most of the power lines around, so getting around is difficult.

She said she was feeling like a beauty queen since they did have the generator and was able to dry her hair before they went into the office...not many women up there have that luxury and are all walking around in ponytails.

She said to tell everyone that she is alive, living the "Little House on the Prairie" life!!

She is going crazy not being able to check the board (hey, Laura Ingles never had the internet!!)!!

Also...the baby is doing great. Her daughter still has water and sewer, but no power. She is breastfeeding, so she hasn't needed anything.

Glad you got her! Thanks for letting us know Kelli.

My place is ok but still without power in The Woodlands. I am work all the time anyway....

brenda so glad you stopped in ...we haven't heard from you in FOREVER!!!
thanks for the update from Sandy... hope everyone gets power soon.
take care people...

I'm glad to hear you didn't have alot of damage and are safe. Stay Safe and my prayers are with the others that were in the path of Ike.

I've always wanted to live near the beach, but lately I'm glad I live in Ohio. We might get an ice storm, some flooding and an occasionaly tornado but nothing nearly as bad as the coastal areas have gotten hit in the last few years. We did get some pretty bad winds from Ike. Columbus area got hit pretty hard.

KELLI, THANKS SO MUCH FOR THE UPDATE ON SANDY! GLAD TO KNOW SHE IS OKEY!

Hi guys!! I finally got power on Friday Night, we were living off the generator (thank god we had it). Life is finally getting back to normal. The cell phone service around here has been off and on since Ike. I'm glad to hear Sandy & Shea are alright. It has been a looong week. There were still alot of people at church this morning that still don't have power. I've missed this board so much - this was the first place I went to... Got have my gary news. Take Care.

gail

Just wanted to let everyone know I did hear from Sandy today. Her cell phone service has been in and out since Ike. She was going through her voice mail and trying to call the people who had left her messages while she had some reception.

She said she is doing good... still has no power. They do however have a generator. They lost a lot of trees and have had a lot of clean up to do. She said to let everyone know they are ok. Her husband was able to get the water hooked up to the house so they do have water, just not HOT water. I bet she is really looking forward to a nice long hot shower. I know I would be.

I have only received text messages from Shea. I have tried a few times to call her with no luck. I will let you all know if I do hear from her.

Still keeping everyone in my prayers.


Shroomie

SO GLAD TO HEAR YOU ARE DOING OKEY! WE WERE ALL WORRIED ABOUT OUR FELLOW TEXAS JUNKIES!!

I'm glad everyone has/is made it through Ike.

I live in Willis & we lost power around 5:00am Saturday morning for 5 days. The tree in my sister's front got blown down & just missed the house. The neighbor's tree in the backyard blew down over the fence & hit our gas meter. We were in my sister's closet, the "safe room", & my nephew walks in & says, "We have a problem. I smell gas out there." My sister & I looked at each other & said, "S***!!" When we went out to the living room we could see the broken meter & hear the loud hiss of the gas coming out of the pipes OVER the wind/rain from the hurricane. We called 911 & 3 firefighters came out & capped off the pipes... DURING THE STORM. Those men are true heroes in my opinion.

We had water since her community has a back up generator for that after what happened with Rita.

We never did lose cell phone service.

My sister works for Hewitt in The Woodlands & they actually closed their offices. She said that was the 1st time they've ever done that. She was shocked. The last she said they had limited office space available since their building got flooded & had no power. They were asking anyone who could work from home to do that instead of coming in to the office.

A friend of my sister had a house on Galveston island. It's now gone. At least he thinks it is. He hasn't been able to go & see for himself what happened to it/how bad the damage is.

I also have to give HUGE KUDOS to the Conroe PD & whoever was running the POD at The Grand Theatre. That was the most organized disaster relief thing I have EVER seen. My sister & I told a couple of the officers how impressed we were but it still deserves a mention on here. Plus.... Conroe has mighty hot policemen!!!

A HUGE round of kudos also to all of the linemen that came from out of state & Canada to help restore power. I saw about 15 trucks from North Carolina myself. These men are risking their lives simply by doing their job. I don't think most people realize just how dangerous their jobs are unless you have a family member/know someone who is a lineman. My family has/works for P.G. & E. in California.

Hurricane Ike taught me a couple of things........

Earthquakes scare me more than hurricanes. You at least get warnings & know that a hurricane is on the way.

After so many days with no hot water... I really have NO problem using someone's shower that I don't know all that well, even if my sister knows them, as long as the water is HOT. Thank God for neighbors/friends.

OH! I almost forgot!

I have pics on my myspace page.