Well, we rode the storm out here in NW Houston. No trees down on our home nor on our property. We did loose power about 1am Saturday morning when the eye was just creeping onto the East end of Galveston Island. The worst of the storm was not the northern end of the eye, it was the southern end when it was almost done. MAN! I'll never forget the sounds of those winds and the way the green lightning looked! We just got power back today and are VERY thankful and fortunate considering that about 1.2M people are still without power. Any one south of the Clear Lake area in far South Houston will take potentially a month to have power restored because of how severe the damage is. And that's not speaking of the people East of us in Beaumont, Port Arthur, even Lake Charles, Louisiana and as far as Delcambre! Those guys got the dirtiest side of the storm and are still sitting in flood waters and snapped in half power poles!

Just thought I'd check in for those wondering about PD2 - if we have others that were effected, hopefully they will check in as they have power.

PD2:thumbsup:

Glad to hear that youre okay PD2! We have some friends that live in Houston and and road the storm out. They came up to Dallas yesterday because they have no power. I know the property damage is really bad, but I sure am thankful the loss of life was low. So sorry for the people that still lost folks and pets though. I couldnt believe how big the storm was! Glad you got your power back and please keep us posted.

Rich

This is some video footage from the Clear Lake Hilton that is just across the street from NASA in Clear Lake, TX.:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8iqLcGN3Go

This is just an example of what the weather was like here where we live. Let me remind you, Clear Lake probably caught the eye if not the Western eye of the storm and we are about 40+ miles West and another 50+ mile north of this location on the Northwest side of Houston.

PD2:thumbsup:

PD2,
Glad you made it through the storm OK. I have a brother in Houston. His house received little damage. The trees are another story.

glad to hear your ok PD2, we had a spare room ready for you southern guys. keep that in mind next time. I will corupt you into to running Ho scale though...


Dave

I'm headed to Houston, with 6000 gal of water for the disaster victims.... Pulling for FEMA,, so for any of those in trouble.... Help is on the way..
I'll be contacting coach on my way in or out... but if any of you see a Black Peterbilt pulling a tanker and a grumpy old fart at the wheel.. .Come say Hello!
Later
On my way out the door, headed south..
Chris

Scorpions - Rock You Like A Hurricane (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rB8HudfbaTE) http://i34.tinypic.com/34dflh2.gif


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Thanks guys! It was interesting and as my wife and I were talking about, even living 100 miles from the coast, there is no way we are riding anything out stronger than what hit! That was about the limit! When you hear the walls of your home creaking as the wind and rain blow against it and you get to watch the neon green lightning light up your dark house, that's about enough.

Coach,

From the others down here, thanks for doing that and be ready. We thought about heading that way, but they kept saying that the Dallas area was going to catch at least CAT 1 winds and storm from this too so we were a bit concerned about heading anywhere north, needless to say. As for HO, I'm fairly deep into it now bro - got an AFX track and SEVERAL cars in addition to the HOHT ones I have. I'm just slot car racing anything from HO to 1/32 in size now! HAHAHA!!!

Chris,

On behalf of us down here we cannot thank you enough! A variety of stores are open but supplies on the shelf are slim. What is getting me mad are the people that have the means of going to their local grocery store and the money to buy what they need heading all over town to the FREE supplies and getting what they want from there. That is why the people that do need the supplies are not getting enough and that is also why we keep running out of gas at the stations around here - they have been told to stop driving all over the place to find this and find that and to just stay put and stay local. The freeways look like holiday weekends! My parents place in Brenham - about 40-50 further Northwest than me - is just filled with people coming from all over Houston to buy things. They get out there on the fuel they have, turn around and come back to Houston on fumes and then complain about not having any gas at the stations. Just crazy stuff. It's like they are not thinking and they are definitely not being friendly. You be careful coming down here and if you can pack some heat, be sure to bring it - it can be a bit crazy around here depending on whether or not people have got their heads on straight! Thanks for bringing the water!

PD2:thumbsup:

Wow simply unbelievable video footage. And the story of greedy people amidst the KAOS is just ridiculous. You don't hear those type of stories on the news. I wish you all the best and if I lived near you I would offer you a place to stay.

The Chicago area got hit really bad with rain and flooding last weekend but nothing like what you have had. :(

GALVESTON, Texas — Texas authorities busy trying to clean up after Hurricane Ike have a new problem on their hands: There's a tiger loose. A county official said Tuesday that the animal somehow left its enclosure at an exotic pets center in Crystal Beach. Animal experts are coming in to try and catch the tiger. Galveston County Judge Jim Yarbrough put it this way: "Turns out there's a tiger, and I understand he's hungry ... so we're staying away from him." Crystal Beach is on Bolivar Peninsula. The area is one of the hardest-hit by Ike. The news follows reports of a lion holed up in a Baptist church with its owner on Bolivar Peninsula as well as livestock and other animals roaming amid Hurricane Ike's wreckage.

I wonder if the lion's owner is now "holed up" in the lion!! nd

Wow simply unbelievable video footage. And the story of greedy people amidst the KAOS is just ridiculous. You don't hear those type of stories on the news. I wish you all the best and if I lived near you I would offer you a place to stay.

The Chicago area got hit really bad with rain and flooding last weekend but nothing like what you have had. :(

Yeah, we heard about it. I was supposed to fly out on Sunday to go to Atlanta, GA. for a big show/conference with other guys in my company. Two of them were delayed leaving Chicago and St. Louis. But we are getting reports that 15 people died up in the Midwest because of this storm - its like it never stopped its destruction! You guys definitely did not need it after Gustav just went through. Gustave missed me here but I was in St. Louis trying to leave when it hit there a week or so ago.

We always say if we can make it through August and September without any tropical weather coming in, then the rest of the hurricane season will be good. Guess we did not get so lucky this time.

PD2:thumbsup:

GALVESTON, Texas — Texas authorities busy trying to clean up after Hurricane Ike have a new problem on their hands: There's a tiger loose. A county official said Tuesday that the animal somehow left its enclosure at an exotic pets center in Crystal Beach. Animal experts are coming in to try and catch the tiger. Galveston County Judge Jim Yarbrough put it this way: "Turns out there's a tiger, and I understand he's hungry ... so we're staying away from him." Crystal Beach is on Bolivar Peninsula. The area is one of the hardest-hit by Ike. The news follows reports of a lion holed up in a Baptist church with its owner on Bolivar Peninsula as well as livestock and other animals roaming amid Hurricane Ike's wreckage.

I wonder if the lion's owner is now "holed up" in the lion!! nd

HAHAHAHA!!!! That guy has been around for a while - he's a weirdo! Imagine that! At any rate, I doubt he'll be keeping that tiger much longer.

Aside from that, the power is slowly coming back up with the help of people from all over the place! Kansas Power and Light is here. People for New Mexico. We are even getting reports of tree trimmers and linemen from Canada and even LA! I talked with an old co-worker of mine who lives out toward Austin and her dad runs an operations team for a local co-op power company there. He has sent ALL his linemen and tree trimmers except for him and another guy to help - that's almost 400 men! We cannot express how thankful we are for everyone from all over the country wanting to come in and help out!

As more grocery stores and gas stations come back on line, the wide spread panic and fear should subside. We noticed it calmed down quiet a bit yesterday for some reason. It's not that we are running out of gas or food - it's like having 1-2M of your closest friends come to the 12 grocery stores and 12 gas stations ALL AT THE SAME TIME! It makes it look like we won't have enough, etc.

Out of the 2.3M subscribers to Reliant/CenterPoint Energy, they currently have about 825,000 people on with power total. A little over a million to go! They think that by Friday or Saturday they could have 75% up - we are at 38% right now.

PD2:thumbsup:

I'm headed to Houston, with 6000 gal of water for the disaster victims.... Pulling for FEMA,, so for any of those in trouble.... Help is on the way..
I'll be contacting coach on my way in or out... but if any of you see a Black Peterbilt pulling a tanker and a grumpy old fart at the wheel.. .Come say Hello!
Later
On my way out the door, headed south..
Chris

Was very cool to met with CJ on his way through! Thanks for helping those southern yeakans out bud! Btw Cj is a long hair pinko lol....


Dave

Was very cool to met with CJ on his way through! Thanks for helping those southern yeakans out bud! Btw Cj is a long hair pinko lol....


Dave

WOW! Chris you flew down with the water...wooooooooooosh.

Bet Chris and Coach had some fun slot stories and a few cold ones?

Bob...CJ stop by Gretna on the way home...zilla

Hey Guys!!
I just walked in the door ,, back from New Caney, TX.. north of Houston.. PD2 sorry the water wasn't directly for use to the victims... I dropped it at a staging area for the Emergency Response teams working on getting the power back on. Still it serves a purpose..
Yes I did get to visit with Coach for a bit... I was pretty beat by the time I got back up north of Dallas, so our time was short.. But it was still great to put a place with a name... and His wife insisted he by my meal.. I appreciated the thought..
I saw the least of the damage in the area... from what I was told it will be some time before power is back up and the infrastructure back in place in Houston..
I'll be back again as many trips as it takes if they ask me to go.. Our outfit isn't afraid to "get with it" on the way down...
Later
Chris

PD.... You people hang tough down there. On several occasions we've been "powerless" due to storms... it sux. Every day it should get a little better though.

CJ.... WTG. That's a good thing yer doing. I have seen that the first responders and work crews are facing the same hardships as the residents and going without in many cases. You're like big hearted waterboys...only with a seriously bad attitude. People!! Step Away From The Truck!! :devil: nd

Hey Guys!!
I just walked in the door ,, back from New Caney, TX.. north of Houston.. PD2 sorry the water wasn't directly for use to the victims... I dropped it at a staging area for the Emergency Response teams working on getting the power back on. Still it serves a purpose..
Yes I did get to visit with Coach for a bit... I was pretty beat by the time I got back up north of Dallas, so our time was short.. But it was still great to put a place with a name... and His wife insisted he by my meal.. I appreciated the thought..
I saw the least of the damage in the area... from what I was told it will be some time before power is back up and the infrastructure back in place in Houston..
I'll be back again as many trips as it takes if they ask me to go.. Our outfit isn't afraid to "get with it" on the way down...
Later
Chris

Hey Chris!

New Caney, Conroe, Porter and that area of 59N got it pretty bad, plus they use Entergy in that area to supply their power. From what I understand, SEVERAL of Entergy's power generation stations got knocked out and it appears that to rebuild most of these units is a 6+ week process. They are trying to use 18-wheeler size trailer generators to plug into the grids and power up Entergy's grid until these generation stations are restored, but even those are scarce. Yeah, you did not see the really bad parts, but that side of town did take a nasty hit since the storm came in on the East side and went through the Northeast side of Houston, which is that area.

And no worries on not delivering the water to any victims - as you said, delivering it to those helping out down here is just as critical to the support system. We still thank you and appreciate your efforts. I kept watching on TV when the trucks would roll into the POD locations to see if I saw your rig or not. HA!

Get some rest and thanks again Chris!

PD2:thumbsup:

PD.... You people hang tough down there. On several occasions we've been "powerless" due to storms... it sux. Every day it should get a little better though.

tjd,

Oh, we are familiar with just some little East Texas storms coming through and knocking things out or a nasty tornado-like-storm blowing out things around here. The one saving grace has been our weather! Ever since that cold front came in the usual hot, humid, steaminess is not here! Thank God! Temps have started out in the upper 50's low 60's and it has not gotten hotter than 85!! The humidity is nonexistent too! MANY that are without power are sleeping at home with the windows open and its just like having an A/C'ed house! Thank God for those things!

PD2:thumbsup:

Hey Glad to hear that you all are allright !

PD2
Glad to have been able to make the run, and do something to help.. Thanks to you and Nuther for the kind words...
Later
Chris