The effects of Hurricane Ike on our neighborhood

A few homes in our neighborhood got really nervous and covered their windows. Oh, and their door!!

Brandon was in Geneva, Switzerland when officials determined Hurricane Ike was expected to hit Galveston Island. His flight was scheduled to arrive in Houston Saturday night after Ike hit. He immediately scheduled another flight arriving in Houston at 1:00pm Friday thinking he would make it to our home in plenty of time. We discovered Thursday night at 7:00pm Swiss time that his flight had been canceled. He immediately scheduled two more flights on separate airlines just to insure he would make it in. Two hours later the mayor of Houston announced he would be closing the George Bush airport at noon canceling B's other two flights.

I was okay with him not making it home but he was determined to be here when Ike hit. His comment was, "I have not lived in Houston for three years to miss a hurricane. I want to be there to experience it." Not, I want to be there to protect you. I guess it's a guy thing.

Anyways, early Friday morning the day before Ike was scheduled to hit I called B's blackberry and it went straight to voicemail. He never has it off so I knew he must be flying somewhere. I checked his email and noticed he had four flights scheduled. Two to Paris, one to Ohio, and one to Georgia. Which one could it be??? None of those. He called me around 11:00am Houston time to say that he was in New York but, his flight had been canceled to Houston. He had immediately booked a flight to San Antonio just to find out the canceled Houston flight was re-routed to San Antonio. He now had two flights scheduled to San Antonio. Anyways after confusing the airlines by scheduling two flights on the same airline at the same time he arrived in San Antonio at 6:45pm and made home at 9:15pm after the Houston curfew set for 7:00pm. The boys and I were ready to celebrate as soon as he walked in the door.

Luckily, the boys thought the party was in our closet where they were going to sleep that night. Our closet is an L shape so we set up their beds on this side of the closet and B and I would sleep on the other side if we needed to. But, B immediately fell asleep in our bed after being awake for over 24 hours. I woke him some time after 12:45am to tell him that the storm sounded different and it sounded like our roof was coming off. Being sleep deprived he told me our house was fine and to go back to sleep.

The next morning as I opened the shudders in our office I noticed that our front yard was covered in shingles. Right after, we realized that our roof did have damage. Right above our bedroom. :)

Even though it was still hurricane force winds we went outside to fix our roof. B folded a tarp in half and hammered it down to the roof. We then collected shingles from the front yard and hammered those on top.

The wind was still blowing about 30-40 miles per hour at this point but, Brandon said that he was not about to have a leak in the roof. A few hours later we discovered the damage to the rest of our neighborhood.

This photo of I think Discount Tires wasn't actually in our neighborhood. It's still in Katy but, about 5 or 10 minutes East from where we live.

Sandra and Cliff two doors down from us took the beating the worst. They also along with about 8 or 10 other homes in our neighborhood had roof damage. Unfortunately, due to the leaks in their roof their ceiling caved in. A few hours after these pictures the ceiling caved in even more requiring them to evacuate their home.

The rest of the day B and I spent our time helping our neighbors cover their roofs and clean up the mess inside. By the end many in our neighborhood thought that B did roofin' for a livin'. I just had to laugh because until today the only time he has been on a roof was to hang Christmas lights. Needless to say it was a great experience. We bonded with our neighbors more than we ever have. We feel very blessed to have been affected as little as we did. We were the only ones on the street without leaking and our cost was much much lower than anyone elses. Yes, first thing Monday morning we had our roof repaired at a cheap $250.00.

I now also realize why it was so important for B to be home for the hurricane. We have a lot of older people or people afraid of heights in our neighborhood. They would have never been able to cover their roofs like B did. It was definitely a blessing. I am so happy he was here to "experience" the hurricane.

Almost a week after Ike things are finally getting or at least I hope getting back to normal. B still hasn't gone back to work. The boys still have not gone back to school. Gas lines are really long and I can't find milk anywhere (luckily I froze a few gallons before Ike hit). Needless to say in Katy, Texas we were very blessed to have such little damage. Most of us regained our power within 24 hours...and as you can see on the news the rest of Houston and Galveston didn't fair so well. Thanks everyone for your calls and emails. We love you and appreciate your concerns. :-)