Hurricane Ike

On the 13th day it was said - let there be light - and it was so - WOO HOO!!!! We have power back. Here is some of what happen while the lights were out:

From National Hurricane Center:

10:00 PM MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS ARE NEAR 110 MPH WITH HIGHER GUSTS. IKE REMAINS A VERY LARGE HURRICANE AND HURRICANE FORCE WINDS EXTENDOUTWARD UP TO 120 MILES...FROM THE CENTER...AND TROPICALSTORM FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 275 MILES. 952 MB

At this last update we got before the lights went out the forecast track of the center was about 20 miles to our west with projected maximum winds to our area around mid-80s at a Cat 1 storm.

2:10 AM CENTER OF IKE MADE LANDFALL AT GALVESTON TEXAS

600 AM THE CENTER OF HURRICANE IKE WAS LOCATED NEAR LATITUDE 30.1 NORTH...LONGITUDE 95.1 WEST OR JUST NORTHEAST OF KINGWOOD TEXAS [Yes - that is where we live and these coordinates are about 5-10 miles from our home]......IKE IS NOW MOVING TOWARD THE NORTH-NORTHWEST NEAR 15 MPH....MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS HAVE DECREASED TO NEAR 100 MPH...160 KM/HR...WITH HIGHER GUSTS. IKE IS A CATEGORY TWO HURRICANE ....HURRICANE FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 125 MILES...205 KM...FROM THE CENTER...AND TROPICAL STORM FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 260MILES...THE ESTIMATED MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE IS 956 MB. DO NOT VENTURE OUTSIDE IN THE EYE. THE STRONGEST WINDS AND HIGHEST SURGE WILL LIKELY OCCUR NEAR OR JUST AFTER THE EYE MAKES LANDFALL.

So the track ended up 5-10 miles to our East instead of 20 miles West as we thought when the lights went out and with that shift the eye was able to stay over water longer thru the Bay to get within about 20-30 miles of Kingwood before really going on land so the 60-70 miles of weakenning over land didn't happen before it got to us - That's pretty much as bad a track as is possible for Kingwood. It appears we got about 100 mph sustained winds + gusts - Category 2 Hurricane Strength at the house. For our area the prior record for wind had been in the mid-80 mph range from the prior Galveston Hurricane in 1900 that largely destroyed that island the last time. So IKE set new records in recorded history for our area.

From the dimensions and speed of this storm - rough calculations would say:

9/12

1 pm - Tropical Force Winds

3:30 pm (I go for one last run - getting a little windy)

9:30pm - Hurricane Force Winds

9/13
12:15 AM Saturday September 13th - The lights go out (according to our stove clock locked in that position for days).

4:40am - Enter the 40 mile diameter eye of the storm

6:00am - A pretty restless sleep really to the howls of the wind. Several in the neighborhood (including us) take this opportunity to let the dogs out briefly - I consider a quick morning run but Susan forces a bit of wisdom into me. We look out the window to see this:

Feeling quite fortunate that none of the towering Pine Trees came down on the house and only this back yard tree that I didn't much like anyway.

7:20am - Exit the eye of the storm

10:20am - Kaylee and I walk to the lake to survey the neighborhood a little - still raining and a little windy but clearly dying down - we get quite wet - but we are not alone as several other neighbors are out surveying.

Lots of tree damage around the neighborhood - most come down missing houses

but a few trees are leaning on houses.

Debris is everywhere - I figure the greenbelts (jogging trails) will be covered for months from the small glimpses I got of them:

2:20pm - Exit Hurricane Force Winds

Communications for a while is real spotty - although I found I could get occasional - sometimes in the early morning hours -blackberry service enough to get a quick email message out to let concerned family know we were all fine:

9/13 8:41 am Good morning. The eye has passed, still storming but the worst is done. One tree down but missed house (about 1/2 way in the pool) so I get to use my new chainsaw. Power out at 12:30 last night. Just wanted to let y'all know we are fine. Love you all. No phone and bad cell coverage but we are fine.

9/14 3:55 am Coverage is pretty spotty. We are in camp out mode in the house without power but everyone is fine. Cleaned up today sawing up the tree and picking up the yard. We are hopeful for power back sooner than later. Mall has power so if too hot we may go hang out there some today.

We have one of the bigger piles on the street with the downed tree in the back.

But every house has a pile of debris from the wind.

9/14 3:40 pm We are in the dark for much news. If you see any interesting articles on the damage reports in Houston please email. Pictures too if you see interesting ones. No links - can't link to Internet. The tree was just outside kitchen window. I kinda like without it as it made the back patio feel claustrophobic - now its very open - when we get computer I will send you a picture. Another storm last night will probably slow power recovery but we are still hopeful not too long.

9/16 2:20 am No flooding. No expected insurance claim. In my area I expect maybe 1 in 50 houses will have a claim for tree damage to house so the area was not hit that hard really. Just a mess of trees and limbs with a pile in front of every house as most have finished cleanup by now. Streets are all cleared well enough to get around. Long lines to get ice - a precious commodity - fun family time in a way without power as you say. Looks like Thursday night at dads if we get power back - I probably won't fly off Wednesday if no power yet.Love ya all. Storm itself was kinda neat in a way. The eye went over the house and I really wanted to go run a bunch of miles in it but Susie wouldn't let me - probably smart :).

9/17 6:12 pm My morning run Kaylee Ryan (on bikes) and I traced the overhead power lined from our house to the main road a mile or so to get a clue to power recovery time. Found many trees on power lines yet to be dealt with and closest workers are 3 miles farther out. So we decided to see how lucky we could be in the search for a generator. Lucked out at a Sears that happened to just get 150 of them - at number 48 in line we now have a generator - also picked up a window AC as the hot/humid is supposed to be rolling in again over the weekend - so now we have power (yeah!) - sorta - and a chore every couple days to wait in fuel lines to keep it fueled. School pushed back to at least Monday and Shell has told us to stay home too until Monday to conserve fuel around town so we are all home having lots of family time and getting to know neighbors - not so rough a life really.

9/18 6:15 am [response to a question about other utilities besides electricity] Water, sewer, and gas are underground and has been on throughout (never flooded here) [although there were some smelly overflowing manholes around - not near our house thankfully - from sewers without power for pumps] - so we still enjoy hot showers. Grocery stores have power although frozen sections are closed - loaded up on groceries last night now that we have a frig again - most all we had before has been consumed or tossed - we barbecued the better stuff and have been living on as much steaks, salmon and shrimp as we could consume before we had to toss the rest out. Even had trash pickup yesterday so the streets don't smell of bad food from all the houses.

9/18 12:36 pm Extension cords everywhere. Some have hooked up to the main but I don't have parts for that and at only 4000 Watts we are limited - can't even run the dryer (and it's even a gas dryer) but can run frig, microwave and a few lights which is good enough for the basic comforts.

9/21 6:47 PM Life has improved some - although still no power we do now have a home phone and I figured out how to hook the generator to the house so as long as we are selective to stay within the generator wattage we can use all our normal comforts. Digital TV is pretty good (knew there was a good reason I kept those rabbit ears), phone connection gives us (slow) Internet thru my laptop and phone calling thru a couple analog phones we happened to have, also we bought a little window AC unit for the bedroom so nights aren't too hot. Life is moving forward. I go back to work tomorrow and the kids start school on Thursday per the latest estimate. Papers report our area is scheduled to be "substantially powered" by Monday night but I have my doubts as I drive by multiple spots of trees on the lines to the house and no workers - we can always hope - one benefit we have is it appears the power to the elementary school will give us power so since schools are to start Thursday they will have to energize the school which should give it to us too - I think.

9/24 6 pm - I finally see workers out working on the tangle of electrical lines and trees by the school next to our house. When they move to an area the move in force - there must have been 6 trucks and a dozen people swarming the repairs.

9/25 1:30pm - Start getting reports neighbors have power. 5:30pm - I get home from work and check with the volt meter - POWER!!!! - actually brings tears to Susan's eyes - cut off the generator and switch over to main power and fire everything up. What a nice thing to have. I do a jog after dark around the neighborhoods near us and ALL places I found had power where they were all dark the day before. Those power workers made a tone of progress in a day - they are real Hero's working non-stop since the storm to restore millions of people's power.

9/27 Street cleaners (another workforce of Heros) come by to clear out all the tree debris from in front of everyone's house.

Now we are essentially back to the way it was pre-storm. Even most of the jogging trails are clear. The week off work with cool weather gave me lots of opportunity to log mileage and I actually logged my highest mileage week since high school at 82.7 miles. Thru all that running thru neighborhoods post Ike I was impressed by the damage but also impressed by how well houses protect - I didn't see a single tree that actually penetrated a house past the roof - I saw several that completely destroyed the roof but none that broke the walls supporting the roof. The worst damage was from the pine trees that snapped in the middle and free-fell into a roof - the trees that gave way at the roots generally just leaned up against the house. I was also impressed at the total lack of window damage anywhere. Several boarded up or taped up windows in preparation but that work appeared without any benefit for any house I saw. We boarded up the master bedroom and all slept in there creating a "safe room" to ride out the storm - I actually left the boards on until after we had power as it also kept the room a little cooler.

Pretty amazing what has been done in clean-up in a couple weeks. It got pretty old to be without power but overall we got off pretty lucky. I've now experienced my first Hurricane - after Ike I don't even count Hurricane Rita 3 years ago which didn't even get Cat 1 force winds into our area. Quite an experience that I'd be quite alright with only having once in my life - although in the end it was mostly a major inconvenience to be without power for a couple weeks - we were quite fortunate compared to many many others.

John.