Ike

Well I don't really even know where to begin. It has been a long and emotional week. I can first let you know that we are so blessed that our house was spared with just some minor roof damage and that we are all back together again. Rhett and I evacuated Wednesday morning when the storm was still headed for Corpus Christi because with the history of the other storms who have come into the gulf they always seem to keep turning North as they get closer to land. So by Jason's estimation the storm still had three days to turn our way and he was so right. I'm pretty sure that Rhett and I were the first people to leave Houston. We were on the road to San Antonio by 8:30 Wednesday morning and had no traffic or problems getting there.

Jason stayed behind because he still had work to do and he needed to get our house ready for Ike's visit. Some of you may remember Jason sat in 22 hours of traffic trying to make the three hour drive to San Antonio to evacuate Rita so to say the least he's a little turned off of the whole evacuation idea if you can't get out early like Rhett and I did.

Once we made our decision about staying or going then it was time for the waiting game to begin. I can't imagine how eerie it must have been for Jason to sit here in the house all day Friday just waiting for the storm to come. Everything was moving right along for him at the house until he lost power around 9:00pm. He and I were able to stay in contact all night through text messaging. I stayed up and watched the news and radar and informed him of what Geraldo was doing in Galveston. Unfortunately for Jason and our area the eye never crossed over them. So instead of the 2 hour calm period you may have seen on the coverage from Galveston our area got pounded for more than twelve hours straight.

Jason spent a lot of the night trying to save our fish and saltwater aquarium. Without power there was no circulation in the tank and the temperature was rising and the fish were losing oxygen. Jason was able to save two of our six fish, and most importantly he was able to save Nemo!! The theme of his night was Saving Nemo.

Once daylight came and the storm calmed down to just a sprinkle Jason was able to go outside and see the damage done to our street. My neighbor's chimney is in her swimming pool and the roof of her garage collapsed. So many trees were blown down and a lot of people on our block are without roofs. Jason and two other families who stayed behind were able to function for five days with generators. Jason plugged in our freezer and had enough meat and food to feed all of our neighbors and so he cooked for everyone just about every night. He also spent a lot of time climbing on neighbors roofs and nailing down tarps to cover the gaping holes. One lady whom I didn't know before the storm told me that my husband was a God-send. She said he was out everyday helping anyone who needed help and offering to feed everyone. (We have a gas range and so he was able to cook and had hot water even without power.)

Our power came back on Monday night and so Rhett and I headed back Tuesday. It was so weird driving into town seeing everything in chaos. I was brought to tears when I turned into my subdivision and saw its condition. We are really just so blessed that our house is in one piece and that all of our friends are safe. So many people lost so much and they really need your prayers now. It will be a while before anything is back to normal but we will spend lots of time cleaning our neighborhood back up and trying to get back to "normal" as soon as possible.

The pictures above are some that Jason snapped when he was able to go outside for the first time. I'll try to walk down my street and upload some more pictures later. Please continue to be in prayer for all of the people down here who have been devastated beyond belief!