We Got Iked

Post By Travis:

I am sure most of you know that we are safe and sound after the recent hurricane. Jana and Jayden we off on their planned road trip, and so I stuck around to brave the storm alone. We got out of work early on Thursday so that those who needed to prepare could do so.

I got home to find my next door neighbor boarding up his windows, which made me think that perhaps I was taking this storm too lightly. I still would have done nothing, except that he had a bunch of extra wood, so I went ahead and boarded up the four front facing windows on the bottom floor.

On Friday I spent most of the day just hauling everything from the outside indoors somewhere. Most items found a home in the garage, and the dog kennels got moved into the living room where I planned to sleep that night as the storm hit.

Seeing as how the storm was set to hit around 1:00 am, I popped a movie into the DVD player and was just about to hit play when the power shut off... that's right, at 9:10 PM without so much as a drop of rain, or gust of wind, I lost power.

So now, completely unprepared, I made my way to the garage (detached from the house) in the dark to get my flashlight only to find that the chrager had not been plugged in properly and the thing was useless.

So candles got lit inside, but it was only about 9:45 by the time I decided I would just go ahead and try to sleep.

Around 3 in the morning I woke up to the sound of wind, but the experience was surreal. I could not see. I mean, it was darker than ANYTHING I had ever experienced. I literally touched my eyelashes with my finger, and still could not see my finger or even detect movement.

So by the light of my cell phone I walked to the back windows to see out into the yard... but the blackness was impenetrable, so I went back to sleep.

The next morning it was drizzling rain and still fairly windy. I didn't wake up until about 9:30, well after the eye passed directly over Kingwood. So time to survey the damage. I looked out back to see a small tree had been knocked over, doing no damage to anything around. It fell away from the new fence I had built a few weeks back, into the middle of the yard.

Out front, one branch lay in my front yard, along with plenty of sticks, but the typical summer storm accounts for that much. So I thought to myself, wow, all that hype for nothing. I walked my street, and most of my neighbors fared the same. A small tree here or there, 2 fences with segments knocked down or leaning, but on the whole, not much had happened.

Reaching the end of the block I was shocked... literally 1 block in any direction there were HUGE trees laying across roads, cars and houses. One house a block over had 3 enormous pine trees resting on the roof. It was about here that I realized just how devastating this storm was.

Later in the day I drove over to the Woodlands to hang with Mom and Pop. They had a generator powering their fridge and freezer, so it was nice to have a hot meal. I stayed there that night, a night in which we got hit my more storms caused by an incoming cold front.

So the waters rose, but I still thank God for the cold front because it made the next few days tolerable if not down right enjoyable.

I headed back home to start the cleanup, and all of my neighbors were out, cleaning raking, and the kids were playing football in the cul-de-sac.

The next two nights, without power, we had block parties in which people brought watever was going to spoil from their homes and we cooked out.

After that I was invited over to Bob and Teri Ethington's (our preacher) and we ate dinner there with the Mahlers, and Jen DeChillo, and we even roasted Smore's on Bob's fire pit.

On the way home that night I got the call that our building downtown was safe to enter, so I was to head into work the next day (Wed).

I work in the Chase tower downtown, and for those of you who are not familiar with it, it is the tallest building in Houston at 75 floors, and was by FAR the hardest hit buidling in downtown. All of the pictures of office buildings that I have seen from any source are ALL of the Chase tower.

I work on 48 which did not lose a single window. 47 and 46 did, and floors 1-about 35 lost almost every window on the east side.

So as it sits now (Friday) I am in my office, working away, but still do not have power at the house, nor do I expect I will before Monday.

Jana and Jayden are still in OK, and are planning on coming home Sunday if we have power, or Monday if we dont.

I am anxious to see them, but know it would not be comfortable for them to be in that house with no power all day long. My nights since Wed have comprised of walking the dogs and reading books, of which I am about to finish my 2nd.

All in all we made out very well. I can complain about not having power, but then all I have to do is drive through my neighborhood and see trees down, huge holes in homes, store fronts ripped off, and 2 hour lines for gas stations that are operating, and I count my blessings.

There were many who were very adversley affected by this storm, but it intrigues me that the media has given it very little coverage when all we heard for months was news about Katrina.

The difference was poigniently pointed out to me by one of my colleagues. Here we were out in droves cleaning our yards, cleaning our neighborhoods, helping each other, and making the best of what we were dealt. This city came together in a spirit of service and solidarity. There were communities coming together to push through instead of waiting for a goverment to save them.

I am proud of the people of this city, Houston at large, and Kingwood specifically. I ask all of you to please keep Galveston, Houston, and the surrouding areas in your prayers. The need here is great, as you will see from the photos. There were no levees to break, but the aftermath is very Katrina-like and we need to not forget that there are many suffering, and many more "getting through".

If you want to pray specifically for power to come on at my house so I don't go insane this weekend, that would be appreciated to :)

Sorry for the long post.

God Bless,
Travis