What a week!

"Bag it. Tag it. Move it." That's what I was doing at work one week ago today. With Hurricane Ike approaching we had to bag and move all computer equipment to the interior offices. This is one time that having an office with a window really stinks!
I am fortunate enough to have a boss who let us all go home before noon to take care of things at home before the storm hit. We boarded up the house, brought in anything that could fly away and were ready to hunker down for the storm. My parents had a different idea though. After much persuasion, we packed a few bags, a box of things I couldn't live without and hit the road for Sanger at around 2AM Friday morning. One thing about leaving in the wee hours of the morning is that traffic is really light...so Jonathan tells me as I was doing my best to catch up on some sleep. Abigail really wanted to stay and see the storm but I told her she could take her "hurricane crackers" from the hurricane kit and she was ok with leaving. It's nice that sometimes it's the little things that can make a child happy.
We got to my parents on Friday morning and parked ourselves in front of the TV to watch any news we could get about the storm. We woke up early Saturday morning to see the news flooded with pictures of the devastation left behind by Ike. The Galveston that we loved to visit may never be the same again. We spoke to our neighbor and he let us know that our neighborhood did not lose power and we had minimal damage. We are SO thankful for that.
Work was closed until Wednesday and schools were closed the entire week but we headed home late Sunday night. We inspected the house Monday morning and found no damage at all. We were very lucky because some people in the neighborhood did have some roof damage. We took a drive around town and there were trees down everywhere. Very few street lights were working - if they were even still standing at all. It was just a mess. Nothing compared to what happened on the coast but definately not how we left things on Thursday.

Here are some pictures I've found online - these were sent in to TV stations by viewers.

Waves rolling over the top of the seawall in Galveston.

Waves crashing in front of the memorial for the storm of 1900 on seawall blvd.


A house on fire during the storm.

Boats destroyed by the storm.

Bolivar Pennisula

Seawall Blvd in Galveston

Houses destroyed

I-10 in Houston - looks more like a river

The storm approaching Katy

Damage around Katy

More damage in Katy at one of the high schools

Such long lines for gas now.

Damage in Downtown Houston

Just loved this picture - they get everyone to help out with cleaning after the storm - even the animals.