Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Hurrican IKE


Some of the downed limbs

Neighbor's RV got thumped

Downed trees blocking our exit north

Downed trees

Another unit got thumped

More trees blocking our exit

We were following Hurricane Ike over the news and weather channels on television and were well aware of its approach. The problem was that we were on the wrong channel and its prediction called for less winds than the other channels were calling for in our area. Therefore we made the decision to stay at our RV park in Livingston Texas instead of evacuating to some other area. That was not the best choice, we didn’t suffer any damage, however it came awfully close. Thursday the storm started to arrive and the winds picked up and were blowing about forty to fifty miles an hour. By daybreak the winds were approaching hurricane force here and we are over sixty miles north of the edge of Houston. Trees were breaking and limbs of trees being blown by and other building debris as well. The power went out before dawn and there was no internet signal or cell phone signal.

Saturday evening the storm started to calm down and the rains were off and on, the trailer felt damp even though we didn’t have any major leaks. We took the dogs for a walk so they could relive themselves and walk of some excess energy. We were blocked at both ends of our road by fallen trees, there were branches and wood from trees littering the RV sites. Several RV units had big branches laying on top of them. No one got hurt thank goodness.

At the moment we don’t have electricity and have only sporadic cell phone and wifi connectivity. We have been told to be conservative with our water use as the power for the sewer system here is using only emergency power sporadically and the system can be over taxed and cause problems.

So, the point is we rode out the storm and survived without injury or loss. If we had to do it over again, we wouldn't, the stress is not worth it and neither are the complications. We had reservations at a B&B in Mexico and sent them a message saying that our flight was canceled yet they still charged us for our room, nothing we can do about it either. We have re booked our flight and will visit Mexico and complete our reservation at the B&B, but we are not happy about being there.