Oh man, we got destroyed here in loveland (few miles from cincinnati). 75 mph gusts! I was outside all day preparing my plants for winter and I watched a huge black locust fall down. every bradford pear in the tri-state area has been split n half or completely blown down. shingles from the school were flying everywhere and peoples siding were being torn off. A window in my van was ripped completely off so now the van is missing a window. I was hit by a few branches and let me tell you it hurts at 40 mph! I drove down to meijers to get some potting soil and saw a MASSIVE red oak tree that fell on a small house completely destroying it. I feel bad for the people who live there. The house was smashed in two. also 3 people were killed by the falling trees in my area. Im in West Virginia now and can only tell this story here because over a MILLION people in the tristate area have no power including my house. They said it could be 3-5 days before it comes back on. With all this wind we got very little rain. when i was driving to WVU this morning we passed 3 convoys of power trucks coming in from neighboring states to help out

WOW -
winds of 75mph puts it at a cat 1 - I cannot imagine living where that is something people don't worry about. We are Ok - have power in the 'hood. I saw my patio table ( the big rectangle aluminum kind) sail thru the air into the pond behind my house!

My husband and I took the dogs out and a HUGE bee slammed into his hand - and then stung him, his hand looks like one of Mickeys.

the up side I cleaned up the yard and overseeded my drought damaged yard and pulled some really scary looking weeds I just never saw in the yard - no really I never saw them.

We just got power back after having it off since 2:30 pm yesterday.

They were originally telling us to plan on having it off for 7 days, then changed that to "should have it by midnight Wednesday". But then about 6 pm we got power back so we're going to celebrate by NOT cooking our next meal on a wood fire.

Winds were really wild here but fortunately the ground was dry and no trees got uprooted. If we had caught the rain as well as the wind we'd be cutting trees off of the fence instead of catching up on internet stuff now. Some of the winds were really spooky and we had 100 ft trees being whipped around like you wouldn't believe.

We lucked out this time and down here in the holler we just had a few okra blow over and of course that power outage. Neighbor up the hill caught the winds much harder and has had a big clean up day today.

Goats and cow are enjoying all of the acorns that have blown down.

Lynda

Just glad to hear that you are all fine. After a category 1 hit us in 2003, I never want to experience another in my lifetime. Again, happy you are all safe.

My daughter lives in Galveston and is currently in Dallas. She found aerial pictures of the island and determined that her house still has a roof! She doesn't know when they will be allowed to return home, but is hopeful that only the basement flooded.

Becky
ramazz

Yikes! I was caught in Hurricane Hugo (cat 5) back in '89 and I've sworn that the minute I hear "hurri", I'm not waiting for the "cane" - I will be out of there!!!

PV

We were lucky to escape the straight winds (had those last year, very nasty -- Glenview lost over 1000 trees).

We got nailed with rain (9 inches), we managed to escape serious damage by working our @$$e$ off. (too bad mine is still there even after all that hee!).

Ill put up some pix and tell the story when I have more time. Too tired now, just popping in for a quick break.

I really don't have any complaints. Our phone/Internet/cable were out for over two days, but that's nothing.

The woman who was killed when a tree fell on her house was my co-worker's sister. Please keep her and her family in your thoughts and/or prayers.

Here is a link that might be useful: The husband posted a few photos

We had over 75 mph gusts here too. The only issues we had was a tree falling on our garage, not too much damage and a few shingles off the roof. I have not had internet or phone until today but power was only off for about 12 hours. All in all I'd say we are pretty lucky and thankful. My prayers are with those that haven't been so fortunate due to Ike.

Andrea

we had gusts over 80mph
here in Louisville, over 300,000 lost power- after almost
a week, there are still over 100,000- in my area, the electric was out from Sunday until Weds pm- lots of trees down- I have 2 BIG piles of limbs, etc, but we did not lose any trees...had to drive miles and miles looking for ice for coolers- with so many gas stations 'dark' the others ran OUT - again, driving miles and miles trying to find gas....the National Guard was called out to help direct traffic...in some of our old established neighborhoods, it looks like a war zone!

lost one lady due to poison from a generator they were using for power...

a power company from Mt Airy, NC was in our neighborhood to get the power on- I am sure there are others too...

most of my flowers, bushes are either down on the ground, or look like they have been sand blasted on one side...

I feel SO bad for the folks in TX, MS, AL, FL, LA- I can't
imagine how bad it must be for them!

Linda *hanging in there in the Derby City*

I just got my power back last night (Friday night) since Ike arrived last Sunday. No fun living in the dark for 6 days. Those ice cold showers were something else. Many folks still without power and my heart goes out to them. With a million people without power, progress is being made now with help from power company workers from N and S Carolina, New York, and other states. Local stores, lacking power, have been closed or selling only non-perishables. Traffic lights started working Thursday. Interesting driving with no traffic lights- kind of like playing bumper cars. Gasoline has also been in short supply, long lines forming whenever someplace got a truck load. The has supply does seem to be improving now. So does ice supply. That was almost impossible to find.

We built a bonfire in our driveway last night and had a party last night to celebrate. Lots of neighbors were here.

I had a lot of roof damage too, as well as siding damage. I have gotten one roofer here to look at it who recommended replacing the whole thing because damage is so extensive. I have siding damage, too. Some just blown loose and flapping in the wind, some crimped, some mangled and blown away. Most roofers and siding companies unable to keep up with calls, or say they can't even look at it for a month or more.

I also lost every bit of food in my fridge and freezer, hundreds of dollars worth.

Philmont's description of Cinti is pretty good. So many huge old trees were blown out of the ground. Street and traffic signs are gone with the wind. There are still power lines on the ground all around my neighborhood. Three power poles in a row are laying on the ground a block from my house, lots of wires attached to them.

I heard that winds were indeed 75 mph, and this storm was classified as a subtropical hurricaine. They're saying a storm of this intensity occurs in this part of the country about once every hundred years.

We spent today trying to return to normal life. Picked up a few groceries, took long, hot showers, did mountains of laundry, cleaned up the clutter inside the house (candles, flashlights, scraps of paper with emergency phone numbers. Clutter was amazing.

I might never eat another piece of peanut butter bread. It was the mainstay of my diet all week.

Karen