Praying here too. I hope those who needed to get out are safe somewhere else right now.

more prayers for you all. I cannot imagine.... hoping for the best for you

Just spoke with one of my friends in the Livingston area, and they had already had some pretty strong winds.
My prayers are with all of you for your safety, and as little damage as possible.

CHECK IN ASAP!!! PJ

I just saw that 4.5 million people are without electricity and that was before the eye came through. Saying some prayers for our southern friends.

Pam

Thank you for your prayers.

My family and I are safe in Austin.
The worst part is not knowing what we will return to.
I am at a remote office; the office at 610 & Broadway lost the roof and is substaining severe water damage.

Please continue to pray for us.

Maxxer

PJ, or anyone else who may hear from Tally --- please let us know if you do. I so hope she left the island in time.
Our friend, "bossjim", is riding it out in Alvin, but says he is high enough not to be affected by the surge and he had boarded up all his windows. I pray for everyone's safety.

We had planned to stay. Then they started talking about a 22' storm surge. So we all packed like mad maniacs and fled. We decided to leave at 6:00pm Thursday & left just after 9pm. We drove to Yorktown to my friend Nancy's ranch. 5 vehicles, 2 kids, 4 dogs, 2 lizards, 2 birds, 1 cat, 1 rabbit.

We know my brothers house is underwater, he lives off 59th. There is a video on chron.com of his neighbors being rescued, they are about a block from Tracy's house. They are the parents of the neighbors across the street. They were supposed to be picked up but never were. Finally a water rescue. My cousin decided to stay, she lives just west of 61st off the bayou. She called my sister hysterical, the water was up to her waist & the coast guard told her she was on her own. She had refused to leave & then called my aunt to go get her when it was too late. She was picked up by a firetruck. That was 4 or 5pm.

Don't know when we'll get home. Hope the plants are OK!!
Tally HO! & Jim, mom, Butch, Tracy, Mary, Jeremy & his bunch and the zoo

Good luck everyone!

Many prayers from the Texas Garden Forum.

We're in Zone C, so we didn't evacuate, but about halfway through last night I was sure wishing we had. The howling wind and ominous crashing noises were almost unbearable. We have a lot of branches down, part of the fence is busted, and we lost a lot of shingles and siding so there were some leaking issues. (Which I hope doesn't turn into a mold issue.) But I am thankful that it wasn't worse for us.

Strangely, my little tomato plant, several of my new bean plants, and my cabbage starts look fine. They barely look fazed at all. I can't say the same for some of my trees or my neighbor's trees.

Good luck to the rest of you.

Here's some prayers from Florida, one Hurricane state to another. Everybody be safe till this whole thing's cleaned up.

I had a neighbor check in on my house in Clear Lake (about 7 miles from Seabrook). I was worried my fig and pomegranate trees (in containers) would blow away since I wasn't home before the storm to move them. The good news is they didn't blow away. The bad news is this is because the two tallow trees in my back yard and an Arizona Ash in a neighbor's yard fell on them and crushed them. Oh well. It would appear that the stuff inside my house I was most worried about will be okay.

I'm heading back tomorrow with a chain saw and some other tools to start cleaning up.

Good luck to the rest of you guys along Ike's path.
~james

Tally, so good to hear you left and are okay... thanks for letting us know. And for all of you that weathered this, you are still in my prayers.

My Aunts house is under water. No word on my neighborhood yet. The Balinese and Hooters both blew away & they are about 6-7 blocks from my house. No flooding reported in my neighborhood. Moms friend 3 blocks from her house has 18" of water in his house. She lives on 47th & O, he's more north and west of her. The worst flooding was 45th & west. My cousin was on CNN being rescued, only the roof of her house showed.

I'm worried about my plants! I'm sure the roof is gone & lots of water damage. But some of the plants were inside & they need OUT! and water.

No word on when we can go home. My brother is of course upset, we know his home is gone, and his daughter's father-in-laws house-water to the second floor.

Glad we left! Alicia totally freaked me out & I swore I would never stay again.
Tally HO!

Tally/beachplant,( and other Galvestonians)
I sent you an email. You have given the most specific update I could find on the damage. Thank you. Sorry, I don't know where your neighborhood is, but if you (or anyone else) could give me any information about Jones Dr between 71st and 72nd, where my brother was during the storm, I'll send you seeds, plants, whatever you want. Glad to hear you're OK, Tally!
Thanks,
Andrea in NC, very worried about her twin brother

My ex-sister-in-law is a guard at the courthouse & had to stay for the storm. Right now the city is planning to evacuate everyone that remains and close the island for 1-3 months. The police and national guard are going to go house to house and make everyone leave. We are not being allowed in to board up, collect belongs or anything else. My neighborhood did not flood and there are not reports of heavy damage there. But we don't know anything at this point.

I know that west of 61st was under water, that would include the 72nd street area. We lived there as kids & the area is very low & floods easily. Ball High is still open as a shelter as of this am, no idea how to check and see if anyone is there. My brother lived on the seawall in a small efficieny apt. and refused to leave. We have not heard from him.

My Aunt's house is totally destroyed.

Tally HO!
My plants are going to die!! And my cats! They wouldn't come out & are at the house.

My heart just aches for you all! I've been watching TXCN for the last 3 days and the devastation is just awful! I keep wondering about the people they interviewed before the storm... if they survived. Tally, keep us up on the latest. Let us know about your brother too.
(( hugs ))

Toward the end of the evacuation effort on Bolivar, people who were too stubborn to leave, when the police went door-to-door, were handed a black magic marker and told to write their social security number on their arm right there and then. Believe that would have got MY attention.

Tally - I'm so sorry for the losses your family has suffered along with everybody else in the area. I'm so worried about your kitties now. I think though that I saw a number somewhere either on www.khou.com or www.chron.com for SPCA and maybe you can call them to see if they can rescue your kitties. I seem to remember seeing that they were on Galveston rescuing animals as well.

Here is the info on SPCA from www.khou.com

SPCA Animal Rescue hotline is 713-861-0161

I lived in Galveston for four years during college while at TAMUG. I have heard the school sustained not too much damage, or at least on first estimates, but the Pelican Island bridge at the approaches are badly damaged. I used to live on Jones Dr at Island Bay apts and I am wondering how they fared.

Just very depressed seeing all of the photos.

I just received a call from my brother's neighbor to tell me that he is alive and well, but his house, car, and everything else he owned is destroyed. At his neighbor's house where he stayed, the water was knee deep on the second floor before it stopped rising.
Tally, I hope you hear from your brother soon.
Andrea

These stories are so awful!!! I can't imagine being closed off from your home for that long. That's just so overwhelming to even fathom.
Prairie laura, I would've had a stroke if someone told me to write my SSN on a body part!

Tally, I reallly hope your brother is OK and I'm so sorry about your aunt. No promises about the cats but they are scavengers and quite resiliant. PJ

Tally, did you leave the cats inside with food and water? Were they outside? Poor kitties!!!

Just in case anyone is lurking from the Golden Triangle area, KOGT.com has a live streaming video update every hour or so. You can click on the more info tab and it will tell you when the next update is. KOGT is a local (Beaumont area) TV station and they are broadcasting more detailed info than any other place we have been able to find.

I grew up in Bridge City and my Dad still lives there. Right now he and his wife and pets are living with me. They arrived Friday night. From all accounts Orange and Bridge City were extremely flooded. Most of B.C. was under water. My Dad's friend went to Orange today (they are not letting people stay overnight in B.C.) and went by his house. The house is still standing, but they lost everything inside. It flooded with several feet of water... Not sure what they are going to do next. Luckily they are well off enough to go shopping for a travel trailer tomorrow. They are thinking of living in that until their house can be fixed - which will take several years. Hurricane Rita was in 2005 and there are still homes that are damaged from that.

Anyway, I don't think we have many people from that area who post a lot, but I thought I would let you all know about that area. There may be some lurkers who can pass along info to others.

Again, the website for that area to watch is: www.kogt.com

Woops, kogt is the radio station website. The tv site is kfdm.com

Here is a link that might be useful: Beaumont TV

Tally, glad to know you made it out O.K.........Sorry to heard about cats and plants........I have been thinking of you, ever since I heard about IKE......Our prayers are with you and your family........David in Arlington

Hope you don't mind me barging in again on you Texans, but I just read this

In decimated Galveston, Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas announced residents and merchants would be allowed to "look and leave" between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m., meaning those who show photo IDs can return to gather belongings and assess damage. But that announcement came even as she encouraged an estimated 15,000 people still on the island to leave.

Doesn't sound too smart to me. I hope Tally and her brother are safe. (maybe she's been there today) I heard from my brother yesterday that the water receded from his house on Jones Dr and is still standing. He said he was living in it. (Yuck.) The island is a toxic and bug-infested wasteland. Most of the critters inside the Moody Gardens pyramids survived, just barely.
I've been getting info from chron.com and google alerts.

We live in NW Houston. Although no flood damage, my garden did not come out too bad. Some upturned roots and leaves gone on roses, but NOTHING compared to those down in the Galveston/Bolivar Peninsular area.

My DH works for a "big box" home improvement store, and he was down in Galveston yesterday. The pictures he took are awful!! Hoping all that have not checked in are safe and secure. My thoughts are definitely with you all.

Tally, I hope your cats are ok. I was talking to a guy yesterday from an animal rescue place that tried to get down there and rescue some of the animals. He was able to at least feed a lot of them but wasn't allowed to take any with him and they made him leave. I feel sorry for the poor animals but they are good scavengers when the need arises so hopefully yours will be ok.

That's horrible that they didn't allow him to take the animals. Government is sometimes almost worse than no government. Cats can't scavenge inside a closed-up house very good. And some aren't able to scavenge outside...cats learn hunting skills from their mother...if the mother is around and knows any hunting skills herself. Sorry to hear it's so bad, my heart breaks for all the people and animals. It's almost deja vu back to Katrina!

Part of our city, Beaumont, is up and running. I got electricity back last night but other areas are still waiting.
Thank the Lord for the cool front. We managed without it and the nights were comfortable.

We left when Rita came but this time we stayed. We had lots of wind but hardly any rain. Some flooding in low-lying areas around town; and many trees are down but not as bad as Rita. I think Rita knocked so many trees down what's left are gone now.

My mom and dad lives in Sugarland and they still have not gotten power. Katy where my sister and family live got power on Wed.

Crystal Beach and Bolivar Peninsula are disaster areas. My friend's BIL and SIL's beach house is gone. The whole coastline has changed.

Keep your prayers coming.
Betsy

Good to hear from you, Tally. Anyone heard from Jim in Alvin?

Yes, Betsy, he has posted in another thread.....

Tally, any word from your brother?....My boss lived on Galveston...cannot for the life of me remember the name of the subdivision he lived in...his bottom half was totally destroyed.....his upstairs was ok..but the structure of his home was twisted..and leaning.......he basically lost everything......sad part was he was planning on selling and he's retireing Nov. 1 of this year..man.......
To everyone else in the broken communities...My heart and prayers are with all of you.....
I live in Willis, just North of Conroe, in Lake Conroe Hills subdivision....I have a 'few' pictures of the approaching storm.......I had a chance to venture out .. could barely open the door the air compression was so strong....but I did it.....and took a couple picutes of Lake Conroe from my view....with the approaching storm..I couldn't get out during the height of the storm...but We are soooo lucky....we did not suffer any 'major' damage....we have things we have to do now.....but nothing like the communities that suffered so much loss...again, my heart goes out to all of ya'll!
Dena
P.S....IF anyone lives in the vacinity of Willis and needs ice...........or water........we have lites now and I have ice and we can fill any water container you want to fill...
email me @: thewalters@shawus.com

The very beginning, see the palm trees across the way?:

The front of the very beginning, the bottle brush tree is leaning, and my rose of sharon tree in the middle is leaning very hard..and my plumbago...well its almost gone already!:

The winds are picking up, notice the palms across the way again!!

The waves from the Lake, I just could not get a true capture of the angry waves that were rolling in:

Stronger Winds:..Notice the Palms across the way, again, note the palms..and in the bottom of the pic my habiscus and the only plant I left outside..my passion vine....which was attached to my fence and the trellis..I actually used at least a hundred zip ties to keep it in place...it worked!:

Alerady a fallen Tree next door at Neighbors House:

Much higher winds...waves coming in and hitting the bulkhead, these waves were actually much higher on our side of the lake and ripped off the total inside of the bulkhead on the empty lot next to me!:

Note the banana trees?.....such stong winds..and the storm has yet to arrive, we had lost a limb here and there....but notice the toddler size basketball I missed picking up..never moved!:

Thats all I had the courage to take...And all the other pictures I do have are replicates of these, some closer...some not worth postng....I just could not make myself go out in the height of the storm.......we are all wonderful.and safe........and so very lucky!!!
Dena

Wow! Those are amazing. The lighting is really striking.I'm glad you stayed in and decided against pics while the storm hit hard. PJ

Just got my power on yesterday. Two of my sisters who also live in Angleton and myself decided to stay. It was scary. Lots of trees fell. We didn't get too much rain but the winds were really strong. Thankfully we boarded up our windows, the wind ripped the light meter off my sisters house. She is still without power. Most of my plants had broken limbs. My Mango tree was leaning up against my house, but I think they will all survive.

I live south of Houston about 20 minutes from LaPorte.....I chickened out on riding out the storm and had my Dad come and get me and the kids last Thursday. Stayed in College Station. I just got home last night (Hubby had to ride it out in our home because he was required to work as soon as it was over.). House is o.k.....roof was new, so no damage there. Lost a front porch column that was rotting at the bottom...lost all but the neighbors' hurricane fence on the left side of the house. Hubby saved as many fence boards as he could for reuse. Right now we are trying to make provisional repairs to the back fence to see if we can salvage it, but are having trouble digging out old old concrete. Plants on the right side of the house are all dead....rotted from the water...or dead from fungus, I don't know which. Garden out back....rudbeckia looks terrible...basil is leaning at a forty five degree angle....so is the penta...and the penta is fungal as well...the verbena looks bad but it looked bad before I left. The spicy globe basil is happily blooming away. I also noticed that my boards are rotting away now, so time to redo the whole thing I guess. I need to ask some questions about that in a separate thread.

My huge fern bed looks shredded and the fence fell on a third, but they spread, so they'll replenish themselves next spring, hopefully. Tons of branches and leaves still, even though hubby hauled out the biggest ones already and bagged up three more city bags of sticks.

My satsuma pulled out of the ground...hydrangeas out front need a couple of broken branches pulled and the polka dot plant looks cruddy...the hostas were already almost dormant and icky looking so they'll be fine.

I'm kind of overwhelmed by the amount of hard work involved, but I get to start over in my garden, which will be good in the spring. Right?

which will be good in the spring. Right?
Absolutly perfect! (smile) I really hope so. I'll bet it'll look a heck of a lot better by then anyway. I'm glad you didn't ride it out myself.
Pepa, I hope it comes back fast for you too. I'm glad you and your sisters are safe. PJ

Fortunate here on Chocolate Bayou, nw of Galveston. No damage to house or animals. Only a few tree limbs down. Just got electricity back on about 6 pm today. Tally, I've been thinking about you.

I was worried about my horses and water getting up on the place, but the bayou is 100' wide here and tho the water came up a little, still had about 200' to go to get to my house, and the day after the storm, it was back within it's banks down here.

I spent the evening of the storm with friends in Santa Fe. My husband is a captain on a tow boat and he was on the boat in Lake Charles. We have a shrimp boat in Clear Lake Shores and the deckhand stayed on it and it came through with no damage. We were just very, very fortunate all the way around.

I live near Reliant stadium and didn't evacuate. Our radio broke at 1. I didn't like not knowing the eye location; I needed to know it was half-over. In hind site we rode the west side of the eye and unexpectedly, the back winds were much worse than the front.

The wind and crashing kept me pacing from one room to the next. Two small windows were broken by neighbor's shingles and the knob/bolt wouldn't hold an ext. door requiring screwing shut. Good roof and no water other than through open door at 5am ;)

I fell asleep about 7am. Later I opened the front door and teared-up looking at the devistation...not so much looking at the tons of lost trees or houses that were damaged but how we survived it.

During Saturday 9/13 I watched the hummingbirds feed like crazy on my four hibiscus trees, many more than usual. It was pleasantry during bleakness. If I only knew then...

Today we don't have power in my neighborhood. This weekend's 87D in the house was tough. I have few screens; those that I have face the neighbor's generator and I fear carbon monoxide. They stop it at night; so last night we had 3 windows open when the fogger truck layed a comforting blanket of mosquito spray on my family as we tried to rest!

The generator has my nerves on edge. I'm jumping at every loud bang. Don't get me started about ice.

Won't do it again - although I think? the worst for me has 11 days without power with small children.

Of course when we get power, very quickly my life will return to normal (after a little psych counseling). For other's it won't be so easy.

So sorry what you all have gone through. I understand it can be hard on the nerves, as well as physically hard. jillyjack, you may be suffering a little PTSD...hopefully temporarily. It's not just from war. I've had it myself in the past. But this hurricane could have been much worse. I'm thankful for that. For the safety of my daughter's family, my sister's family and my brother's family, as well as all those who came through safely.

Councelling is a great idea it's fantastic that you can tell you need it! I'm so glad you all made it physically ok.PJ

thank you all for prayers..we had our power back the 21st..all this is so hard to take seeing so much damage and heartbreak..seems like so many are not being helped fast enough..time just keeps passing..so many feel so alone and desperate.our 10 days in texas without power was enough for me it's getting hotter for those still without.if you are in rural areas you are all but forgotten...to many problems to get to their POD's.my prayers are with them all..Bren

Hi folks,
I don't post alot here, but wanted to share this. We live on the mainland of Galveston county....thankfully came through with only minimal roof/ceiling damage. Thought we'd venture out yesterday on the 2-week anniversary to see how things have changed. Riding over the causeway left us speechless. I told DH to turn around @ 61st street----I couldn't go any further.

What struck me most, aside from the overall destruction, was that ALL the vegetation, with the exception of the oleanders, is brown----grass, trees, shrubs, everything. I imagine some will grow back next year, but it was stunning to see what the salt water did to the plants.

I'm BOI (born on the island) but have lived on the mainland all my life. As bad as Carla was in '61 & Alicia in '83, I believe Ike was the worst. The destruction reminds me of images from the 1900 storm. My step-sister lives in the 5000 block just behind the seawall, came through with no damage or flooding, but says this one did it for her--she's moving off the island. But I know Galvestonians are a tenacious bunch. Lessons will be learned and they will rebuild it better than it was. It's too special a place to abandon.

I signed up for the "Blue Roof" thing from the Army Corps of Engineers after the storm, but they said it might take a month or more for anyone to put a tarp on my roof. Does anyone know someone reputable (and not too expensive) who can do tarp stuff?

Luvs2plant -

You made me tear up. This is all so sad.

We go power on day 16. I've been laundering.

The tarp guys showed up earlier today. Just in the nick of time. There are clouds brewing. Whew.

My both my Italian Cypress and bottlebrushes were pulled up as well as having two of my neighbors untrimmed trees land on my house - fence, siding and roof is not repairable but we are all fine so I'm thankful.

I replanted and staked the uprooted plants watered daily and they are not showing shock so all in all I'm getting repairs done and thanking the Lord my very first hurricane experience in Zone C (Highlands, TX) wasn't far worse than this

I live in the woodlands area, and had a giant 35 yr old oak tree uproot and fall from my neighbor's yard into mine. It demolished my yard, totalled my car, and "customized" my husband's truck bed. I'll post a picture later. It didn't hit my house, thank God. It took my husband and 3 wonderful neighbors six hours to cut up and move the top of the tree, which was trapping us in the house for two days. We were without power for 16 days. What the oak tree didn't kill, hauling it out of the yard did. We were lucky that our major damage was limited to cars and plants, which can be replaced. I managed to save an Oleander, the Chinese Fringe Flower (which was mangled), Bottlebrush, and Agapanthus. Dahlias which were just starting to get loaded down with buds were completely destroyed.

Yesterday, I planted iris, crocus, and minnow daffodil bulbs in a bed that was left empty after the tree fell on it. Now I just have to fill in with mums and cock's comb, I suppose until those bloom in the spring.

Of course, my trusty elephant ears were torn, tattered, and shredded, but they will be back next year.

Tally - So sorry to hear about your losses. I prayed for you and your island neighbors during the storm. I couldn't believe the level of destruction by a "Category 2". I'm 70 miles from Galveston and had 10" of rain and 100 mph winds as the eye wall approached and beared down on us. I was a kid during Alicia, so this was the first big one that I lived through in my own home...

What a mess. I live on the old Gilbert Ranch, north of Winnie. We were still cleaning up from Rita when Ike decided to pay a visit. I stayed this time and it was really scary inside the 106 yr. old house. Huge pine trees down every where, large water oak fell into the swimming pool. The beautiful forest is a wreck. This will take years to make a come back. FEMA has yet to come with tarps, although I applied over six weeks ago. Thank goodness not too much rain. Keep us in your prayers, we need it.