I will post what I know because I have parents on the Texas coast next to Galveston (San Leon near Kemah) and family in Houston: San Leon is devastated. My parents lost their whole downstairs and garden with newly planted roses along with fruit trees and more. They planted about 20 roses in August. Their house isn't liveable until a piling is replaced, sheathing repaired so rain can't come in, plumbing is reconnected (piping broke) and electricity is back on. Their house is still there though unlike 80% of their neighbors who lost their homes entirely. Their downstairs was a workroom and garage. They evacuated 2 days before Ike to my brothers house in Clear Lake, a suburb of Houston. Minor damage to that house, major trees down blocking roads. Sister-in-law (nurse) transferred to a diff hospital in downtown Houston because hers too damaged to work at. Although the media reports mostly on Galveston there are many many small towns totally devastated because of the size of this storm. I haven't even heard anything about Louisiana and I know there was a lot of flooding there. We were headed there in Oct to visit but have to put it off.

Thanks all No power here means no gas...so please don't come here and get stranded, that is a very kind thing to offer. Curfews are in effect and being enforced so looting has been minor I have plenty of fuel...to run the generator. They are restoring power but the closer to the coast will get power last...debris, tree's and downed power poles have to be moved first...they are repairing the power north of us so fuel can be brought closer and closer to us. The storm in 1983 was far worst in strength. It was a long 18 hrs but not as bad as it sounds...We have to boil any tap water until the water goes down and that has happend in almost 80% of the area's...they have got many water stations powered up with back up generators so the contaminated water is isolated now I bunkered many broms..but not all were lost I am just so glad there was no panic evacuation like during Rita. Loss of life would have been in the tens of thousands. We stayed put so the surge area's could get out and all will be normal in a couple months. Pictures later Hugs to all HDD

Okay real quick....I wouldn't call it resolved, but, here it is. Not bad, not great. All pool and wall coping was jacked out by the guy who did the job in the first place. However, he left a concrete pile almost 4' high and 30' long down the side of my house and has not been back to remove it. We have a new group of contractors here who have replaced all that was done before with a few minor changes. To sum it up, we've got wall and pool coping, our decking is getting prepped and the tile guy for the pool has started. It's just we never know what's lurking around the corner It's not what I asked for, but I can live with it and at this point I just want to get rid of this PB and anything that has to do with him. Of course, there are two sides to the story so, I won't go into the details, but he and his salesguy are not honest. For now, I'm just learning to swallow my anger and to be patient. I'll post more regarding this when it's finished. I'm sure it will all be beautiful, it's just us, who will be left with scars. And then at that point, we'll decide how much the plastic surgery will cost and who might have to cover it? I'm not suggesting all PB's are rats, but it seems more the rule than the exception as I'm finding out. Too little.. too late, though.

We also live in Houston and had our pool built about 2 years ago. We used slate on the coping but regular tile on th water line. We haven't had any trouble at all. But there is some more to the story. My builder has had trouble with slate in the past and really didn't recommend it but my wife LOVED it. He agreed to talk to the local stone providers about it (forget their name at the moment...) and they said that during the time my builder had his issues, there were a lot of complaints about slate coming from particular areas of India. They checked records and found that the troubles were with the same slate my builder had used in earlier jobs. They said that the slate they had in stock had not seen the same issues, so we went ahead with it. We did seal it however with a pretty pricey sealant. We've had some VERY minor flakes come off the surface (not the bullnose end though) which is typical of slate, but overall they look brand new, and we do have a salt system. I do keep my chemicals in check fairly religiously as well. So, not very helpful, but thought I'd mention it...