My husband, the cats and I are fine. Quick post -- we're one of the few with power. We do have a broken power main thanks to our tree that broke and crashed into it last night... so I need to run out and help him fix that or the street will flood. The place looks like a war zone. Streets are unpassable due to debris, flooding and endless downed trees and glass.
-- more after jump --
My husband, the cats and I are fine.
We lost power around midnight but it was restored this morning. We are the few lucky ones with power thanks to underground lines -- most of Houston and all of Galveston is in the dark and many of the roads are impassable for repairs to get done.
Somehow, two of the computers in the house no longer connect to the Internet but this one (that I am using right now) does, so at least I have contact with the outside world this way since cable is gone (which isn't a big deal).
We have other problems -- the water main right outside of our house broke so we're trying to resolve that ourselves (can't wait for city -- no one can drive through the debris right now) or it will flood the neighborhood. That was caused by one of the trees in our yard that I was worried about being uprooted and falling forward on the water pipe. That was preferable to falling the other direction -- onto our house -- and destroying our roof.. and our house by extension.
Most people were not so lucky. We supposedly caught the "clean" side of this beast but with a Texas-size hurricane, there IS no clean side. In our neighborhood alone, multiple trees were uprooted and are either in the streets along with the power lines and debris... or IN houses. I tried to get to the hardware store a little while ago but it was mission impossible. The streets looks like Beirut during the war, there is widespread flooding, debris, glass and downed tree limbs cover the streets.
In downtown Houston, the streets are littered with glass from the windows of all the skyscrapers, signage, and other debris. Neither Ryan nor I know how our offices fared... we are still waiting to hear if we our highrise buildings in downtown and uptown respectively are in tact. But worst of all is the question of how Galveston and the Galvestonians fared... There were people on their roofs "Katrina-style" according to the news before I lost power. I have no idea what happened to any of them.
The lesson of course is if you live in a storm surge area -- GET OUT. I watched a woman on the news (before losing power) say she was staying on Galveston Island to save her house and she had her kids and pets with her. I wish I could have her arrested for reckless child endangerment... assuming she is still alive. Unbelievable.
Now that brings me to me. I don't live in a storm surge area and I do live on an incline on the west side of the city -- perhaps one of the parts of the city with the least weather-related issues. We also completely boarded up the windows so we were in a virtual fortress and stocked up on supplies. So it seemed reasonable to ride it out here for a Cat 2, as the authorities directed.
That said, after a completely sleepless night in which I felt as it I was waiting to die (illogical as that may be), I am not sure I will ever be able to emotionally handle anything like that again. I've been all over the world and I've worked and traveled to war zones. But Mother Nature is another story. You're entirely at her mercy. I thought I would lose my mind from the eerie sound of the wind, the pounding of the rain, the shaking of the house , the everlasting loud snaps and thumps I heard on the roof (while waiting for the roof to go flying or for a tree to come flying through the ceiling), and rushing into the closet when my shortwave radio gave off a siren announcing another tornado warning. It was terrifying. Period.
I feel entirely grateful and blessed that we are alive and fine and that the problems that we have to deal with are fixable. My heart breaks for anyone who was not so lucky.
post script --
Sorry I don't have time to learn how to add tags... someone else do that for me. I have to help the husband fix the water issue and deal with the tree noted above.