Riden the storm out!!! Live from Clear Lake Texas

[madmaxx]

I am in Clear Lake, texas as I write this, IKE is going to work on us. Wind gust have been pretty darn strong but I have the house boarded up like a fortress. May get stung by the storm surge but hopefully not, I am at 24 feet. Probably will loose power soon. Gust to this point probably max out at 80 mph. Eye due in a couple hours. Galveston has taken a direct and brutal hit, 40% did not evacuate, I have no idea how some will make it.

[GTA]

Hang in there! It's been a long time for me, but I've been there done that . It can get scary.I hope your on high enough ground.If you can give a yeal when it's over so we'll know your ok. Roger

[Seagull81]

Best of luck. I hope you are right about your elevation as they are predicting 20' storm surge. Keep the boat handy. Let us know how you fare.
Steve

[Dangerous Doug]

Take some pictures, and good luck to you.

DD

[madmaxx]

Thanks everyone, it is getting pretty hairey right now. I'll let you know how it turns out, luckily there is a massive eye so we should be rewarded in about an hour with a pretty good break before the backside kicks in.

[WildBill3]

Hold on to something sturdy,the inlaws desided to ride it out allso,my prayers are with you all.

[Got the Bug]

Good luck and godspeed madmaxx. Keep us updated.

[Seagull81]

It may be awhile before we hear from Maxx. They just said there are 300,000 without power around the Houston area. I hope he and his are OK
Steve

[wtm442]

Originally Posted by Seagull81

They just said there are 300,000 without power around the Houston area. I hope he and his are OK
Steve

I heard that the number of homes without power along the entire Gulf coast is more than five million.

[Got the Bug]

Madmaxx said he was at 24'...hoping that he rode it out fine.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080914/ap_on_re_us/ike

"Officials were encouraged to learn that the storm surge topped out at only 15 feet — far lower than the catastrophic 20-to-25 foot wall of water forecasters had feared."

http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/slides...75ed494aa5049/

[Ron61]

I hope that all of you made it through that mess ok. Nice to see that it wasn't as bad as they had feared it would be but not much comfort to those who did lose their homes and everything. The lower than expected storm surge helped a lot with the less damage.

Ron

[Tugboat]

Guys,

I live in North East Houston and in Houston Alone 2 million are without power.
I made it thru with just loss of a gutter, couple of limbs, electricity and consider myself lucky. Several houses around me have new sky lights. (tree made) One of the wierdest is a trampoline wrapped around a tree about 20 feet high. We are on generator and except for it being muggy and sort of hot we are fine. I do have the cobra on a lift and will drain gas for gen. if needed. I to am worried about our brothers in cobras from down south of me. Tony has posted on club cobra houston he is fine like me. Pat and Kinton and especially Kelly are in a pretty bad area. Hope they are well.

Winds hit us about 9 pm friday and they were gusting later to about 90 mph. We were able to cat nap (believe that or not) thru this but we all woke up about 5:15 to dead silence. We were directly under the eye. Really cool!!!!!! But they were right, the nastiest part is the back side. WOW, it was at least day light as the worst part hit which helped. Woke up this morning to a terrible thunder storm that dumped another couple of inches of rain, just what we needed.

Thanks for the thoughts, I will try to check in later today.

[gsharapa]

Our prayers are with all that were in harms way. Have many friends in that area.

I wonder how the Battle Ship Texas took the storm as it looks like those areas also got hit pretty hard?

[Ron61]

Hopefully they can get the power back to some of the less hard hit places and a few more can start posting about how things are. I heard them announce this morning that one pipeline was now working but didn't hear what refinery it was from.

Ron

[Dangerous Doug]

The questions is: Does Madmaxx live?

[mtpockets]

Estimate electricity back on 2-4 weeks. Gas is scarce, have enough to periodically run the genset for 5 more days. Got to keep the beer cold. Very fortunate in Crosby. We, like Tugboat were on the eastern eye and got hammered with 80-100 mph winds. Lost 3 pines 80-90' luckily all fell away from the house. 10 million pine needs, 500,000 pine cones, lots of limbs we're all safe. Cobra rode out the storm as did the trailer so we're still on for RnG. It will be nice to have electricity all the time and not worry about the septic system backing up. If that was a Cat 2 storm, I dont want to ride out a Cat 3. Pictures later, this is a rare occasion when the internet is working. Cell is sporadic at best, home phone just came back up today, for how long is anyones guess. Ok, we're out.
Bill

[madmaxx]

Hello everyone, I/we made. Second half of the hurricane was a monster, it hit and we huddled in the hall way. I sincerely appreciate all the thoughts you guys are great!!!!!!

As Mtpockets said trees and billions of pine cones down, luckly no flooding for me the surge was about 12 feet, lost alot of shingles and my neighbors weeping willow that I have fought for 8 years cutting it back got its revenge. It blew 35 30 gallon bags of crap on my house and gutters, the the icing on the cake is it was infested with honey bees so I got stung about 5 times trying to clean up the mess LOL!!!. My father in-law sailboat a Catilina 30 is on top of another sail boat at Seabrook shipyard about 6 miles from where I am at. I saw a beautifull 58 foot hatteres about a 500K boat parked between two houses the only problem is there was not a trailer!! Large boats are everywhere down on the east side of Nasa RD1, it will takes months with some large cranes to sort them. I got power back about noon today.

The real blessing is Houston has had a very very early cool front blow through, so instead of 95F and 75% humididity it has been 85F and 40% humididty. This gives everyone a break to get some sleep at night.

The bottom line is I am glad I rode it out to know what it is but now that I have been there and done that if there is any remote chance of anything greater than a two I am GONE. I have some great photos I will post. It is strange now that the power is back on everyone is back in their houses where last night we were all sitting out eating ribs and drinking beer and having a great time. Take the time to get to know your neighbors and thanks again for everyone this forum was a real stress releaver before that hurricane hit and took the edge off of it.

[Seagull81]

Madmaxx,
Great to hear y'all are OK. The damage all around the area down there is unbelievable from all the pictures and video I have seen.
Take care,
Steve

[GlynMeek]

madmaxx, there is often a lot of BS and stuff on this website, but what you just went through is life changing and serious. Be well, be safe, and all the very best of luck to you AND EVERYONE ELSE DOWN THERE!

Glyn

[Got the Bug]

Madmaxx - Great to hear that you came through in one piece and experienced limited damage! That must have been one hell of a scary ride!