Some Ike photos ... Wonder what it was that this one builder did right? Here's someone who presumably realized "I don't have any flood insurance ... But, since I do have fire insurance ... " An intimidating yard cleanup prospect -
that first pic is crazy! that house is not even scratched!!!!.....bet it's got some crazy interior flood damage though...
Holy... my heart goes out to the victims. I can't (and maybe don't even want to) imagine what this must be like.
Nothing really funny about this, it sucks. I'm working with FEMA Austin's post right now, they set up camp less then a quarter mile from where I work. There is a whole lot to do yet even to get a perspective of whats still needs to be done. They are going to be here for a while.
Please don't misinterpret my snarky comments to the photos as a lack of sympathy. I've lived (mostly) in Miami for more than thirty years and survived a few of these myself. They are not only terrifying during the storm (after about twenty minutes, your adrenal glands have shot their wad and you just want it to end awreddy, but there are still many hours to go), it's the weeks afterward which are truly horrific. Having no power or water post-hurricane means that after spending all day in the sweltering heat, chain-sawing your former shade trees into small chunks, you get to crawl into a hot, damp bed with ants in your hair and a sweat/sawdust paste in every bodily crevice. A few days after Andrew we started going over to a neighbor's pool to rinse off at the end of the day - The pool was of course by then an opaque olive green, and full of the pieces of the former screen enclosure and other random jetsam. Under ordinary circumstance I'm not sure you could have paid me to get into it at all, but post-Andrew it became the high point of the day, and I would fantasize about it while laboring. After a few days, everybody tries to 'move up' at least one utility, like a domino effect - For example, after Andrew my stepsis had almost all her utilities and no damage, but she temporarily moved her family to a place that still had cable TV. My mother, who had water but no electricity, moved into stepsis' place to get power. Someone with neither power nor water stayed at my Mom's place so as to have at least water ... etc.
In response to the first photo with the house..Here's the story.. Shortly afterward, Kelley1 uploaded a photo of the yellow house that was taken in May. Kelley1 is Judy Hudspeth and the house belongs to her sister, Pam Adams. Pam and Warren Adams rebuilt their home in February 2006 after Hurricane Rita destroyed it the previous year. Hudspeth said that the couple hired a contractor to build a home that could withstand a Category 5 hurricane. Warren Adams watched over every step of the construction to make sure it was done correctly. The couple evacuated to a friend's house in Lufkin, Texas, hours before Ike made landfall last week. Hudspeth said they've been without power since Saturday, and that her sister was "hysterical" when she initially heard everything was gone in Gilchrist. Pam and Warren have since learned that their house is one of the few in the area to survive the storm. They are returning to see the devastating damage today.
For reals. Whatever they did, they did it right. They really need to make building codes up to their standards.
holy hell! Being away from the states and only hearing about Ike in passing in the news, it seemed like just another strongish storm...but Damn!
