Hurricane Ike

JConnors

JConnors

Veteran
This thing is a monster. Predicting 20 foot storm surge and a catagory 3 headed for Houston. I really hope everyone can get out of the way of this thing.

Stay safe guys.

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Our entire school district is having an early release tomorrow because it is opening up as a shelter for people who have to leave to escape the path of the storm.

I think I live about 200 miles from the coast.
 
I want to send best wishes to fellow 'users in the Golf Coast. Sadly, this is turning out to be a monster storm. I guess everything is bigger in Texas.

In all seriousness, you are in my thoughts.
 
Damn, that's a big storm. Please, people, be safe!

My family (brother, mother, stepdad) live down in Fla, but thankfully, they're up here (in Canada) right now, staying at my place (well, my stepdad is still down there, but only on weekends; he travels for his job).
 
I'm a refugee...

I'm a refugee...

Looks like Ike is going to erase my house within the next 24 hours or thereabouts. So, I've packed up as many lights and cameras as I could fit in my car, and headed out to the Bastrop/Austin area. If there are any other Houston/Galveston based DVXUsers fleeing this way, we should get together for a beer or something.

Ted - now would probably not be a good time to travel down around the Houston area, and I suspect it will be quite some time until tours can start up again.
 
934 miles wide. Already flooding in Galveston.

Supposed to hit landfall at 11pm PT.

Keep safe everyone.

Are there any storm chasers here on DVXuser? I've met a few at NAB before, cool guys, crazy job.
 
Hawk Teflon said:
Our prayers are with you and your area. I don't think Ike will make it up this far. Keep us posted.
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I've been allowed to return home. The damage from trees and debris in the area is extensive. Power has returned to about half of the Center-point customer base, and I've got power at home.

I had some water damage and roof damage, but nothing major. There's a tree in my back yard that's been twisted around several times, and got entangled in a wrought-iron fence, pulling the fence up and ripping it from the side of the garage where it was attached.

A section of the house has a flat-roof and a lot of debris that had accumulated on it, causing the roof to sag and leak (which is where my water damage came from).

Spent yesterday piling up the debris on the yard, making a wall of branches 70 feet long, 10 feet wide and about 6 feet high in one direction, and 50 feet long, 10 feet wide and 6 feet high in another (I live on a street corner). Every house in my neighbor hood has a similar wall of debris on their yards. Still have much more to do before I can relax and unpack the cameras to shoot anything.

A lot of mold and "smell" in the house (meat and mold - very bad). Airing the house out isn't helping with that too much. I have to look a bit harder at the walls and start pulling sheetrock up.

All in all, I feel really quite fortunate. There are folks in the area that didn't scrape by as well, and many closer to the coastline didn't fare well at all. I've heard that someone nearby has a sailboat in their pool, unscathed, and they're trying to find out where it was parked and who owns it. Weird. I'm helping out a family that's been without power for a week by having them take refuge here. There really is nothing good that comes from a disaster like this.

Thanks to everyone that sent me moral support. It really did help.
 
muonwave said:
All in all, I feel really quite fortunate. There are folks in the area that didn't scrape by as well, and many closer to the coastline didn't fare well at all. I've heard that someone nearby has a sailboat in their pool, unscathed, and they're trying to find out where it was parked and who owns it. Weird. I'm helping out a family that's been without power for a week by having them take refuge here. There really is nothing good that comes from a disaster like this.
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That's the craziest thing I've ever heard! A sailboat ending up in someones pool!

I really hope that the smell is from something that's easily cleaned / replaced. When Fran came through NC (1999?), we lived on the 3rd floor of an apartment complex in Greenville, and the first floor and a half was flooded with sewage and pig farm runoff (including hundreds of pigs) and the likes. Even though we could move back in after a week or so, the first floor of our building had to be completely gutted and redone. The building next to us was entirely condemned.
 
Wow - the ferring barns runoff was probably kind of dangerous. Glad no one got sick from it.

Just came back in from an inspection of the roof. More damage than I thought. It's sagging about six inches in several spots, had about two to four hundred pounds of water pooled up there, with branches and leaves acting like a damn to prevent it from coming off the roof or drying out.

I'm really not sure how much was pooled up there, as I really don't know how to estimate something like that. The flat-roof area has four large slanted roofs which concentrate water runoff onto the flat-roof, and the area where the roof lets that water runoff to isn't large enough, nor is the grade steep enough to let all that water go anywhere. And now, due to all the leaf and branch damns that were up there - it's sagged in and slanting inward towards several depressions.

Usually when it rains hard, I can expect about a foot of water on that roof trying to find a way to run off. It's about 30 feet long by 20 feet wide. I've had it replaced a few times, because the Insurance company won't reframe it to something that makes more architectural sense for this area (they rebuild it to what it was before it had weather damage - just silly if you ask me). Just squeegeed it off. That section of the roof has to come down and be replaced.

From what I can ascertain, the smell was mainly from mold in the ceiling and floor under that roof, and food in the fridge. The room below the flat roof has 12x12 ceramic tile for flooring and water got up and under it - all the grout around the tile is soggy and loose. Pulled up some carpet and knocked some holes in the ceiling sheetrock, and the smell is diminishing quite a bit now. Time to get the insurance appraiser involved.

I haven't been following the local news channels much lately, but I've heard there's a herd of cattle loose someplace further south of here, something like several thousand head or more wandering around the highway and adjacent properties. Must be a sight to see.
 
Sorry to hear all this, at least you haven't lost much (I hope).


muonwave said:
I've just noticed. I've become a Senior Member!!! Awesome! Thanks Mods, it's appreciated very much.
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Nah don't give them credit :Drogar-Evil(DBG): it's your hard work that got you to that point.:thumbup: 100posts=senior member (at least it was before).
 
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