1bad91Z

iTrader: (1)

My family and I are ok. No power or water at the house since Friday, but we have a generator that runs the fridge and a couple things.

The car is fine.

I do have power at work (this is where I'm at), but no water here either!

Hope everyone made it through ok!

Mike

sailtexas186548

iTrader: (2)

my house and family is ok, so is the camaro, we have a big generator running the entire house, so we have a/c and what not, but kemah (where i live) is toast, everything except a few places, including my house thank god, is flooded and has a boat/boats on top of them.

IROCaholic

We have power here in the Cypress NW area. My nieghborhood took a pretty bad hit, but no injuries or fatalities and my family is fine. I am going to drive in to Katy today to take a look at some of my investment properties and check on a few clients. Appearently there is alot of damage out there.

BADMAN

iTrader: (13)

Good here in Katy. Power back on, all OK. Working chainsaw all day long.

aldixie

iTrader: (2)

Minor roof damage and formal living room ceiling, no fences left standing. Have had no power since Friday 6pm and centerpoint have said it will be this Friday at the earliest. I'm at work where they are feeding us and have internet. Have small generator at home that I run for a couple hours at a time to keep the refrigerators going. Work is issuing a 5 gallon ration of gas to each worker who comes in for the day.

ZONES89RS

iTrader: (2)

Well,

Friday: I go to work, we have an eacaper thurs night, i am on the lookout and find the escapee at 2:30. I got to work at 4 am, left at 7 pm , back at work by 11:30

sat: I am still at work, get on shift at my duty post from 5 am to 6:30 PM, then go home to darkness

4 trees down, i on a power line, 1 on a neighbors house, 1 on the neighbors yard, one right where i usually park the 86 TA.

sun, 5 am to 630 PM of work, i get home to darkness.

Monday, same as sun,

Today, tuse, i got a chainsaw for clean up and scored a generator slightly used for 260$, i am FINALLY on line as long as i have fuel.

ALL CARS ARE OK AND I HAVE WATER!!!


I busted the 3rd gear out of the 89 RS racing a charger saturday night spraying nitrous, but the rest of the gears work.

Mr.Wolf

iTrader: (1)

Everything good here, no power yet, cell started to work better today, since i had all the free time, I fixed the problem on the z28, my distributor had jumped the timing AGAIN the frigin hold down clamp is as tight as can be, I must need a new gasket for it or something, but i fixed the timing, now I need to find a fueling station that sells 93 octane cause i'm low. I was gonna install the rest of the powersteering bracket so it won't wabble anymore but as soon as i took of one bolt the actual bracket attached to it fell apart so I'm gonna get a new pump, and bracket when I can, so while i was down there I took out some of the a/c crap that was inthe way and the rest of the old vac stuff that was factory that was just taking up space.

esc

iTrader: (6)

We are all fine. Branches and fences down. No real damage to the house. No power since Friday night but got a generator so Fridge, AC, lights and internet work now.

My beach house is a different story...

The first picture is before.
The second is after.

Reid Fleming

iTrader: (2)

I'm Back in Black.

Cars made it through safe. Didn't have a generator. Threw out the food from the fridge and freezer Monday evening. 5 minutes later the power was back on.

FNFAL308

iTrader: (1)

I never want to see a rake again. I raked for 3 days in my little yard. Then helped move the tops of three trees next door.

One fridge went out so transferred to the other. Only half the generator head is working. It needs to hang in there for another week or two though. Work now has power but I don't want to go back now. Got used to staying here and raking all day like I was in one of Dante's hells or something. My arms are starting to bulk up. Eating good.

Back online for the second time. Electric out Sat morning at 3:45. Internet and tv (u-verse) went out late saturday or early sunday. TV and internet came back today.

Water went out yesterday and came back today. That was the worst so far.

Electric will be back on BEYOND Monday. Beyond Monday is a big time frame.
====================================================
The following zip codes have sustained extensive damage, and will therefore have a restoration timeline that extends beyond Monday, September 22:

77002, 77003, 77004, 77005, 77006, 77007, 77008, 77009, 77010, 77011, 77012, 77013, 77014, 77015, 77016, 77017, 77018, 77019, 77020, 77021, 77022, 77023, 77025, 77026, 77027, 77028, 77029, 77030, 77033, 77034, 77035, 77036, 77037, 77038, 77040, 77044, 77045, 77046, 77047, 77048, 77051, 77053, 77054, 77056, 77057, 77058, 77059, 77060, 77061, 77062, 77063, 77064, 77066, 77067, 77068, 77069, 77070, 77071, 77073, 77074, 77075, 77076, 77078, 77081, 77085, 77086, 77087, 77088, 77089, 77090, 77091, 77093, 77096, 77098, 77379, 77380, 77386, 77388, 77389, 77401, 77422, 77459, 77489, 77502, 77503, 77504, 77505, 77506, 77507, 77510, 77515, 77517, 77518, 77520, 77521, 77530, 77531, 77532, 77534, 77535, 77536, 77539, 77541, 77545, 77546, 77547, 77550, 77551, 77554, 77563, 77565, 77566, 77568, 77571, 77573, 77578, 77581, 77583, 77584, 77586, 77587, 77590, 77591, 77598

CenterPoint said that once the above is completed, 80 percent of the power will be restored to the region.

ZONES89RS

iTrader: (2)

Damn, Eric, i am sorry to hear, atleast it is not your primary residence.

esc

iTrader: (6)

Thanks,

Ya, its a bummer and all, but no one was hurt, nothing REALLY important was lost and I have no real cause to complain. I always knew when I bought it that a storm would take it out some day. That is just the natural life cycle of a beach house.

yevgenievich

iTrader: (4)

It does sux to loose a house, but on the bright side, now you can do all that remodeling you might have thought about.
sorry about your loss.

Reid Fleming

iTrader: (2)

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/200...l_life_of.html

Sonar_un

Everything is OK here.

I have had power since Monday everything is pretty good considering. The TransAm had a fence fall on it, but no scratches or damage.

Mr.Wolf

iTrader: (1)

Here's the piece that broke off the PS Bracket and the critter we rescued while cleaning up during the aftermath of Ike.

aldixie

iTrader: (2)

Sorry to hear that Eric.

I took my father in law back to San Leon Sunday to look at his house. Didn't hold much hope as we asked the Police woman at the roadblock what Trans was like ( a little neighborhood store next to his house) She said it was a complete loss. Anyway we get to his road and his house is still standing not even a window broken.

The garage underneath had a 6 foot storm surge so his collection of tools he amassed over his 84 year life are probabley ruined. We took a peak in after forcing the door open and it was a complete mess.Still at least the house is ok.

Alex

Reid Fleming

iTrader: (2)

Wife had a cat follow her to work on the Friday morning. (She works at the same complex we live in). Well there was no way she was going to just leave the cat outside when there was a hurricane coming later the same day.

So she brought it home and told me to take care of it (I'm a cat person). It jumped up on the bed and fell asleep next to me in about 2 minutes. It hasn't left our sight since. You get ready in the bathroom in the morning, it jumps up on the counter. You go sit in the living room to watch TV, it's on your lap. Type on the computer? On your lap purring away. Friendly little thing. Every night when I go to bed, it's sitting there waiting and sleeping.

FNFAL308

iTrader: (1)

Still no electric.

Makes me wonder just how much we could really do without.

esc

iTrader: (6)

I was starting to get used to generator based living...but my power came on yesterday afternoon. So it was out for 7.5 days.

1bad91Z

iTrader: (1)

I know I'm fortunate to still have a house...... but, I still have no F***ING power!!! Starting to really get irritated............

joeyh2005

im ok and the car is fine so we still have no power until after monday

Mr.Wolf

iTrader: (1)

those power charts that center point are giving out are really estimates, my power wasn't expected to come on till after today, and it came on last Weds.

Has anyone whom's been cutting up trees been bit by these beetles or whatever they are cause holy crap do they hurt, and the bites swell up pretty quick and big, my step-son got to bites in his sleep on the back of the thigh and one bite swelled up to the size of cigarette pack.

Rock90rs

iTrader: (3)

Im still here. Still no power here as well. I have cable TV and internet though. Running off of a generator. Lost the fence, and I have a small hole in the roof. I didnt even know it was there untill all the rain last saturday.

ZONES89RS

iTrader: (2)

Well, they are getting to it fellas, i got power yesterday morning around 930 am.

1bad91Z

iTrader: (1)

Still no power for me. Getting tired of cave man life...... I'm thinking of running power wire from the end of the road where it's hot, directly to the feed into my house.

Desparate times = desparate measures...............

Sonymaster20

iTrader: (3)

I came out Alright From Ike also, The storage units where My families cars are held up good and the garage held up good also. My car was about 5 feet from where a tree fell in my front yard but it came out unscathed.
----------
That sucks. I heard they dont insure beach houses. Did you have insurance?

blue91z28cam

iTrader: (4)

I live in 77022 and had no lights till about 5 hrs ago..but somehow a street over there are no lights...

on the preceding tuesday I fell concrete during basketball practice while running full speed so I had a small scrape on my left knee and a huge open wound on my right knee(the darn wound wouldnt build a scab!!!..plus I walked on it for a few days and I still felt the wound tearing up a lil with every step I took) had no generator so it was a pretty rough 8 days...now the wound is healing up better and can finally walk with a bit of comfort(but I am itching to get back to running!! )..YES NC opens back up tomorrow so off to classes I go again..

my house got flooded about 4 inches, luckily my parents have insurance and the insurance guy is coming this wednesday...the Camaro took in about an inch in the rear floor pan (I was really bummed to see that..but Im planning to POR-15 the whole underbody and floor anyway so that thought helped me get through the day )..

Oh and today before we got our electricity back I had my first MRE, I spent about 20 min just trying to understand how to prepare it and once I finally began to heat up the meal I nearly burnt my hands since I poured too much water into the heater bag..lol
All in all Im just really glad that we didnt get hit as bad as Galveston did...


BTW sorry if my writing is hard to understand Im not much of an English student...but I do love Math (Pre-Calc currently) and Cars!..Mechanical/Automotive Engineering here I come!!

esc

iTrader: (6)

No. No insurance.

"They" will insure anything for enough money. But if your house is not at least 20' above sea level the price for Rising Water insurance is about 30% of the value of the house per year. Wind storm insurance is a little less expensive, but it would not pay for this, the insurance company would say it was the rising water.

aldixie

iTrader: (2)

That sucks.

Also according to where the new vegitation line will be houses that are still standing can be condemed. So even if you get an insurance payout you might not be able to rebuild.

esc

iTrader: (6)

I think I'm pretty safe on that count. But I expect a couple of rows in the front will be condemned.

1bad91Z

iTrader: (1)

I've isolated the power problem in my neighborhood down a line fuse. I'm getting ready to take it out and replace it with a piece of re-barb.......

Larry Dunlap

WE are ok in Katy. One fence fell. There is a lot of roof damage in the area but none on my house. We lost power for about 12 hours the night of the storm and that was it, pretty lucky.

Mr.Wolf

iTrader: (1)

I Gotta watch this someone get a case of beer and a water hose.
----------
could some of you look out for fueling stations when they start carrying 93 i'd appreciate it, i'm sure ya'll use it to on some of your vehicles.

BADMAN

iTrader: (13)

Before you do can I have your car? You won't be needing it. LOL .In all seriousness, please don't touch anything. I witnessed about an hour ago a fuse link and transformer blowing up due to debris inside the housing. It scared the s*#t out of the lineman repair group. They said that a piece of alum. siding was blown into the transformer box creating a short and when power was restored,BOOM! So you never know.

1bad91Z

iTrader: (1)

On Saturday, FPL (Florida Power and Lighting) restored all the circuits/lines/poles in my area. They said that all they need is to replace one line fuse on a pole 100 yards from my house in order to restore power to the rest of my neighborhood. They haven't been back anywhere in my area since. I called center-crap energy and they verfied that they need to install one line fuse in my neighborhood. The fuse is the same diameter as re-barb, and about a foot long.

I talked to a couple of the FPL guys yesterday (I stopped and talked to them where they were all parked at the end of the work day). They said that center-point got caught with thier pants down. He was refering to center-point not having nearly the ammount of required inventory in stock (as far as line fuses, transformers, etc...) that they are supposed to carry (even in case of non-emergencies). The out of town power companies have been waiting on parts like the above mentioned for several days. So for several days, there has been SEVERAL crews not able to get ANY work done due to lack of parts.

This is the reason why many people including all in my neighborhood have had their power completion date pushed back THREE times and they don't know when center-point will even start recieving parts......

So yes, a piece of re-barb will get the neighborhood hot again.....

I watched the power company install one the last time the power went out.
He used a PVC (plastic) pole with a hook on the end to unhook the old and pop-in the new one.

He also said that inside the fuse is just a smaller wire soldered to the hook at the end of the fuse.

If I can get the old fuse down, I could probably fabricate the same fuse even using the same diameter inner wire.

This may be a safer solution and might be the route I'll take......

I'm not waiting until October

FNFAL308

iTrader: (1)

I talked to CenterPoint and they said I could have power once they made it into the Guiness Book of World records for the longest ever having a customer out of power. 11 days so far...

I got it back at 12 days

1bad91Z

iTrader: (1)

Fuse not rebuildable (porcelain shell)..... However, two poles downstream has a good fuse after that particular transformer....... might make our transformer hot......

1bad91Z

iTrader: (1)

I have power back on at the house........

ZONES89RS

iTrader: (2)

Sweet man, feels good to step from the stone age

1bad91Z

iTrader: (1)

Yes it does! Sometimes you have to take matters into your own hands.

Rock90rs

iTrader: (3)

I got power back last night as well.

Thanks to Progress Energy of South Carolina!

DENN_SHAH

iTrader: (1)

i was one of the chickens, i ran northwest.
i came back the following Sunday to check on the damage. i didn't have the gas to spare for my generator, so Sunday night i went back north where the weather was cooler. i came back Tuesday & had been running a generator when i needed it.
i finally got power last night around 7:30 PM. my cable & internet came on back tonight about 8:30.
15 days without power this time vs about 25 days with Alisa, plus much cooler temps, i don't have any real complaints.

i had a oak tree in the back yard snap off about 12~15 feet above the ground, fortunately it landed in the only place it could to do the least amount of damage. it knocked part of the fence down & damaged a couple of shingles on my house. it also damaged 4 or 5 shingles on my neighbors' house.
its been a long time sense i had to cut up any trees, that was after Alisa, but i had lots of help with it. this one i've done by myself. after all the cutting i've done on the part
that broke off, i think i'll need a bigger chain saw to cut the part left standing down.
i won't miss that tree when i get it gone. now if i can just talk the neighbors into cutting their trees down.

esc

iTrader: (6)

I went to to Crystal Beach Friday.

As I expected, there was not much left.

The main body of the house is just gone. There were a 2 or 3 pieces of the asbestos tiles near by. All of the pilings, except 2, are still there. One is no longer straight, the sand near it had eroded away. One side of the slab is exposed, with a lot of sand missing underneath. The remainder of the lot is covered with 1 to 2 feet of sand.


The Catamaran trailer was still there but on the inland side of the slab. It had been chained to one of the seaward most pilings. I found the chain (a cable lock actually) a few feet behind the slab. It was broken. I also found a couple of big pieces of one Catamaran hull as well as the dolphin striker and a piece of the rudder. That wreckage was about 10 feet behind the slab. The hull I found was the one that had been chained to the house. It was broken in half right were the chain had been. I guess the other hull, once free, floated away.

The chain link fence is still there, but knocked over and buried under 3 feet of sand. There is also a piece of telephone pole that got caught in the fence.

We spent a couple of hours walking the neighborhood and managed to find a few things:
Futon Frame, 5 houses up on the same street. It was on top of a T-Fal frying pan which also came from my house.
Queen mattress, 1 block over and 6 houses up.
A "Pack & Play" portable crib that we used out there when Eric was little(er). 2 blocks over and 12 houses up.

The one specific thing that I went out there hoping to find, even though I knew it was a long shot, was my wind generator. It was attached to 80lbs of galvanized pipe, so I figured it wouldn't go to far. Before the storm it was under the bed in the house. I found it! Laying on the side of the road 3 blocks over and 10 houses up. It needs a through cleaning, but I expect it will still work.

We also found a pair of binoculars that Jocelyn got from her father. They were on the ground right behind the slab.

You can see some of the pictures I took here:

http://www.methware.com/beach

Now for the clean up. The county will haul off anything I can get to the road, but I need to get it there in the next month or so. There really isn't that much as most everything got washed farther inland, but I will need a little help with what there is. The phone pole, the fence needs to be dug or dragged out of the sand. If anyone has a four wheel drive truck, I think that would be the easiest way to move it.

BADMAN

iTrader: (13)

Sorry for your loss. I went to Galveston last week to try and recover a friends gun safe and it's pretty much the same. Debris everywhere. Will be a while till things get back to normal. Everything in safe was soaked. Complete loss.

1bad91Z

iTrader: (1)

That sucks bad Eric, sorry for your loss.... I know whats it's like to have a house totaled (I've been rescued by air boats from my second floor).

Are they going to let you rebuild?

Rock90rs

iTrader: (3)

Damn Eric, that sucks man. I wish I had a 4wd I could loan you.

ZONES89RS

iTrader: (2)

Man, really makes me glad my mother no longer lives out there. I hope you might be able to get things together Eric.

esc

iTrader: (6)

They will let me rebuild...if I decide to.
Power and water will probably be out for about 6 months though.
Probably not much will happen out there until next spring.

Wheel Spin

Sorry for the loss Eric. I knew the penisula was pretty wiped when satellite images were posted two days later. http://ngs.woc.noaa.gov/ike/IKE0000.HTM

My old house is completely gone, as well as my Mom's and Grandparents (all in Holiday Beach Addition).

The Fire Chief there, David Loop, and I grew up together more or less. I can tell by the TV video, I can see the toll it's taking on him, and thus everone else.

At least you and I have another place to live. I have many friends who are full time residents there.

My home in Texas City faired well, roof and tree damage. I was in Colombia when Ike hit, so wife was here alone to deal with it all. Power was out two weeks, but on by the time I got here.

Good luck with the recovery. I still have property there, and may yet build on it.