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Hurricane Ike

Looks like he may be headed right for us. We are shutting down our plant now and sending everyone home to either evacuate or just hunker down for the long weekend. Hopefully it will not be too bad and work will resume as scheduled on Monday. We shall see. Losing electricity is always one of the bad things with these storms. I am spoiled and very accustomed to living under my wonderfully efficient central air conditioning system. In Houston that is a must. So when it goes out, it can be pretty miserable. Not to mention no internet...no NFL Football...all of the things I need access to. I moved here only three years ago from Denver. It was almost this same time of year. In fact, after I arrived here in Houston, I was greeted by Hurricane Rita just three days later. I was livng out of a hotel at the time and went without power for three days. It was horrible. Like I said...we can be pretty spoiled here. Anyway, I am sure things will be ok, at least where we are. We are pretty far inland so hopefully will not feel the full force. Keep us in your thoughts and have plenty of the usual excellent posts for me to read once I have my access back up again!
James Newman
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Be safe, James, this is 600 miles wide! I hope it's going to be less than feared. Now who says there is not global weather change?

Asher
 

Gary Ayala

New member
Take care ... I'll be hoping the best ... don't forget to recharge your camera batteries before you lose power.

Gary
 
Thanks guys and gals. We are as ready as we can be I suppose. It's looking pretty bleak in the Galveston area right now. We are still 12 hours or more away from landfall and many areas of the island are already underwater because of the surge before the storm. We are northwest of the city of Houston so we do not have to worry about the gulf waters but we are looking at very heavy rains and 80 to 85 mph winds in our area once it hits. That is bad enough for me.

Thanks for the reminder. I charged up all of my batteries last night and this morning. We will see you on the other side:)
IkeReport.jpg
 

Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
Good luck James, I hope Ike will just blow away (pun intended) leaving nothing more than light material damage in it's wake.

Cheers,
 

Doug Kerr

Well-known member
Hi, James,

Best of luck to you. Stay safe.

We are scheduled, two weeks from today, to go to Point Bolivar for a weekend in a beach house. I suspect those plans will change.

Best regards,

Doug
 
Hi, James,

Best of luck to you. Stay safe.

We are scheduled, two weeks from today, to go to Point Bolivar for a weekend in a beach house. I suspect those plans will change.

Hi Doug,

I hope, besides James and others, you'll be unaffected by the seasonal storms as well (I'm unsure (have yet to look it up) how far you and Carla are from the menace).

Bart
 
Almost Back!

Hello fine people. Thank you first for your well wishes. Thankfully our home was spared any real damage. We are still without electricity, and that is a real pain, but other than that, we made it through wonderfully. There are so many here though that did not. Being without power I have not seen all of the destruction myself but I have been listening to my radio and now today, started to see some actual photos and video footage. It is going to be a long, long time before things here are back to normal.

Doug my friend, I believe your plans for Bolivar have most likely been altered. There is no Bolivar anymore. Everything has been wiped out and I am told it looks like it did when they first started to develop it many years ago. It is a real shame because it was a very nice and special place.

I have a generator that we borrowed from a friend last night. That is the only way I am online now. We were only able to get some ice two days ago. It has been very scarce until just recently. We lost everything we had in our freezer and fridge. I have not worked in a week because power has been out there too. I received a call however that it came back on about 2 hours ago so at least I will be back at work on Monday. That will help. I never thought I would ever be anxious to go back to work but after a week here without any power I am ready for the change. My wife's job has their own backup generators and have not missed a day of work other than the day the storm blew through.

I did not take many pictures. I just was not in the mood. I was too nervous just waiting for the windows to blow out or the roof to lift off of the house. It was a very nerve wracking 10 or 12 hours there. I did snap a few and will post them here now. Nothing great and you really don't need to waste time with any C&C. I only took them to capture just an instant in our life and it's really one that would probably be best just forgotten. That won't happen so it will just serve as a reminder for me to be better prepared next time and to buy my own generator:)

The first was taken at about 5:00am last Saturday morning. We were just getting the full force of the storm at that time. It is a bit deceiving because it was really very dark. It was a 30 second exposure though and it brought in a lot more light than I knew was there. The second was just a shot of my wife trying to act normal and making me some coffee in the middle of a hurricane. Her blurred movement seemed fitting for the moment. Our stove is natural gas and we never lost that thank goodness so we were able to cook, boil water, and even take a nice hot shower. The little things I hope never to take for granted again. I am sure we will once things are back to normal but hopefully not and hopefully we can remember the things we talked about and the things we felt during this event. Once it was over, after all of those long hours of uncertainty, we both just sort of slumped over each other and cried a bit because we had come through so luckily without major loss and without injury or worse.

0913_5724.jpg


0913_5729.jpg
 

Doug Kerr

Well-known member
Hi, James,

Hello fine people. Thank you first for your well wishes. Thankfully our home was spared any real damage. We are still without electricity, and that is a real pain, but other than that, we made it through wonderfully. There are so many here though that did not. Being without power I have not seen all of the destruction myself but I have been listening to my radio and now today, started to see some actual photos and video footage. It is going to be a long, long time before things here are back to normal.

All our thoughts and prayers go with you and your neighbors for a return soon to something like normalcy, and for evading the various dangers that still abound.

Doug my friend, I believe your plans for Bolivar have most likely been altered. There is no Bolivar anymore. Everything has been wiped out and I am told it looks like it did when they first started to develop it many years ago. It is a real shame because it was a very nice and special place.

Indeed. I was able to follow the course of an extended piece of raw video from an ENG bird to the neighborhood where we would have stayed. It is all gone.

So instead we will be going to a barbecue at Carla's brother's place just outside of Fort Worth. Hardly the same thing.

The first was taken at about 5:00am last Saturday morning. We were just getting the full force of the storm at that time. It is a bit deceiving because it was really very dark. It was a 30 second exposure though and it brought in a lot more light than I knew was there. The second was just a shot of my wife trying to act normal and making me some coffee in the middle of a hurricane. Her blurred movement seemed fitting for the moment.

Both shots are stunning. Thanks for taking the time, in the face of all your more pressing concerns, to share them with us.

Again, best of luck in what comes now.

Best regards,

Doug
 

Michael Fontana

pro member
Glad you're alive, James and there wasn't any big damage at your place and to yourself.

And yes, nature can be beautifull and scary, it has its own power, since this world exist: summer and winter, light and dark, beautifull flowers and hurricanes like Ike.

I find your sentence:

>The little things I hope never to take for granted again. I am sure we will once things are back to normal but hopefully not and hopefully we can remember the things we talked about and the things we felt during this event.<

very important, as you' re making out of a negative situation a positive one.

Welcome back!
 

Doug Kerr

Well-known member
Hi, James,

For those interested, here is a link showing a great number of photographs documenting Ike's destruction.
Yes, I saw these this morning - one of Carla's friends sent her the link.

I haven't yet exactly figured out where on Bolivar Point these are, but very near where we stay every fall.

Ike_PhotoPair_crystal_bch_TX_Loc2LG.jpg


There's a good chance the street in the center (runs back from the beach and then spits into two parallel streets) is Gulfway. The houses we usually stay in are like those in the "first row" on these pix. The one we had reserved for this year (we were supposed to have been there two days ago) is about a mile to the right from where I think these pix are (in the first row).

Best regards,

Doug
 

Doug Kerr

Well-known member
Yes, I'm sure about that location.

Here, the little street (runs from the beach near the "campers" and then almost immediately goes to a "T" and to two other streets) is, ironically, "Noisy Wave Street".

Ike_PhotoPair_crystal_bch_TX_Loc3LG.jpg


Best regards,

Doug
 
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