We are Surviving Ike!

3:30 PM CST

Unbelievable that we have regained power after 12 hours of outage. Can't explain it, but very thankful!

We watched the news report up until 11 PM or so last night and then just had to go sleep. I slept soundly! Didn't hear the wind and rain until I was awaken to a text message at 3:30 AM...my friend whose patriotic quilt I posted just the other day was texting me that they had water and had to go across the street to her brother-in-laws since they had a 2 story house...at the time of the text that house had over a foot and the storm was just getting started. They live on a bayou in Dickinson. Haven't heard any more from them in 12 hours.

I meant to "take notes" so I could journal things, but I think I was in hybernation mode. Perhaps some of the details will come back to memory, but right now while I have connection I want to give the praise reports that we have heard.

My brother-in-law who is out of the country on business had 80% of his trees downed in his yard. My nephews (19,17) sheltered in place with my sister-in-law and reported one of the trees did go through the oldest's bedroom window. They are all okay and had no water damage as of the 9:30 AM report

My son received a text message from his friend in our little town. Said our little area did not flood, lots of trees down and "your house is okay". We find this miracelous since the surrounding cities 5 miles north are still underwater. We have not heard from our neighbor to confirm this, but we are hopeful, how-be-it cautiously. With the power back on we are getting visuals of the areas hit by this storm and it's not pretty. Where we are right now is still in the outer bands and it's still raining. Flood watches are in effect until tomorrow morning for almost all of Texas from Galveston to Livingston to Beaumont - a huge area. I keep thinking of all my quilting friends I know in the little towns I keep hearing on the radio/TV...

One of my quilting friends lives in a beautiful double wide mobile home in the country - heard from them they had a small roof leak - that the downed tree hit the tractor and horses are okay. They are raising their 5 & 6 year old grandchildren so I was pleased to hear all was well - they too sheltered in place in Santa Fe (TX not NM)

It was hours before we finally heard from my in-laws. They sheltered in place and did not get water - they are in the same town as the friend who got over a foot of water, so we were pleased to get their report. The other brother-in-law lives in that before mentioned neighborhood on the bayou, they evacuated but have heard that they were not flooded. My in-laws did have trees downed. The described it as a domino effect - a tree in their neighbors hit a tree in their yard which fell and knocked a tree over in the next door neighbor on the other side which in turn hit the neighbor behind them knocking into their garage. Still, nothing major by any means.

The damages in Galveston are unreal. We've been listening to the local news broadcasting on the radio (check out http://www.khou.com)/ prior to the power coming back on and some of our favorite places to go on the island are just plainly no longer there. Many of my guild members live there and I can only imagine the suffering they are going through.

Ike took a bite out of Texas and it's still pounding on us. The rain is just now reaching my mother in East Texas some 250 miles north of us. This was a powerful storm.

Right now all I can focus on is our family is safe. My sister's husband's family (whom we are staying with) has all be accounted for. Some have minor damage but all are safe.

The power is flickering. Need to go. Not sure when we can return home, not sure of the roads. more later. thanks for the prayers, keep praying!! There's still a lot of needs.