12 September 2009

Ike - one year later

It's been a year since Hurricane Ike tore through south Texas.



The local paper is posting photos (before & after) along with stories.





















In our area, we were very lucky and did not suffer any serious damage, so things have returned to normal but for other areas it has been a much longer road. It may be hard to imagine, but even after one year, some houses are still sporting those infamous blue FEMA tarps awaiting insurance settlements and roof repairs. A lot of the homes and places on the coast were destroyed and only now are people rebuilding.

This time last year, the storm was just off the coast and headed towards Galveston. It was listed as a Cat 2 (Category 2) hurricane with the possibilty of reaching Cat 3 before landfall. Most of the south Texas coast had already evacuated north and west, but we are far enough inland that we are outside of the evacuation zones and we hunkered down in place (did the same during Rita a few years back). We loaded up on supplies of food & water and locked down the fort to await the storm. From the traffic debacle back during Rita, we decided that we would rather wait it out at home rather than get stuck on the highways with everyone else. The biggest problem we faced was not having power for an extended period.

Sometimes we are reminded that life is short and hard and we should enjoy the ride while we can.

3 comments:

terri said...

Caskets were unearthed...that is immensely sobering! It's sad that a whole year later, people are still awaiting settlements and home repairs.

meleah rebeccah said...

Wow. Looking at these photos puts the real devastation into perspective.

Rock Chef said...

I always used to think that the US just used to rebuild after things like this happened, but seeing this and talking to a friend who recently visited New Orleans has taught me otherwise. There seems to be a lot of foot dragging going on. Shouldn't some of that stimulous money have been put to use here?