POST Ike

Almost 100 miles from the coast and still the force of this storm was UNBELIEVABLE. On generator power, thank god for the good man who loaned us his. They were very fortunate and received their electric within just a couple of days, if that. So he loaned theirs to us. Generators are difficult to come by right now..so we were very blessed. We lost power here on Friday night, it is now Friday a week -still no power, no water. News reports say that 2.5 million people were without power and water at the beginning, and now at this day there are still 1.2 million without power and water. It takes power to run water. Water has been precious, as has been ice, and of course gas. 2.5 million, 1.2 million...those are huge numbers. Very disappointed with the news stations, except for channel 2 here in Houston - the major news carriers barely touch on the severity of the storm. Galveston is basically gone. There was even a tiger walking freely on Galveston Island. The storm being categorized as a 2 but had the strength of a 4 or 5!! and double the size of Alicia - Ike was 600 miles across. I was able to watch a bit of the national news on nbc last night, they like the other touched on the aftermath of Ike for a couple of seconds..then they had a story about the amazon, and how this particular area is very primitive - that being without electricity and water...I just kind of smiled and went to fetch my pitcher of water to take my 'bath'...today we get to take showers, wash our clothes, and feel like humans again..Mom has water now, and electricty. We were very fortunate, and have been inconvienced, and we have to be careful running generators, burning candles, cutting down trees, all of this is dangerous without emergency services available at a touch of a button (cell phones were out for 4+ days and lan lines of course didn't work) - just in case something went terribly wrong. But the good people of Galveston, well, their lives have been changed forever. I'm glad my family and I were able to see Galveston one last time before this devestation, and I hope the rest of the country understands the severity of this situation and gives any way they can to help these people. We were there for Katrina, I hope others will be there for us.


And a thank you to the line workers from as far north as Canada that have come to resurrect our electricty and our lives.