Home Sweet Home...

We made it back from LA. The usually 6 hour trip took us almost 9. We had to take several detours due to high water, but luckily we like to take back roads and can navigate with a map pretty well. The last city we saw gas was Jasper, TX. Everything south of there was either out or didn't have electricity to pump it. We saw lots of devastation in East Texas - tons of downed trees, power lines, trees on homes and cars, torn up barns. It looked like it was tornadoes instead of a hurricane. Speaking of, we had tornado warnings all around us in LA from the remnants of Ike coming through. Fortunately they all missed us. It's a good thing. We were in a mobile home (with a permanent roof structure over it) with no where to "hide" from the twisters!
Our neighborhood is fairly new. The oldest sections are 5 years old. Our section is only 3. Almost everyone has sections of their fences or the entire fence down. Luckily, that is all the damage we had. We were very lucky because we didn't even board up any of the windows. Our next door neighbor, not so lucky. They stayed with a relative in the area and didn't come back to check until after the storm passed. By that time, it was too late. They lost 50% of their roof. This caused rain and wind to get inside, soaking the insulation (foam and the blown in kind). The ceilings couldn't handle the weight and just collapsed. The wind blew the wet insulation on everything - furniture, walls. They have a total mess on their hands.

I am sure most of you have been watching the news and our neighbors to the south - Clear Lake, Galveston, etc. didn't fare that well either. Most of their homes were completely leveled...nothing but pilings left standing. It is very devastating to South Texas.

We know how lucky we were and can't thank God enough for watching over our house while we were gone. We just pray for all the others that were hit the hardest for their health, safety, and strength to rebuild again.

Below are some pics of the fence damage....