Hurricane Ike - headed right for me

[PostMortem1666]

Did you guys make it through alright? Galveston got fucked up.

 

[grywolf627]

Well...it's a mess here in Houston. It could have been worse...but it's still a mess. Over 2 million customers without power, which translates to about 4 million people. We're incredibly lucky enough to be on the same main power circuit as the businesses around us and the hospital across the street. So we got power back about an hour ago. But many people are looking at up to 2 weeks without power. Damage wise, we came out okay. I was really worried about the willow trees right outside our apartment. But luckily the wind was blowing parallel to us. Really unnerving to hear these nonstop roaring winds when it's dark out, and no power...and then hear these loud cracks and crashes from the trees right outside your place. As far as Galveston, I still haven't seen too much, because we just recently got power and haven't seen much. But the storm surge (water pushing in from the ocean) wasn't as bad as they were forecasting. It was still pretty bad, some buildings are just plain gone. But it wasn't as bad as they were expecting. As for us, we actually missed the eye of the storm. We stayed in the west portion of the eye wall...which means we never caught a break until it was gone.

Here are some pictures I snapped from around our place. I haven't had time to touch up any of the photos yet. Starting with the eerie sunset before. The winds starting to come in at night. The rains/winds really blowing in. Then all the downed trees around our apartment complex. We haven't even gone out driving yet to see what it's like around us. I don't want to waste too much gas driving around, because if there's no power to many places...that means there's no working gas stations.

Anyway, thanks for the concern guys! Hope J made it through okay. It may be a while before he gets power up there in the north. I need to check on some friends around his area.

 

[grywolf627]

Well, just saw on the news that Galveston island has been declared "unlivable" and will be closed to the public (including residents) for at least several weeks. Really sucks for those people.

 

[grywolf627]

Update: I'm not sure about J, but a friend of mine that I do a lot of work with lives in about the same area and I just heard from him last night. They get power from a different power company than the main Houston power company, and it seems their main power plant got submerged in water. Apparently that whole area won't have power until early to mid October (or so he was told). He said he's living like a frontier man, cooking cans of beans over a camp fire. Definitely won't finish the new song before the ProgPower festival.

 

[J the TyranT]

Im back. No power for 13 fucking days. Broke down and bought a generator, but still had no net access.

Grilled food outside.... never lost running water though.

Shit sucked.

 

[Sloan]

did you guys raid the music stores?

 

[mick thompson]

good luck dude - should of lived in ireland - we have no serious storms, no seriously hot weather, no dangerous animals or bugs or anything. its like the most neutral country on the planet.

good luck with the storm - hope you'l be ok