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15 Days without power
Plus, GREAT news from Galveston!

Mike Mitchell - 9/28/2008

Went by the house last night at 9:30 and there was still no power. They had originally told us it would be on Friday. They still have crews working on Sundays, and I saw them in the neighborhood yesterday, so maybe today... maybe not. We're still at my in-laws' house, and except for being a bit stir crazy, we're doing okay.

Of course, it was worse for my wife's aunt. They got their power on last night and then, after just one hour, it went out again! I can't even imagine how crestfallen I'd be if that happened to me. They didn't get it back until mid-morning today.
 
On the other hand, though, my brother has AWESOME news from Galveston! He returned to the island yesterday for the first time. He had been facing dire predictions that he possibly had as much as 4 feet of water in his house. The restaurant around the corner from him was almost entirely submerged, and others he knew had lost almost everything they own.  But his house was spared! 

He had to come in the back door because he had packed towels under the front door (when it rains, horizontal rain can splash under his door if the wind is strong enough), so that door wouldn't open.  The back door was swollen shut from humidity (and some towels were back there), but as we entered the old house he was met with a smell of dampness, but that was all.  As he went room to room, looking around, he was stunned to see that all was as he left it.  The rugs were dry, even some magazines on the floor were dry.  He examined the windows and the ceilings, and nothing was broken and there doesn't seem to be any leaking or new stains on the ceiling (despite the fact that he's lost a lot of shingles).

So, he walked outside and started measuring the waterline on his house.  The house is built on stilts and had survived the original 1900 hurricane that hit Galveston Island (it's near the Bishop's Palace, which is in the old part of the island, for those of you familiar with Galveston).  The water line was about 6 feet above the ground (which is more than 2.5 feet above the street).  He estimates that he missed getting water into the house by about 3-6 inches! 

This is such a blessing for him and his wife!  So many of his neighbors were wiped out by this storm; when he reached his street his first sight was his neighbors piling their belongings on the street corner so they could be hauled off to the landfill.  It was really a miracle that he's not one of them.

The only major interior loss he has is the refrigerator. City officials are asking people to duct tape them shut and haul them to the curb (the tape is to discourage the rates from getting into it for a feeding frenzy... the rat population on the island has just exploded.

He and his wife will not be returning to the island for at least the month of October. It's not healthy to be there.  They still don't have power, the water must NOT be consumed (and you really should be careful about washing with it, even with strong anti-bacterial soaps).  Right now people are still walking around with bags taped to their feet as they walk through the "Ike Slime" that is still in liquid form under the houses and in remote corners. It's nasty, smelly stuff and who knows what diseases it carries?

For the time being, they'll live with my parents in East Texas (about a 4.5 hour drive from my house, which puts it about 5.5-6 hours to Galveston).  Still, at least now they have something to go home to! He's still got a lot of work to do to secure things and clean up around the building and he's got to get the roof tarped to prevent rain damage, but in general his news yesterday was about the best it could be!

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