thilly thenny

[It's a bit ironic that I posted so many pictures of the interior, but the first photo of outside my house is this.]

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I’ve tried to stay away from writing too much about Ike recently.  Partially because I don’t want to jinx anything for my parents.  Mostly because I’ve been watching the 24-hour live coverage too much to blog.  Any grain of news, and I’d be calling my parents with updates.

“Hi daddy.  Just wanted to tell you not to drink the water… Yes, I know you don’t drink tap water, but don’t brush your teeth with you… Okay, well don’t do it tomorrow then…”

“Mommy, CenterPoint Energy’s restored power to 100,000 people… just 2 million more to go!”

“Hey, don’t go anywhere. There’s a mandatory curfew from 9pm to 6am.”

“They’re opening some Randalls and HEB stores, but there’s been a line since 5am, and they’re out of ice.  All of Houston’s out of ice.”

They don’t have any electricity (it’d gone out well before Ike got close), and before they started going back to work again, they had no way of getting any real news.  Everyone was trading rumors and stories.  It also freaked me out that the phone lines were too busy, and I had to call 20 times to get my parents on the phone.

Well, for some people, it’s still a huge journey.  Prays, wishes and good vibes to them.  Anything we can do to help, just give me a holler.

Fortunately and thankfully, my parents have started the repair process.  We always buy homes with lots of trees because it helps with the AC bill and provides great shade.  In a hurricane, it’s pretty much a detriment.  When they told me that trees had fallen all over our house, I thought it was all small branches.

… not so much.  Here are some pictures that my mom sent me this morning, probably uploaded and emailed at work.

I’m so thankful that the trees fell on the yard and not the house.  Apparently, the damage at the other house is much worse; at one point, the tree actually knocked down our neighbor’s fence.

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There are definitely a few services and companies that have kept me sane in the last week (I feel like I’ve been through the storm on some level too).

• A big thank you to AT&T.  Seriously.  Sometimes… okay usually, your phone service sucks.  I get dropped calls, missed calls that never rang and bad reception all the time.  But this week, you’ve really saved my ass.  When T-Mobile users were completely in the dark (probably literally), AT&T phone lines still worked.  I’ve called my parents at all hours of the day; and even when it took 20 redials, I still was able to get through… and the line didn’t drop (miracle?).
• KHOU.com (That’s the local CBS).  During the initial hours of the storm, I was literally glued to this website.  I think I fell asleep at 3am on Friday night/Saturday morning and woke up at 7am to continue watching.  They had forecasts, maps, flood zones maps, evacuation information and most importantly, 24-hour streamed live coverage.  Some of more specifics were hard to obtains (like flood levels down the block), but I couldn’t have relayed news to my parents without them.
• You rock, ABC13.com.  For some reason, KHOU crapped out on me for a second, so I switched.  ABC’s invested a ton of money into social media because there’s a twitter feed, live streaming, discussion pages and an easy to search/browse video service.  (… and I thought Texas would be slower ‘getting it.’)  Once my parents were safe (after about 10 hours of howling wind, it was over), ABC kept me informed on other locales, food supplies and survival tips a few days after Ike.

A big thanks!

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My family’s been really lucky on this one (*knock on wood*).  I feel so horrible for the people who are still stranded or have lost their homes.  Please know that this lil San Franciscan still has the heart of a Texan and it goes out to you. :)  *kisses!*