[Vision2020] Fw: IKE

[Sue Hovey]

This is one you can skip, but I thought some of you might like to read a firsthand accounting from my brother who was on the rim of the storm and didn't have to evacuate.  They live 15 miles north of Huntsville, Texas, not all that far from Houston.  They play bluegrass music.  Perform at the Texas Folklife Festival every year.  They are really pretty good.  
----- Original Message ----- 
From: Gene Young 
To: Sue Hovey ; Lyle Young ; marynell young ; Owen Young ; Rachel Lester ; Jenny Young 
Sent: Tuesday, September 16, 2008 9:56 AM
Subject: Re: IKE


Just to update everyone, it's Tuesday morning, and Marynell and I are fine.  We got power back last night.  (No matter what anyone might say to the contrary, electricity is a good thing.)  When I talked to Sue and Jenny on the phone on Saturday, I was a little premature with the "all's clear."  We were revisited by strong winds and heavy rain later that day; however, we still didn't have any appreciable damage.  Not so for Huntsville town.  The winds were still hurricane force when Ike got this far north.  The people in town got hit much harder than we did (with trees down everywhere, just about universal power outages, and limited gas and food--even a couple of fatalities).  We are fifteen miles north and about 5 miles west, and I guess that was enough to put us appreciably out of harm's way.  In Huntsville, there was an isolated area north of town that never lost power, even in the height of the storm.  It consists of a Pilot gasoline station, a Mexican restaurant, and a liquor store.  When I drove by there on Sunday, there were long lines at each.  Kind of funny, despite all the trouble going on.

As most of you probably know, Ike contined to cause damage well beyond Texas.  Stephen's daughters lost power at their house in Cincinnati (where there were hurricane force winds).  A friend of ours drove all the way from Houston to stay with relatives in Arkansas, only to lose power there to 80 mph winds.  They still don't have power.  

Marynell's school didn't miss even one day, but Sam Houston is going to be closed until next Monday (the 22nd).  It's a nice vacation, but not a good way to get one.

Anyway, we're fine compared with Huntsville and certainly compared with Houston and parts south and east of there.  (There are really sobering pictures of the Bolivar Peninsula, east of Galveston, where the surge was the worst.  In the hardest-hit parts there, all that is left are pilings and pavement.  Not any other sign that anything was built there at all.)

Tonight, Marynell and I are going in to one of the evacuee centers in town to play music for the people there.  Maybe that will help take their minds off of what awaits them when they get home.  We're really lucky.  (Our cows don't seem to have realized that there was even anything unusual.  Cows aren't all that smart, but at least they don't seem to have that much to worry about.)

Gene


On Sat, Sep 13, 2008 at 4:16 PM, Sue Hovey <suehovey at moscow.com> wrote:

  I talked with Gene this morning and they are fine--as you probably know, too, but without power.  Actually we didn't discuss the storm much but spent quite a bit of time on Sarah Palin and her foreign policy expertise.  

  Norm told him he ought to move up here but Gene feels a hurricane or two every decade is preferable to 100 inches of snow every year.  Hummmm he could have something there.

  Sue 
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