Ike damage

I decided to share a few pictures I have taken this past week of the damage from Ike.

This sign needs some V8.














Now there is NO reason to doubt exactly where Zuma is located. Right HERE!


This is the Chase parking garage building kitty corner to the Chronicle building. A few tornadoes went right up Travis St, as you can see by all the windows blown out of this side of the building. The plywood went up in a matter of a few days, it was impressive. Workers were dropping pieces of broken glass onto the street below, since it was so covered anyway (and the street was blocked to all traffic.)

This is the Chase tower, directly across from the Chronicle. I learned that it is the tallest building West of the Mississippi. The tornadoes really did some work on this puppy.

A view of Travis street between the Chase Tower and their garage building.







A few pictures forwarded by a friend of a friend from inside the Chase tower.






















Very few windows blew out of the Chronicle building. It was a shame, apparently once the tornadoes crossed Texas Street to the Chron, they lost their steam. My big room of cubicles has windows facing Travis (where the blown out windows face on Chase Tower), so we were lucky to not to have ours blown out too... or unlucky? This picture is of one of the few windows that was blown out. It is in the office of our publisher, who rode out the storm in the building. I spoke to him, he told me of multiple funnel clouds he saw on the street, that's why I keep referring to the tornadoes. Ironic that his was one of the only windows to blow out, huh? Especially since he announced layoffs only a week before the storm. Poetic justice, I call it.




This is on the street corner, I thought it was very telling of the damage. Glass pieces will be on the street between bricks for years, I'd guess. It's everywhere, there's no way to clean it all up.

And then I came home to find that all the excitement had even worn out my little couch potato, Kylie. She's certainly dreaming of her favorite show, Little Einstiens.---David


A few more updates: Emily is finally starting school again tomorrow. Her school got power back late this afternoon, so we got the phone call after 6pm tonight that they were ready to go. We had Church today, which was nice. David and I were supposed to speak in Sacrament Meeting today, but instead we had a shortened (30 min) mtg. Yea! Then the kids and moms went home and the youth and men changed into their “yellow shirts” and headed out to work. David put tarps on a few different roofs today and did more yesterday. There is sitll so much work to do.

On Thursday David really wanted some ice cream, something we hadn't had in a while, so we made a deal that he would bathe the kids and I would run to the store. I went to HEB, no frozen food, so I drove to the Missouri City Super Target. I walk up at 8pm on the dot and they won't let me in, MO City is still under curfew. So I finally drive to Randalls, this time in Sugar Land, and finally find some ice cream. Then I went to the lines to check out and each one was at least 10 people deep. This recovery process is certainly taking time.

So, now that Emily's school has power, most every one/place we know has power on this side of town with a few exceptions. A lot of people/places got power back yesterday, a full week after IKE. Our Church and Kroger and McDonalds, etc. to name a few. David's parents got their power back and headed back to Baytown on Tuesday and his sister and her family are still without.

Hopefully now we can start finding some normalcy again among the downed trees.