Clean Up

Our neighbors yard

Our Street Facing South

Our Back Fence

Our South Fence and Trees

The last week has been a whirlwind. I am going to choke the next reporter that uses the word "normalcy". We drove through Houston on our way home Sunday watching the damage get progressively worse as we drove south. It was a rainy dreary day and the skyline looked ominous with hundreds of broken windows. It looked like a scene out of Gotham City.
We had plenty of food and water but ice was sparse the first few days. The ice lines were sometimes an hour wait, standing there patiently to get your ration of two bags. Sunday and Monday night there were huge neighborhood grill outs as people tried to salvage what they could from thawing freezers. We spent dinner with friends several night this week grilling, fish, steaks, chicken and talking late into the night. I have to say we have really gotten to know our neighbors well over the past few weeks. We have been blessed with beautiful weather the past week. After the hurricane, a cold front set in - 85 day and mid 60’s at night. It made living without A/C tolerable.

Guess it was a good time to clean out my fridge, we kept things in coolers another day to make sure the power was permeate.

Monday Jared and I started the long day of clean up and damage assessment. We lost several sectionS of fence, a bunch of little trees and we lost our wood floors in our living room dining rooms entry way and one bathroom from wind driving rain. The rain was so powerful, it power washed our front door, just took the finish off of it. We had damage, but faired very well compared to most of our neighbors. We didn’t loose a singe shingle or window and we have so much to be thankful for.

Walmart Dairy section, one week after the storm

Our power was restored late Monday evening; we were really surprised as we were one of the first back on the grid. We were at some friends for dinner and the light flickered. You could hear cheers from across the neighborhood. Even three days away from power makes you realize how much you depend on it. Slowly life became routine again. Jared spent Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday on a clean up crew cutting trees as I finished picking up half of our neighbor’s roof out of my front yard. Water became safe to drink yesterday. There are now several gas stations open. I ventured out last night to get a few groceries. Target was bare, Wal-Mart had milk, but meat is a still a rare commodity. Schools will be closed until Sept 29th.


Today we packed up our plywood and placed it back in the garage. We have a few more stumps to pull. The insurance assessor hasn’t called yet. Got our flooring and fence estimates today. NASA JSC will open Monday.