The Ravages of Ike
The Ravages of Ike
Well here we go again.
I wrote several articles when Rita hit our area in 2005 but it was nothing like the latest storm that paid us a visit last Friday night and Saturday morning.
The storm was originally going to hit quite a bit further south than it actually did.
It continued to drift further north all day
Thursday and Friday.
The company I worked for went ahead and closed Thursday at noon so the employees could get family and pets together to evacuate.
I only went to my step son’s house who lives a few miles north of me due to our living so close to the Neches river.
He had some trees close to his house but not nearly as many as my wife and I do.
We did try to sleep Friday night but early Saturday morning around one am the full brunt of the storm hit.
The wind howled and the big oak at the front of his house kept brushing the roof with some of it’s lower limbs.
He had a metal roof and other than the noise there was not any apparent damage.
He did have a large cedar tree that fell during the night as it came up roots and all.
The winds began to subside late Saturday afternoon so we jumped into his Silverado and tried to drive over to our house.
The river was up and it was impossible to drive the truck down the road to our house. So we went back to his house and decided to wait 24 hours and try again.
The next day Sunday we were able to ford the river flooded road as he has twenty inch tires on his truck.
When we got to the house there was an enormous amount of tree limbs and foliage that was strewn around the yard.
The fence was torn down by tree limbs in various spots but the only large limb that hit the house had slid off and was leaning precariously against the front porch.
I had really nice gazebo in the back yard and had tied it down to prevent it from hurting something if it decided it take off like a kite during the storm.
It was totally destroyed and will make one last trip to the county land fill.
My new storage shed next to it did not receive a scratch.
The next day Monday the water was low enough for my wife and I to drive in with our F150 Ford pick up that we had evacuated in.
We left my wife’s car in the garage and it made it through the storm fine.
There were no leaks in the roof of the house that we could see and there had been a tremendous amount of rain at the house the night of the storm.
So I was thinking that we got by with out to many problems until I cranked up the generator and checked out the pump on our household water well.
When I looked out the bathroom window I saw the well was spraying water out across the yard.
I went out and investigated and could see the pump house was blown around during the storm and some of the plumbing been attached to the pump house to hold the whole house water filter where we could get to it to service it.
When the fittings and pipes were pulled by the pump house moving around, it also ruined the well’s water tank.
Our particular well had the pump in the tank so the whole system had to be trashed and a new well instaled.
I called the well man and it took him a couple of days to locate a new well for us.
He came and installed it Friday afternoon and by some stroke of luck our power was restored later that evening.
The well so far has been doing an excellent job and seems to provide more than enough water for our needs.
We have managed to clean up most of the yard and are now just waiting for the roofer to come and repair our damage.
The limb that fell on the roof did break a rafter and cause some minor shingle damage as well as damaging the facia board on the front of the house.
Our neighbors in the south part of Orange county and along the edge of the Gulf of Mexico on the other hand went home to some really devastated homes.
The storm surge that raised the level of river so I could not drive home put five to six feet of water in many of the homes in south Orange county and the ones on the edge of the Gulf had up to twenty feet of storm surge hitting them.
All of this damage may have made this storm a rare one hundred year storm.
After a month had gone by the insurance adjuster came and our insurance company covered all of the damaged items I asked them to. In fact the check came shortly after the adjuster came by.
I have also got a bid from the roofer and his bid was with in a few dollars of what the insurance company was allowing for the shingles that have to be replaced and rafter that was broken.
As I had just mentioned he has not come back yet but we agreed that he needed to do all of the roofs in the area that were actually leaking before doing mine.
He said it will be some time before his company comes and does our roof. I told him I was in no big hurry and to take care of the families that had leaky roofs before doing my job.
I am going to have the last nine and half trees cut in our yard. Having damage to the home from falling trees and tree limbs every time we have a storm is getting to be a little much.
We will make it alright as I do pratice what I preach and we stay ready for whatever is going to befall us.
Where ever you live you have to put up with natural disaster.
I used to live with the threat of tornados and winter snow storms or blizzards.
Now that I live 700 miles south of my former living area I do have to put up with hurricanes, tropical storms and floods but if you do your best to be prepared for the worst you will do fine.
Thank you,
Billy J Gibson
Thesellingfoolbjg@yahoo.com
http://www.thesellingfool.com/ T
Well here we go again.
I wrote several articles when Rita hit our area in 2005 but it was nothing like the latest storm that paid us a visit last Friday night and Saturday morning.
The storm was originally going to hit quite a bit further south than it actually did.
It continued to drift further north all day
Thursday and Friday.
The company I worked for went ahead and closed Thursday at noon so the employees could get family and pets together to evacuate.
I only went to my step son’s house who lives a few miles north of me due to our living so close to the Neches river.
He had some trees close to his house but not nearly as many as my wife and I do.
We did try to sleep Friday night but early Saturday morning around one am the full brunt of the storm hit.
The wind howled and the big oak at the front of his house kept brushing the roof with some of it’s lower limbs.
He had a metal roof and other than the noise there was not any apparent damage.
He did have a large cedar tree that fell during the night as it came up roots and all.
The winds began to subside late Saturday afternoon so we jumped into his Silverado and tried to drive over to our house.
The river was up and it was impossible to drive the truck down the road to our house. So we went back to his house and decided to wait 24 hours and try again.
The next day Sunday we were able to ford the river flooded road as he has twenty inch tires on his truck.
When we got to the house there was an enormous amount of tree limbs and foliage that was strewn around the yard.
The fence was torn down by tree limbs in various spots but the only large limb that hit the house had slid off and was leaning precariously against the front porch.
I had really nice gazebo in the back yard and had tied it down to prevent it from hurting something if it decided it take off like a kite during the storm.
It was totally destroyed and will make one last trip to the county land fill.
My new storage shed next to it did not receive a scratch.
The next day Monday the water was low enough for my wife and I to drive in with our F150 Ford pick up that we had evacuated in.
We left my wife’s car in the garage and it made it through the storm fine.
There were no leaks in the roof of the house that we could see and there had been a tremendous amount of rain at the house the night of the storm.
So I was thinking that we got by with out to many problems until I cranked up the generator and checked out the pump on our household water well.
When I looked out the bathroom window I saw the well was spraying water out across the yard.
I went out and investigated and could see the pump house was blown around during the storm and some of the plumbing been attached to the pump house to hold the whole house water filter where we could get to it to service it.
When the fittings and pipes were pulled by the pump house moving around, it also ruined the well’s water tank.
Our particular well had the pump in the tank so the whole system had to be trashed and a new well instaled.
I called the well man and it took him a couple of days to locate a new well for us.
He came and installed it Friday afternoon and by some stroke of luck our power was restored later that evening.
The well so far has been doing an excellent job and seems to provide more than enough water for our needs.
We have managed to clean up most of the yard and are now just waiting for the roofer to come and repair our damage.
The limb that fell on the roof did break a rafter and cause some minor shingle damage as well as damaging the facia board on the front of the house.
Our neighbors in the south part of Orange county and along the edge of the Gulf of Mexico on the other hand went home to some really devastated homes.
The storm surge that raised the level of river so I could not drive home put five to six feet of water in many of the homes in south Orange county and the ones on the edge of the Gulf had up to twenty feet of storm surge hitting them.
All of this damage may have made this storm a rare one hundred year storm.
After a month had gone by the insurance adjuster came and our insurance company covered all of the damaged items I asked them to. In fact the check came shortly after the adjuster came by.
I have also got a bid from the roofer and his bid was with in a few dollars of what the insurance company was allowing for the shingles that have to be replaced and rafter that was broken.
As I had just mentioned he has not come back yet but we agreed that he needed to do all of the roofs in the area that were actually leaking before doing mine.
He said it will be some time before his company comes and does our roof. I told him I was in no big hurry and to take care of the families that had leaky roofs before doing my job.
I am going to have the last nine and half trees cut in our yard. Having damage to the home from falling trees and tree limbs every time we have a storm is getting to be a little much.
We will make it alright as I do pratice what I preach and we stay ready for whatever is going to befall us.
Where ever you live you have to put up with natural disaster.
I used to live with the threat of tornados and winter snow storms or blizzards.
Now that I live 700 miles south of my former living area I do have to put up with hurricanes, tropical storms and floods but if you do your best to be prepared for the worst you will do fine.
Thank you,
Billy J Gibson
Thesellingfoolbjg@yahoo.com
http://www.thesellingfool.com/ T
posted by thesellingfool | 7:18 PM
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