[Amc-list] hurricane ike/power on 12 days later

["Eddie Stakes" <eddiestakes@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Our electricity came on at 5:21pm this afternoon, and after 12 days, quite a 
ride. There are 1 in 4 Houstonians without power with Centerpoint still as I 
write. At height of Hurricane Ike, there was over 4 million peoplw with no 
power.

So after 12 DAYS, we have electricity, phone, cable and internet again. Not 
all people do and across street have no power.

Paige, me and the boys are doing fine, and only got mimimal hurricane damage 
like hole in roof from 500 lb pecan branch. Luckily the 100+mph wind blew it 
where it did or it would have probably went thru roof, and Noah was sleeping 
in his bunk bed right below where it would have hit, could have been really 
bad. Amazingly my fence I built a few months ago by myself (140 feet!!) 
didn't even lose a plank. Paige's 88 Eagle got cracked windshield from 
branch, and my 72 Ambassador SST wagon and 81 Eagle, both a street over at 
Phil's Auto Repair, were buried in sheetmetal....but no damage, would have 
never known it if you saw them as could barely see either under the metal 
frames and sheetmetal blown off from surrounding businesses, but both ok. 
And neither the 69 BBO MOD Javelin and the 74 Javelin (and 74 Maxi Blue AMX) 
I just all got in got any damage, but were buried in my driveway with oak 
and elm limbs. A few houses over a tree went thru a house like butter, and 
then cratered the guy's 'new' 66 Chevy II Nova he had only gotten a week 
before Ike, I got some photos of that will post later.

The hurricane itself was one of the strangest hurricanes I have ever seen. I 
don't want to take away anything from those who have lost everything (and 
there are many) 50-60 miles from me, but whole communitis have VANISHED and 
are only known now thru maps like Gilchrist, Surfside, Bolivar, Crystal 
Beach for instance. And Galveston is a huge disaster zone with piles of mud, 
snakes, mosquitos, no power, gas, and even alligators eating dead cows. 
There was a 8-9 foot storm surge down there before a drop of rain had even 
fallen, which shows the huge size of the storm.

A plea was made for people who live in high rises and condos above 15 floors 
to get out as wind gusts had already been measured at 130-140mph 500 feet 
up! I think this is why so much trees and power poles down.

Have seen crews from OH, MI, FL, AZ, CA, ID, OK, GA, LA, MS, AL, MO, NE to 
name a few places linesmen have been brought in from to help put "the energy 
capital of the world" back online.

Not sure how many of you have ever ate a MRE (meals ready to eat) FEMA and 
Red Cross pass out but they are quite good. All sorts from enchaladas to 
spagetti and most have a small packet of Tony Scheries or tiny airport 
bottle of Tobasco in them. Tons of carbs and calories after all, they were 
designed for our fighting men and women but us civilians like them too and 
we ended up with several boxes of them.

I did go to St Alexander's this morning after stopping at bank, and say a 
few prayers. Got a lot to be thankful for on our end compared to some of the 
people on our street whose houses cut in 1/2 by trees weighing TONS....or as 
mentioned those poor folks south and east of us 50+ miles who took brunt of 
Ike.

If you have tried emailing me, or calling me, again, I HAVE HAD NO POWER for 
12 days. If you ordered something from me, the mail has been sporadic....and 
please note that many US Post Offices DID NOT HAVE POWER either, much less 
full service, like the Town & Country one I ship things from could only take 
cash and only could sell stamps, so no priority mail, or anything else.

I will be attempting to try to play catch up in next few days, so if you 
don't hear from me, it is a huge FEMA line of emails, and ironically the 
first person to get thru on my phone a few minutes ago after it powered back 
up was longtime AMC vendor Allen Walrath in NY asking if we were ok. If you 
ordered something from me, I have started shipping again, especially FedEx 
which had powere 4 days after hurricane Ike; and now the post office near me 
is back up to full service so AMC stuff will be going out again shortly, 
thanks,
Eddie Stakes
713.464.8825
eddiestakes@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
www.planethoustonamx.com
email volume **EXTREMELY HEAVY**
reply time post hurricane Ike 20+ days 

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