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@ planethoustonamx .comwww.planethoustonam x.com
email volume **EXTREMELY HEAVY**
reply time post hurricane Ike 20+ days
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