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All right, for those who would like to know, I'm back in Deer Park and it's not too bad. My house is still standing, no missing windows, or anything too drastic.

The Damage:
3 missing shingles,
Broken back screen door, and
Scattered tree limbs, and most important,
No electricity.

I'm not at my house, obviously, since I don't have electricity there. We do have a generator that is running our fans and a lamp and fridge and freezer, but we can only run it for a certain period of time before having to turn it off and turn it back on later. I'm at my Aunt and Uncles house about 10 min. away from where I live. The two blocks around our house have electricity so ours should be up soon. We have plenty of food and water so my house is well and dandy.

For knowledge of other places in my area, a few places are up giving out ice and water for those who can't get any right now. The streets are flooded with lines of people who are trying to find food and water and ice. There are houses with trees broken in half, like literally split down the middle, and there are some with trees on the house. Other places are working perfectly with electricity and nothing wrong with the yard. It's almost like the hurricane was hopping around. Telephone poles and electric poles are bent and scattered. Fences are abused and damaged or completely gone. It's nothing too drastic, as far as I know, nobody in my area got any water in the house unless the shingles came off, so I take that back, some did get water because of fallen shingles, for example, my aunt and uncle, we pulled up the carpet and tarped the roof today. By water in the house, I mean flooding from the storm, it was raining so hard that it didn't have time to flood.

My Evacuation:

My mom, sister and I went to San Marcos for evacuation. There was no rain while we were there, there was a semi-strong wind but nothing happened. We came home Sunday morning, here's why. My dad, had to stay in Deer Park because he works at Shell Refineries and they had to get the plant shut down before Ike hit. Well problems errupted while he was there, he got mad and left. He call my mom Saturday night and said he was on his way up. He made it to Columbus, about two-three hours away from my house and an hour away from San Marcos. At 2 a.m. Sunday he decided to turn around, AS THE STORM WAS HITTING and then he came home right during the middle of Ike. My mom was furious. He called the next morning and his excuse for not calling and telling her that she was coming home "because I knew you would talk me out of it." So, we came left Sunday morning and reached the house before lunch time. (BTW: the ride to and from San Marcos was much smoother than Rita Evac) We cleaned the limbs out of our front yard, and have been relaxing ever since. The only bad thing is the electricity being gone but the cool front came in and now we don't even use the fans. Flashlights are necessary, or candles. We've used both. I stayed at my Grandmothers last night because she got electricty too (less than 5 min. away from our house) and tonight I'm with the Aunt and Uncle babysitting the kids while one works and the other gets the house back together.

So, I'm perfectly fine and so is my family. The problems mainly went to those who live in the Galveston and Bolivar (sp?) and Kemah area. My sympathies and worries go to all who live there. I hope it gets better for you all.

There's my experience of the hurrican Ike. It wasn't too bad for me but for others it was worse.

Hopefully the next posting will be something good.

-Kimberly

P.S. Motherhubbard and sprinks, thanks for the concern!