Looks like Ike will visit Texas in a few days

[Greg Luckett]

Charlie,

Thanks for that link.  My sister told me she had seen pics of Seabrook online but I was not able to find the link.

I was really, really glad to hear that you all were okay and your home, shop, and Tihani were okay too.

Do you still have your Mom's property in Baytown to deal with?

[lbrewer]

Glad you're ok Charlie.....I think y'all dodged the bullet on this one. 

Larry

[Charlie Jones]

Ray- there are close to 10,000 boats in slips in Clear Lake alone, That would still leave Baytown, Texas City, Angleton, Galveston Island, And other sites all around Galveston Bay. All told, probably 30 to 40 thousand boats in slips around the bay. It would be a sheer physical impossibility to get that many boats out of the water and stowed someplace safely. There simply is not enough room.

Greg- thanks. My mother lives in an assisted living facility in Baytown, in a second floor apartment. Nothing there to have to work on. I do however have to go up to east Texas very soon ( probably this week) to check on our family farm- the eye went directly across that. My cousin used to do that- he lived right across the highway, but he passed away three weeks ago so the place is unattended.

Larry- we KNOW we did. And we are very happy about it, and sad also that our good luck was other peoples misfortune. Luck of the draw you might say. Happy with a lump in our throats. We're pretty sure  a good friend lost his Pacific Seacraft 25 in Baytown, although we have found that three other friends boats came though intact.

An Addendum-

Heard from the friend with the PSC 25. She's wounded but will live. Currently she is sitting 50 feet from the water, still tied to her dock, along with ALL the other boats in her marina. One hole under the rub rail port side. Engine still runs, no water inside. The surge lifted all the docks off the pilings and floated them up over and into the parking lot and surrounding grass.

[Steve Day]

Charlie,

We are happy to hear you folks are OK!

The photos you put up on the link are really sad to see. It's amazing the power of water being driven by the high winds. The shots of the floating docks in the parking lot with all of the boats were very interesting. It is very sad to see all of them thrown up on the land like that.

We had a story similar to that here on the Eastern Shore after Katrina where most of the boats left in the water at the local yacht club were found on the land across the harbor (downwind) in the parking lot of the marina. Not a pretty sight!   

Ray, A lot of the folks around here have a "Hurricane Hidey-Hole" scoped out upriver where they can anchor and tie off the boat to large trees in a sheltered area. Some people anchor their boats out in the bay to ride out the storm. Some people have slips in really good, sheltered areas and ride the storms out there. There are not very many floating docks here in the Mobile Bay area (probably due to smaller tidal ranges here).

Most boats down here do not have a cradle, since the only time they are out of the water for maintenance or repair. When a hurricane threatens, the marina here on the eastern shore takes many boats out of the water and the place is "crammed" with boats on jack stands. That works pretty well until the water comes up high enough to float the boats on the jack stands. The 13-15 foot surge of Katrina was high enough to float the boats on the shore and jumble them up quite a bit. It was pretty ugly, but not as bad as those boats in Texas.

Steve

[Greg Luckett]

Just an update from my folks in Alvin.  Still no electricity, but the mail and newspapers started being delivered again yesterday.  Some migrants came by and for $300, cut up some of the downed trees, put most of the bigger limbs in a pile by the street, then took off.  They were supposed to pick up all the tree debris in the yard.  Oh well, nice the big stuff is moved at least.  A neighbor has been supplying Dad's oxygen machine with power, as well as the refrigerator and a fan, and other neighbors have been bringing them cooked meals.  Those are the kind of Texans I remember when I grew up there.  God bless them all.

[Howard]

Charlie:

Have seen the pictures of the carnage, including videos of bulldozers pushing boats around to get them off the roads. What happens to all those damaged boats? Seems to me that in month or two, there should be gobs and bunches of salvage to buy. Engines (both outboards and diesels), anchors, winches, stoves, masts, sails.....you name it.

Does this stuff show up in flea markets, second hand shops, ebay?

[Charlie Jones]

I would suspect that a lot will show up for sale. I also suspect a lot will just get buried.

But to tell the truth I can't say for sure.

[Frank Hagan]

I saw a warning from a boat surveyor about storm damaged boats a few years ago.  His concern was that some of the new production methods don't make a hull that can take being slammed around (he was able to peel back layers of the lamination pretty easily, and was afraid that a patch could hide the fact). 

Insurance companies take the equipment they replace and gain whatever salvage value out of it.  If the manufacturer's recommend scrapping anything that's been flooded, then its scrap metal (I know that's the case with gas fired appliances; once underwater, they have to be scrapped).  I'll bet there are very few manufacturers willing to assume the liability of reconditioned product under the "strict liability" laws, so I doubt any of them say its OK to recondition a product that could have been damaged in a storm.

[Greg Luckett]

This was posted by my sister today, who lives in San Marcos.  I thought that sharing it would be appropriate, but if not, my apologies.

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Family and Friends....

Am answering a note and sending copies to everyone else so I don't have to write two letters....please take what you know and leave the rest....

Why didn't you all have electricity?  Ike???? 

Mother and dad still do not have electricity but seem to be doing ok with neighbors generator...spoke to mother last night and she said that a caravan of electic workers from Florida came down their street yesterday and everyone came out to greet them; they seem to be doing ok...neighbors bringing them food, which dad won't eat, but am sure mother is enjoying; her stove has always worked, and they have never been without water or phone service...compared to most people they have been blessed with little damage or inconvience.  Grocery stores and some gas stations open now...and of course, WalMart!  Today is their 62nd wedding anniversary!!!  I have not been to Alvin since the hurricane; mother told me not to come over there...some mexican workers came bye and they paid them to cut tree that fell in the patio and some other trees too, but guess there are still alot of branches etc laying around.  They do not know if the roof is leaking; alot of shingles gone; have not checked the back closets of the house for leaks, but dad did finally call the insurance agent!

Still alot of dead and uncounted for in a small town called San Leon, which is right next to Bacliff, where we always lived...very bad there...they had a 15' surge; 62% of the population stayed; I just think the authorities should have been more stringent in making people evacuate the lower lying areas...I really loved San Leon and thought about buying property there once...It is so depressing!  Our favorite restaurant is gone....we went there last year for their anniversary lunch/dinner....So many homeless now...and the elderly are suffering the worst of any age group!!!

Life goes on....please keep Texans in your prayers!

Yvonne

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[Greg Luckett]

Here is a link with pics of before and after shots.  HYC is the Houston Yacht Club by LaPorte.  My family use to live in the 3rd house down the road from it (many years ago).  The pics of Kemah is where I went to elementary school and worked through high school.  We were living just down the road in Bayview then.  I am still going through all these pictures.  Three of my cousins have completely lost their homes on Bolivar Pennisula and we have yet to hear from several family members who lived along the coast from LaPorte to Texas City.

http://www.tpicks.com/pictures%20people%20have%20sent%20me.html

Here is a link of Navy Seabees that deployed to Galveston shortly after Ike hit:

http://www.navy.mil/view_gallery.asp?sort_row=1&category_id=18&sort_type=0&page=1

[Oyster]

Thanks for your update Greg. Yes Boliva really got hit along with Orange and Bridge City and of course the Galveston area. This link has a lot of videos and updated regularly. There is a link to their area too now on the link. There is also a scroll bar along the links that will take you down to numerous others.

http://www.kfdm.com/video/

[Greg Luckett]

Here is a link with more pics, some of which were in the previous links, but some new ones too.

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/09/the_short_but_eventful_life_of.html

Thanks for the link, Oyster.  Incidently, are any of those folks on that SAR at Sabine with the boat sitting sideways, your son by chance?

[Oyster]

Greg its hard to say one way or the other. There has been a joint effort of a lot of forces from across the country even though the press would never cover the bulk of the events of the past week. he has been working 18 to 20 hours a day. They had just finished some of the initial cleanup from Gustav.

Many of his unit have also become champion alligator wrestlers. The bad thing about it was that they only had electrical tape to tape the snots shut which was also another story. But even when they had them under control, disposing of them to an area that was proper for the enviromentalists was another story within the story.

[Greg Luckett]

Power is on at the folk's home in Alvin about midday, today.  Not bad at all considering the devastation in the region...in fact really amazing.

[lbrewer]

I hope they can get somewhat back to normal now Greg. 

The pictures in the links you provided gave me the most comprehensive look at the devastation that I've seen.  I know its going to take a long time for the area to recover.

[Oyster]

Thats great to hear. If for some reason they need some assistance let me know.

[Greg Luckett]

Just an update as I know this is getting to be a thing of the past for many of us, but my sister and mother just visited our old home next to the Houston Yacht Club near LaPorte, TX.  The following is an excerpt from my sister's email today.

"Mother and I drove over to ShoreAcres yesterday (Dad didn't go this trip)...oh my god, it was worse than San Leon....your house is one of the few still standing (but boarded up).  Lester Marks old house looks like a bomb went off inside it (as do all of the houses on that circle); every house on the circle demolished....from the road in front of your house all the way to 146 are empty gutted houses that were damaged and/or destroyed in Ike!  We drove down through LaPorte and past Sylvan Beach (it looked ok)..drove down Susan's old street and past her house (couldn't tell if it had inside damage) but houses on her street toward the water were all gutted too....then I drove back to Bacliff and ate at this really good mexican restaurant on 146....we didn't go down to San Leon this trip.  They were doing alot of work at the yacht club and FEMA was parked at the Firestation in Shoreacres....Will email you some pictures soon...."

[Oyster]

A couple of weeks tops, in most cases not even that with their reporting of the disaster and they have moved on. But many folks in that area will not be enjoying much of a Christmas this year.  They should be truely embarrassed. :-[ There are pages of damage in this link.

http://kogt.smugmug.com/gallery/5953607_Nn2hu#P-22-9

[Greg Luckett]

The roof on my parents house was about 5 years old, now pretty much destroyed.  Estimates from roofing contractors are about $10K, but their insurance company will only pay $3500.  I told them to get an attorney as I learned years ago not to waste time with insurance companies w/o one.  I plan to take the boys and head to

Texas as soon as they are out of school next summer, along with tools and materials.

[Ken_Potts]

I know a woman from Texas who is living in an apartment in NC (she followed her job up here) and until Ike hit she was looking forward to retiring and heading back to the Galveston area and her friends and family and the house she still owned.  Everything (material) that she had down there is gone now.  She's only got what she brought with her.  She can't even really talk about it for any length of time.