Take a Hike Ike!

This is from Mel (elisabeth's dad) with a few tid-bits added here and there:

Jamie's (my sister) power went out early so we started texting. (It's great to have more options than voice.) They had little idea of Ike direction so I decided to stay up as long as possible and monitor radar and Nat Weather Svc and keep them posted via texting. I finally went to bed about 2AM Pacific. At that time they were on the west edge of hurricane force winds and I figured it would not get any worse for them. At 5:30 AM she text'd me that it was mostly over. They are OK. The kids came through it ok though they woke up some.

They sustained a little damage to fence and landscape. There doesn't appear to be much house damage. All windows held. There are still bands of danger out there so they remain hunkered down, though it is quiet at the moment. We just communicated and she said it sounded like being close to a freight train much of the night. Very loud. She could see flashes of lightning but the wind howl was so loud they never heard the thunder. Their power remains out. If it doesn't come back on they have a friend who will share a generator. She sounded tired. They don't expect power until Monday. Jayden says the toilet still works!!! (He called it toilet electricity still works. LOL).

RE: Tom and Mercy (my uncle and aunt) and Brian and Jen (cousin and wife): I talked to Mercy last night after Jamie's power went out and they were waiting, jamie being 50+ miles farther south and west got hit first. When I got Jamie's text at 6AM Pacific the eye had just gone over Kingwood. NWS said winds around the eye were 100 mph at that time. So I suspect they got hit pretty good, though they live in a somewhat sheltered area with lots of big trees around for miles. I have not been able to reach either Mercy or Brian by phone and no response by text. I left messages. Jamie is going to try to contact them and let me know. (Jamie just called and said she was able to contact Mercy, who said she and Tom , and Brian and Jen were ok too.) According to Radar wind could diminish for them any time. Brian and Jen boarded up so that prob helped. Tom didn't but taped windows. They lost a few big trees in Mercy's neighborhood one landing on a car. That is all I know at the moment. Apparently their windows held.

My (Dad's) Cousins Dave and Sandy are prob ok as they were about the same distance from the eye as Jamie. Cousins Matt and Cheryl may have been closer to the eye. Communication will be difficult for a while as I don't have cell numbers for either of them.
Thanks for praying with us. I really appreciate it. This could have gone much worse if Ike had gone 20 miles farther west.

Jamie called 5PM an gave an update. She said when they were talking about being without power little Gracie (age 3) flexed her biceps in a body builder pose and exclaimed, "NO POWER?!" (That tyke has personality!)

Jamie confirmed Tom and Mercy, and Brian and Jen are all OK. They are perhaps 50 miles north, and they eye of Ike went right over them, but have been able to communicate once.

A store close to them reopened a few hours ago and they went to try to replenish milk. No milk there but she got to see some devastation. The store was also without power and throwing away all their perishables. She was amazed how many great old trees were down. A friend a few miles away never lost power so he is loaning them a generator as of a few hours ago. They have the refrig plugged in and are charging cell phones. Oh, and the DVD player for the kids :-). She said pray that the power will be back on by Monday because the friend has to take it back to work then.

Adam's parents did OK too. They live about 5 miles from them, farther away from Ike's path. They are without water but have power.

Yesterday Jamie was cooking something in the crockpot when the power went out. So she stuck it in the freezer section of the refrig. It was still cold today, so she cooked it on the stove and are sharing it with neighbors.

Thank you all for praying!! The Lord certainly protected our family and what is the loss of a few fence posts and trees and shingles compared to human life.