We still have electricity - barely. It has been flickering off/on now for a while. I can't believe it has stayed on this long. The wind is really howling now. Not the most pleasant sound I have ever heard. I am not looking forward to listening to this all night. The eye is still two hours away. And then we get to do it all over again when the other side of the outer bands come through. Joy.
Max sustained winds are 110 mph, only 1 mph away from a Category 3 hurricane. Here, we are expected to experience North wind 55 to 75 mph, with gusts as high as 95 mph. I have opened the door and all I can say is the wind is strong! I think it's only about 40 mph now according to the news so I know we won't be opening the door for the 75 - 95 mph winds. We're losing electricity pretty often now...probably about 5 times while I've written these two paragraphs. I'm shutting down if I get to post this.
For now, we're experiencing a lot of wind and rain. The wind is angry. I've never heard anything like it. I really feel for everyone in Galveston and Surfside. They will not have much to go back to. I wish everyone in the mandatory evacuation areas would have listened and left before today. Before Ike even hit, there were ~65 rescues and at least 150 rescue calls. People all along the water thought they would just ride it out. Really?!? Time to pray for Galveston and all the areas along the ship channel.
I'll post more tomorrow. We are safe. Doing well. Hunkered down as they are saying. :P
Be sure to check our flickr page for pictures. I posted some before pictures of our house and will post some more tomorrow. We have a curfew for the unforeseable future - 6pm to 5am. No one is allowed to be out and about. Lots of time to blog.
Love to all.
~T
