Share your Hurricane Ike experiences!

[Fenster]

AMEN sister... I have a neighbor that runs his generator 24/7, the ignorant bastard that he is, and IF I am lucky, it is silent for the few minutes it takes for him to put more gas in it.  I need a good nights sleep.

How did these folks find the gas to run it 24/7?  My dad and I had trouble finding enough to run theirs the required amount to keep the food from ruining.

[captmarga]

While I don't live in Houston, I'm hearing from friends who do, people in the Woodlands, and even further afield.  What a lot of people haven't heard is that even up in Kentucky, power is still out from Ike.  Parts of KY had 87 mph winds there, too.  One of the computer sites that my hubby is main contact for lost power and backups and had to be shut down by onsite IT.   

While the southern Tx Coast took the brunt, Ike raked the USA pretty darn good.

Hang in there, everyone, people are working on it!!!  It's just frustrating as heck when it doesn't seem to move fast enough, but the numbers and swath of destruction really is HUGE...

Capt. Marga

[Pascal]

How did these folks find the gas to run it 24/7?  My dad and I had trouble finding enough to run theirs the required amount to keep the food from ruining.

If there's no ... or very little ... electric load, then they'll run a really long time on very little gas.

I ran mine with heavy load for about 12 hours (4 gallon tank -- supposed to run only 10 hours with a full load).  Power came back on, so I shut it off.  Started it the next day to run the remaining little bit of gas out of it (didn't want to store it with gas) -- and it ran for 10 more hours!  I finally just shut it off ... never did use up all the gas.

[Bonny Pearl]

[How did these folks find the gas to run it 24/7?  My dad and I had trouble finding enough to run theirs the required amount to keep the food from ruining.

We were able to get gas in Brenham. We ran our generator with only the fridge and tv hooked up.  Then when there was water pressure, we hooked up the water heater.  We bought a tankless water heater last year and it has been great.  Saves on the use of propane (we have the silver bullet) by not having to constantly heat stored water.  I highly recommend a tankless water heater to anyone who is pondering the idea!

While I understand the noise factor with generators, it is a life saver when you don't want to toss out all of the food in your fridge and freezer.  Escpecially since the cost of food has skyrocketed.  Even beans are more expensive now!  I would roughly estimate there is probably $300-$500 worth of food in my fridge right now.  All those little jars in the door and meats in the freezer can add up quickly.

[Fenster]

While I don't live in Houston, I'm hearing from friends who do, people in the Woodlands, and even further afield.  What a lot of people haven't heard is that even up in Kentucky, power is still out from Ike.  Parts of KY had 87 mph winds there, too.  One of the computer sites that my hubby is main contact for lost power and backups and had to be shut down by onsite IT.   

While the southern Tx Coast took the brunt, Ike raked the USA pretty darn good.

Hang in there, everyone, people are working on it!!!  It's just frustrating as heck when it doesn't seem to move fast enough, but the numbers and swath of destruction really is HUGE...

Capt. Marga

The media in Southeast Texas didn't even cover anything outside of Galveston and Houston.  Everyone in my area (Montgomery/Conroe) was wanting information and could find nothing.  I guess us and the rest of the country weren't "newsworthy". 

[Trillium]

Same went for those of us in between Galv. & Houston.  It has been difficult to get information on Texas City, La marque and league city.  It was extremely frustrating in the first few days.

[ScoutColt]

No gas, no generator. We've yet to get power (i'm at my parents house) and we've been living like kings for the past few days camping on the front lawn with all of our pirate flags and renny gear tasting the first batches of loki. I think I might just be happy if the whole world lost power.... heck all of my friends would go to TRF

[Pascal]

The media in Southeast Texas didn't even cover anything outside of Galveston and Houston.  Everyone in my area (Montgomery/Conroe) was wanting information and could find nothing.  I guess us and the rest of the country weren't "newsworthy". 

That's pretty much how the folks in Louisiana have felt since Gustav.  If you can't show a picture of a flooded house with someone sitting on the roof, the media considers it's not news.

[brier patch charlie]

Ya, the media didn't cover, or really talk about 100K pulse people here in Arkansas that lost power, or the 6 tornado's that tore through the state. Oh ya and the forgot about the old bastard who's tree fell into his house and killed him in his own bed. Yep if they aren't floating away on there roof tops or looting it's not news. Just a blurb, some were one page 6 in the B section of the paper.

[Grov]

Thanks for the nod, Pascal. The recover time of disasters this large are long.  Just accept it and be patient.  We still have thousands waiting on power here in La from Gustav.  Thousands compared to the initial outages is very minor, thankfully.  Houses still smashed in.  Debris still lined up along the streets (of those able to collect it).  We are getting the barrage of "watch out for un-insured roofers' and scam warnings now.  A little noise at night from a generator, having to rise and set with the sun, sweating all day, eating canned food.  None of that will kill us.  I hope everyone is safe and healthy and can make it to faire come Hurricane or high water!

[Ojy]

Yay! I'm back on the map.

I live north of Houston on the Montgomery Co. county line. Our power went out Saturday at about 2 am. All in all, there were not a lot of damages. We lost one tree in our yard and the top of our foreplace stovepipe got knocked off. We drove around a bit Saturday afternoon to assess the damages and see if we could find anywhere cooler. There were trees everywhere and it looked like a traffic cone massacre. We tried to stay at the house with no electricity but Saturday night the baby started to get sick from the heat, so Sunday I took the kids to my parents' house in Waco. My husband stayed behind to work. His workplace had generators, so at least he had AC and food.

Our electricity just came back on yesterday evening (9-20). Those nearby who have Reliant still have no electricity.

I have Entergy and they are doing an excellent job, considering that they were still doing Gustav repairs when Ike hit. If you see a power company worker, you should make sure they know they are appreciated. They are working very hard and doing the best they can.

Those of you who still don't have lights, I hope they get back on soon.

[Var Greyshadow]

Still no power.  When we left for Serendipity Haven on Friday afternoon, HALF the complex had power back, including those nasty security floodlights that shine right onto my balcony and in the windows.  Figured by the time we got back last night, our half would have it too.  Nope!  Not so much fun since the cool weather moved out. 

[PurpleDragon]

09:28 hrs, 22 September, 2008: No power still at Casa De Dragon.  We've now been without power since Friday September 12 and it is getting HORRID, no air movement in the house, unable to open windows for fears of the 4 legged beasties jumping ship, or the 6 legged or 8 legged beasties stowing away. 

We are allegedly going to have power back today, but I'll believe it when I see and feel it when the air conditioner kicks on at home.  I haven't had a "good" nights sleep since the night we lost power, and it is really causing some irritability to start to mount within the home among us all.  (~sing~ We've got cabin fever, we've got cabin fever).

[Fenster]

[Note from Reliant employee]   We have nothing to do with any power outages.  Please direct outrage to Centerpoint Energy.  Billing outrage can still be directed to us.      [/Note fromReliant Employee]

[Anna Iram]

My heart goes out to you all still without power. We went through that a few years back here. Five days of no power...no fun.

Yes, we do ( I did certainly) forget about all the folks elsewhere that ended up in the storms (Ike...Gustav...). Paths that are not even reported.  It's hard to get news from any of the regular sources. I had no idea things were so bad in Oklahoma and still in LA.