Well, the news hasn’t gotten any better. Hurricane Ike is coming, and it’s coming straight for us. While there’s still a chance of it taking a last-minute jog to the east and sparing us the worst of the storm and associated surge, Ike’s had a bead on Houston for the past 24 hours.
Jose and I packed up our important things last night and got up at 5 a.m. to check traffic. Everything still looked good so we went back to bed for an hour, but neither one of us could fall back asleep at that point. We eventually just got up, put our stuff in the car, and left Clear Lake shortly about 7:20 a.m. figuring we’d rather hang out north of town for a while than be stuck in traffic trying to get there later. My old apartment (where half my stuff remains) is in the 77058 zip code which was put under mandatory evacuation orders as of noon. JSC also closed at noon. We were glad we left early, since we didn’t hit any traffic other than normal rush hour backups.
We arrived in Conroe around 9:00 and spent the next couple hours at Starbucks, Target and Best Buy just wandering around and killing time. Gavin and Jen left Clear Lake at 9:00 and once they got up here, we headed to Gavin’s parents’ house. Just like three years ago, we’re now killing time in Conroe awaiting the impending storm. Unlike three years ago, it seems that we’re actually going to get hit this time.
We’re about 50 miles inland, so we’re safe from the storm surge that would/will affect Clear Lake. We expect high winds and to lose power, but we’ll manage. Cross your fingers for us. We’re all very worried about the storm surge. Anything more than about 15-18 feet and my new apartment (and my friends’ homes) will almost certainly be underwater.
Glad you made it up north safely!
Is it me or were the evacuation orders suprisingly unclear this time around? I mean, the Harris county ones with your zip code was very specifically clear. AND I heard the West end of Galveston Island and eventually the whole island issue an order. But I never heard orders for the rest of Galveston county, including my zip code or anything on the south side of the lake. Did I miss that? I mean clearly all those zip codes on the north side of the lake are ini danger the equivelent ones on the south side are too. its like Galveston county forgot about the whole evacuation thing…
I am in west Houston just south of Katy. We are hunkering in place. I and my family wish you a safe return. Y’all are not alone.
Galveston County, and League City in particular, COMPLETELY dropped the ball on this one. I believe evacuations were finally ordered for Kemah, Clear Lake Shores, Bacliff, etc yesterday. But League City never issued mandatory evacuations — not even for the neighborhoods directly on the south side of the lake like my new apartment.
League City is under voluntary evacuation, that’s it. I suspect there are still a lot of people in South Shore and the surrounding area that didn’t leave because they weren’t ordered to that will find themselves under water.
We are already thinking about the remodeling opportunity ahead…..new wood floors! And some new furniture to boot! And boy it is going to be fun throwing out all the stuff we’ve been hanging on to for years! Maybe get to redo the landscaping as well. We’ll know soon enough, stay safe!
Stay safe, Sarah!