Well that was interesting. . . . . .
As some of you may / may not know, I live twenty miles
north of Galveston, TX. Power went out about 7:30pm Fri
( CST ) and came back on about an hour ago. Cable head
reset and internet access came back online about forty
five minutes later.
That was a rough ride for sure.
Initial eye-wall winds were from the NE whereas the end
pass ( bottom side of the eyewall ) switched to due west.
Second pass was far stronger than the primary one without
a doubt. I can't begin to calculate the wind speeds but
the second pass was nearly impossible to stand up in.
I stayed under cover as shingles were flying around
embedding themselves in trees, fences and whatnot.
I was outside trying to keep minor issues from becoming
major ones for most of the storm. The street flooded very
quickly. I started placing bricks on the driveway as
marker points once the water was high enough. My estimates
would put the water rise level to 3-5 feet in under two
hours. It made it 1/2 way up my driveway before it started
to recede.
No major damage to the house other than a few missing
shingles ( about a dozen ). Fence held as we built it with
high winds in mind. It is the ONLY fence standing in one
piece. Every other fence in the area was obliterated.
Limbs and trees everywhere. Power lines all over the place.
Many, many houses missing most of their shingles and even
parts of roofs and awnings. Garage doors that faced N or W
were bowed in from the wind force.
While roaming about the yard during the storm, I came
across a dove floating in the rising water. It was still
alive so I picked it up and placed it in an outdoor aviary
I have for Goober ( my cockatoo ). It was protected from
the wind / rain by a storage building and the fence and it
was well up out of the water.
Over the next hour or so, I found six more and they all
ended up in the aviary. I came across three that I was
unable to get to in time.
All the survivors were let loose the next day once the
winds died down enough.
To top it all off, we have a magnolia tree in the front
yard which survived the storm as well. The day after the
storm passed two flowers bloomed at the very top of the
tree. Was quite cool. I like to think of it as the trees
way of saying " Screw you CNN and your Certain Death
Bullshit " lol
Tip: Fireants will cluster together and form a floating
island in any flood conditions. Thus, watching where the
hell you're walking is essential. Bumping into a floating
nest of fireants will make for an unpleasant day. Didn't
spot any snakes out and about ( surprised )
Managed to keep my fish-tank alive by parallel chaining
a bunch of old 12-volt ups batteries together and wiring
them into an inverter. Worked damn well for running a small
fan to boot. . .
The only real casualty here would be the contents of the
fridge / freezer. With no generator ( folks were getting
into fist fights over them at Home Depot ) everything in
the fridge went bad. You can bet one of my next purchases
will be a whole house / auto-start 10Kw generator. Will
not go without power again.