Cornick.net: We're in Austin

Well we rode out the storm and stayed for one day without power before we opted to leave. The storm was absolutely amazing - an incredible howling sound for hours. We opted to join the kids in the closet around 3am Saturday morning when it seemed to get really ferocious. We managed to escape unscathed with no trees down on our property. However, the debris is something else. The bayous by our house are flooded, there are downed trees throughout the neighborhood. With no power, it was becoming incredibly humid inside our house by the time we left.

So it's Monday morning, and we're about to eat breakfast at Mike and Angee's house. We made the decision to head to Austin after a drive around The Woodlands revealed there was still no power and there looked like no effort to repair the power was being made. There was a tree fallen across the entrance to Entergy's substation facility. The flooding in neighboring towns is quite incredible. Only 20 minutes from The Woodlands is the town of Tomball where we drove through water that was up around the tops of our tires.

When we last checked this morning, power had been restored to Huntsville - about 40 miles north of The Woodlands with no estimate of how long we would be without power. Ben's school is closed until Wednesday at the least - we will get an update this afternoon so see if that changes. Jason's office is still closed.

Today our primary goal in Austin will be to purchase a generator. We saw one a few weeks ago before Gustav hit and wondered whether we should purchase one but decided against it. Hindsight is 20/20 right? A generator would've been nice to run some fans and keep a small fridge cool. I guess that will also be our next purchase too, lol.

I would like to say that my heart goes out to all those residents in Galveston. That has been an area we've enjoyed immensely since we've moved here and I'm afraid it will be forever altered. The Red Cross is doing all they can to help those who stayed and those who are returning but they are operating in the red. Jason and I have decided to make a donation in light of what we've seen and encourage anyone who feels compelled to do so as well.

In the meantime we will enjoy our stay here with Mike and Angee. Ian has grown so much and is so animated now! I'll get to live vicariously through them for a while - walking the dog and holding the baby :)