[creepy]

I'll give a more in-depth update possibly later, but for now, I'll just say a few words.


We're so lucky. We live in Galveston about 1 block from the seawall in a second story apartment and we got the heck out of there Thursday afternoon. Of course, our Intrepid decided not to start because of the battery or alternator or something (4 payments from being paid off. :-* ) and our Cavelier is on it's last legs, so we were carless. They weren't moved by the surge, but they did fill with water (possibly totally submerged in the surge) We're so lucky her boss gave her their work car (a 4Runner). We loaded it up and headed for Spring to her Parents. We only lost power for 8 hours. It was amazing. Most of Houston still doesn't have power.


We went back yesterday during the Look and Leave policy which they already canceled after one day because it was just a clusterfuck. We got there as soon as they announced it and we sat in bumper to bumper for five miles for 2 and a half hours. Everyone just wanted to look at their personal damage, not necessarily the overall carnage. We took alot of pictures that I'll post later. It was like a warzone. Army guys on ATVs with their Assault Rifles and Army Choppers and Military Bases set up. My parents in laws beach house is directly behind a hotel that is located on Seawall BLVD and made it. In fact, it's in great shape, almost untouched. Our apartment was untouched as well. With the exception of the cars, we had no personnal losses.

The Island itself is a little banged up, but I thought over all it's ok. The Balinese Room where we got married is gone as I'm sure you might have seen. It was a Historical Landmark made famous by Sinatra, ZZ Top, Texas Rangers, gambling, and our wedding. We had heard alot of rumors which I won't delve into here, but I was relieved to see that overall Galveston looked better than I thought/heard/figured.

We got plenty of pictures, but most of them are from the car, so they might not be so good. When we buy our cord connecting to this computer, I'll share some.

We're so lucky.




Missed the Cowboy game. :-*

[The Jewish Cunthead]

Glad to hear you're doing OK Creeps.

[Pun]

Good to have you back. We were a little worried. I mean, who else was Sop and Lucky going to give shit to every day?

[creepy]

What have I missed? Anything earth shattering or just the normal?

[The Jewish Cunthead]

Sept 17, 2008 14:03:59 GMT -5 creepy said:

What have I missed? Anything earth shattering or just the normal?

Byrne's ex spoiled him with her 44DDs. Oh... and he's had the rainbow coalition of pussy. That's about it.

[Fire-Babe]

Good to hear you're okay!!

[Stu]

Glad you're fine!

[Jack Quinn]

glad you're ok Creepy, Sop won't admit it, but he was worried too. You know how he is though, gotta keep up that tough appearance

[Byrntrigan]

Yeah Creepy, we're all relieved you and yours are ok. We were all worried as Texas got hammered.

I'll be ineterested to see the pics when you upload them. Out of curiosty, when cars get submerged like that, do they actually work now, or did the electrical just die so they are dead now?

[Byrntrigan]

Sept 17, 2008 14:05:46 GMT -5 The Jewish Cunthead said:

Sept 17, 2008 14:03:59 GMT -5 creepy said:

What have I missed? Anything earth shattering or just the normal?

Byrne's ex spoiled him with her 44DDs. Oh... and he's had the rainbow coalition of pussy. That's about it.

To steal a line...

And That's an Exalt!

[Habs]

Glad to see all is OK. Hurricanes is something I'm happy we don't have to live with up North.

And on your car question Byrne, if it was salt water, the damages will be bad.

[wld]

Glad you're ok Creepy.

[eliasvict]

As a fella who's been Ivanihilated, Katrinundated and Gustavastated, my heart goes out to you.

[Lou]

I was worried about you, Creepy. Sorry about your cars, but I'm glad everything else is ok.

[Concrete TG]

glad to hear you're all right - Ike decided to sneak up North and attempt to blow Ohio off the map once it was done with Texas.

I don't have pics (our damage was nothing compared to you guys) and Ohio still has areas without power.

As for the cars - they might run, but the insurance company will likely total them both out

[Outback Frito Pendejo]

Glad you made it safely. Maybe you'll get to do one of those car insurance commercials with a celebrity. Flair seems to have free time thses days.

[creepy]

Thanks everyone for the kind words and I hope everyone is safe and well.
Here's some pictures we took: (More Here: s404.photobucket.com/albums/pp126/ivebeeniked/ )


The 61st Street Fishing Pier. This is no longer there.






The Balinese Room on Friday. We would have taken better/more pictures if we knew it was going to be destroyed.




Close to the same shot. No more Balinese Room.





There must have been 70 yachts on the side of the road on both sides of the Causeway.





Debris filled the I-45 for miles.



More debris. This is before you get to the Island.




Waiting in traffic for 2 hours or so, some of the emergency convoys that drove by included pet carriers. Galveston has a shit ton of abandoned animals that need rescuing. Because people are dicks.





I-45 turns into Broadway. This boat landed on Broadway in the middle of the Island.





Not sure what these decipher to.










Random devastation pics 4 days after the hurricane (Remember, this was after they cleaned up the Island and let residents on)

















Our pool and hottub:








This tree shaded our apartment. No more shade.





Our wall at our apartment parking lot:





Another shot of the wall. That is was my car.




We were told this wasn't here before Ike. No idea if that's true or not.





Broken windows (Thankfully not mine. We were actually thinking about moving into this apartment last week.)




The water level on the first floor.





The Poop Deck, where our bullshit Mayor drank 'till 3 am the morning before the storm after she called for a mandatory evacuation a day too late.





This was in front of our apartment door along with a couple of lawn chairs from the pool area. I have no idea if we have squatters on our porch or not, but our place wasn't broken into, thankfully.







They apparently got rid of the mounds of dead dogs and cats that I'd heard were piled up in different areas.

[Byrntrigan]

Jesus Creepy.

That's sad and amazing at the same time. The media only shows the tip of crap like this, but jees.

Thanks for the pics. How much water drained out of your car when you opened the door?

[salmonjunkie]

Man. Glad you made it through that, Creepy

[eliasvict]

Those symbols are structures the authorities have searched for bodies. The various numbers are the date, which guard troop entered the premises, and what was found. Looks like yall are doing the squares, we did the Xs.

farm1.static.flickr.com/44/153685576_a1e1754cdc.jpg?v=1148956232

[creepy]

Thanks for the pics. How much water drained out of your car when you opened the door?

The heat mostly evapped the water, but everything was damp/soaked and there was about a half inch of standing water on the floor boards. Things floated from the floorboards to on top of the dash board. It was about 4 days after the storm that we checked on the cars and everything stunk to high heaven. I saved a jacket and an article of work clothing, but it's probably ruined.

My wife is a board game nut and she had about 10 games in the back of the Intrepid from our last get together with friends and they are ruined. What can you do.



MSN has an article about some people returning to the Island today, the first time they can since the ill-fated Look and Leave policy that turned into a Look and Loot policy.


Full article here: www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26867313


It has gems like:

The mayor and others warned people not to return without tetanus shots and rat bait, and to be ready for swarms of mosquitoes and displaced snakes.

and

Diane and Eddie Howard were trying to sell one house on Galveston Island and had just bought another one when Ike struck. The 'For Sale' sign from one house lay amid debris that had been submerged in 8 feet of water; their newly bought house burned down during the storm.

[creepy]

So, we went back to Galveston on Friday and in case anybody wants to see some more pictures, here they are. We have power at our apartment, but we haven't "moved" back yet, due to possible mold in the air ducts (we don't know yet), and the fact that the Island is still like a warzone. Trash everywhere, hardly anything open, limited water usage, still a lot of power outtages, and very limited access to the West End (which we got access to thanks to the wife's job being located out there). There's more cops on the Island than I've ever seen. Major intersections that still didn't have power had multiple cops directing traffic and we saw dozens of State Troopers all over I-45.



Remember, these pictures are from 2 weeks after the storm reached landfall.




In a neighborhood that a friend lives that we checked on:







On her garage door:



Some people rode out the storm on this pier. The pilings at the end held up the other part of this fishing pier.



There should be two straight railings here:



These pictures were outside our apartment complex and in the parking lot:
























Here's a chimney that fell off:




The inside of our car:





Some dudes car that we thought was, well, something:




Workers fixing the roof across the street with my dearly departed Intrepid:




West End Pictures:


Sand was swept to the side of the road all along the highway:







It pays to spend some money when building your home, like these people obviously did:



And this guy obviously didn't:



Here's a boat:



Here's a crossover:



This is a road:



And another road that fell through:











A guy reportedly died in a car trying to flee. This might have been his:







This was blown about 100 yards or so across the highway:









Here's the Beach House we rented for Christmas last year. It was no staircases that made it and there was a garage and a bedroom on the first floor that the wife and I stayed at:







Half of the bathroom made it:








Hopefully we can go back this week sometime to live and work. Our school has been canceled since the 11th and won't reopen until the 8th of October. They think.