Well, I survived Hurricane Ike relatively unscathed! I'm located north of Houston, so while we still got some hurricane force winds, the storm had been downgraded to a Cat 1 by the time it reached me. Lots of debris, fallen limbs, etc. in the backyard, but that's pretty much it. My parents had similar damage, as well as two small trees down near their driveway, but nothing major. And a tree fell on one of my co-workers cars, totaling it. There are a few pictures I took during and after the storm below the cut. Most are from around my neighborhood, my parents' place, and around town.
I have a few friends and family members living in Houston who rode out the storm (Houstonians were told not to evacuate). They were all in agreement that it was one of the most frightening experiences of their lives. One of my friends took some pictures of downtown Houston after the storm passed...if he ever gets around to sending me the pics, I will post a few here.
Fallen limbs and other debris in my backyard (and that's not even a third of the stuff I had to clean up).
A fallen fence:
Neighbors helping neighbors. Three men help put a tarp on a damaged roof:
A damaged street light:
A tree blocks access to my friend's driveway:
I giant Oak tree in a neighbor's backyard. Check out the roots:
...And here's the top part of the tree. It fell across a fence and into a pasture:
A pine tree being held up by some power lines:
Another pine tree entirely blocking this road:
This metal building had been gutted for remodeling and two sides were destroyed by the wind:
The remanants of a metal roof that was ripped off a local business by high winds: