Hurricane Ike

What a crazy weekend! I got to experience my first hurricane. It started Friday early in the day-Houston and Galveston getting the worst of it. It didn't come over us until about 6AM Saturday morning. We had 50-70mph winds and LOTS of rain. We were the lucky ones! It tore down quite a few trees, and even a few fences. In the back of where we live we watched the wind blow over a fence. The poor people of Galveston and Houston! They got it really really bad, and my homes were lost. It's crazy because we are only about 90 miles away from Houston. There is one thing that really stuck out to me, and something I am very grateful for. The Gospel. How lucky we are that we have the church to lead and guide us, especially when it comes to being prepared. It was so interesting to watch people scramble to the store to get food and water, and how fast everything went. We went to the store on Friday just to get a few extra things, and the bread shelf was completely gone, flour, sugar, and water were also gone. Even though we didn't get it too bad here in Bryan/College Station, it was a great reminder and testimony builder for me. Coming from good old St. George, being surrounded by family and have the shelter of my parents had me more than grateful! Sometime this week we will be going to Conroe and possibly Madisonville (two towns that are in our Stake that got hit hard) to help clean up homes and neighborhoods. In Galveston, people still aren't aloud to return home. It's very sad because a lot of these people really want to get back and see what their homes look like. In Conroe, Madisonvill, Houston, and Galveston, and other surrounding cities...the water is bad so they can't use the water. There also is no power, which they aren't sure when it will be fixed. It's just so sad to see all the destruction. Again, we are very gratefulthat we were safe and blessed!

A fence in the back of our apartment that got blown over.

This is the front of our apartment during some of the wind storm. It's kind of hard to see, but there are leaves and branches everywhere and it was raining. There was also a lot of uprooted trees that I didn't get pictures of.

Here are some CRAZY pics of what went on along the coast...mostly in Galveston and Gilcrist.