Ike Aftermath

My arms are sore from raking, and I'll probaby have blisters tomorrow, but the yard is looking much better! Who would of thought that I would still have hurricane clean-up in my new home? Not me, for sure. We lost six trees here, but thankfully none on the house. Technically, we are still renters, so I guess it would have been the seller's problem, but since we were in it at the time, I'm very glad nothing fell on the house.
The master left this morning, along with my best help (aka K), to see how our coastal dwelling place fared. He called this evening to say that the yard there looks better than the yard here. My parents' home is also in good shape. Our theory (mine and my dad's) is that Rita cleared out all of the weak/dead wood three years ago, and since then, the phone and electrical companies have been more vigilant about keeping the trees cut back from the lines. Of course, Daddy and I aren't exactly leading scientists in the field of forestry, 'ya know, so my friend Kathy can chime right in and either lend credence to or completely discount this hypothesis. At any rate, power is already being restored in my little hometown, and with Rita it took THREE weeks. I'm sure you will hear much about terrible devastation in the days to come, but that was from the storm surge (which hit two nearby communities) and Galveston, and Houston. Houston only caught the clean side of Rita three years ago, so their trees and linemen were still lazy.
We were saddened to hear that the little community five miles down the road from our old home--where we worshipped for the last year and a half--was completely destroyed. Even though they were such a short distance from us, our neighborhood was within the levee system and the neighboring community wasn't. Our levee and seawall held, otherwise our house would have been underwater as well. You won't hear about them on the national news, but 80% of the congregation lost their homes. After Rita, most insurance companies would no longer write flood insurance for those living on the bayou, so when I say they lost everything, I mean it. There won't be a check from the insurance company coming in the mail. We are so burdened for them.