Wife and I came through fairly well off thanks to smart preparations on our part and a great deal of rabbit's foot and 4 leaf clover action.
 
Our apartment is intact and virtually undamaged except for some minor dings and so is our car. We were in the path of the eye with the approximate center of the path being slightly less than 5 miles away. We endured approximately 6 hours best guess of 75 to 105 mph winds
 
We were 61 hours w/o power commencing at 04:15 on Saturday and lost our phone and cell service for about 48 hours after the cold front drove some prolonged and very violent T-storms through the night after Ike came calling. Miraculously we never seemed to lose water service which was something we expected to. The water filling the tank became nearly indistinguishable from what was in the other part but it was there and continued to serve its purpose and we never had to resort to refilling the tanks from jugs

 

After the lost of phone and cell service our sole link to the ourside world was an Sony Walkman Cassette attached to a couple of non-powered computer speakers.

The oil & candle powered hurricane lamps so prevelent up North nad so impossible to find down here unless in a catalog which I got shipped down last winter proved to generate too much heat to be of any practical use for any period of time given the high humidity and interior temp well north of 80 degrees in here.

 

Late last night and early this morning we were sporatically able to get a few strategic text messages out to assure a few people we were still ok and to ask them to spread word to our families. We took a drive finally today largely due to the wifes cabin fever and a hope of finding ice w/o a 4 hour wait. As soon as the scope of the devistation around us became evident we immeadiately returned to the safety of our home happy to endure cabin fever in relative safety.
 
We were extremely fortunate. Our area is heavily damaged and the only way I can begin to describe it is that it looks like I live in the ejection path of the world largest wood chipper which was used after several 3000# "Daisy Cutter" bombs used to create instant helicopter landing zones were employed.

 

Fences  are down and in someplaces just totally missing carried off by the winds to who knows where. 30 foot trees have been literally yanked out of the ground roots & all and tossed into parking lots. Several trees showed signs of their trunks having exploded from the tortional twisting forces exerted byt the winds on there tops.

 

Several empty commerical buildings in the near by shopping center had their roofing systems fail under the combined stress of the wind and weight off all the rain water, dropping them into the stores and blowing out the glass building fronts
 
After all that having been said if you can possibly imagine that I have to say we are part of the fortunate ones here & that there are people  who faired FAR FAR worse than we did  & are continuing to endure hardship conditions with no sure end in sight.
 
I would ask that you remember those people in your thoughts and prayers as all ours for the moment have been more than answered, as we are safe, secure and have most of the sembelances of normalacy returned to us.

I still live in what appears to be a war zone but semblances of normalcy return slowly.
Yesterday we got gas service back on,  had hot water for the 1st time since Saturday & got the ok to use the water w/o boiling it 1st. We celebrate with very long hot showers & consigning the nearly empty baby wipes package (our 2nd) to the trash can.

 

We still have a ways to go though, the market we shop is largely still devoid of meat, perishables, dairy & frozen goods, while pitas and tortillas pass for bread. Though I DID notice them restocking of all thing the beer & ice cream yesterday. Everyone has their priorities I guess.

 

My wife threaded her way to work carefully yesterday after recieving a call from her boss to come in. This took her with all the unpowered traffic lights and streets with downed trees partially blocking lanes a little over an hour, more than double her normal time and he found cause to complain about it.

 

I am TRUELY proud of her because she told him in true Marine D.I. fashion what he could do with his disatisfaction given the no notice call, the fact she was sleeping when it occured and general overall travel condidtions, forcing him to back down and appoligise for his impatience and attitude.

 

They managed to cobble togeather enough electrical power using inverters from several of their installation trucks to run their payroll system long enough to process the payroll for their employees thoughs its only for 2 days as they have been closed since last Friday.

 

So glad you're both OK, Peg and Blarney, and your families, also.  The devastation sounds terrible.  Hope things work back to normal soon in your area (of course, I know things will never be normal again for some folks--it's heartbreaking).  Keeping you all in my thoughts and prayers.

Glad all is well with you both we missed the two of them on hols thank god...

 

 Maur, still a lot of work to be done all around, around here and this isn't galveston or Houston, cleaning is really going to take awhile even here, feel so sorry for all those people who are coming back to nothing, some can not even found where their hose was does not recognize the landscape. went up on line to look at all the missing there are so many, wonder if they where are most of the ones who stayed behind didn't got when ike was coming, he sure did live up to his name, (Ike: meaning Long Lasting). so sad.