Hurricane IKE

HELLO!!! The 2 weeks have been insane in H-town! Mr. Hurricane Ike decided to disrupt us for a bit. Exactly 2 weeks ago today we started to hear people talking around us to begin preparing for the storm. We had no idea the Hurricane was heading our way! At that time it was going strait for Corpus. Well, Ike decided to take a turn and hit Galveston/Houston area. Luckily it was ONLY a category 2 but still plenty of damage to areas. I am sure many of you have been watching the news.

Here is the Larkin story of Hurricane Ike:

Friday, September 12th, we both had the day off to prepare. We ran to Lowes, Home Depot and Walmart. We made sure to have water, batteries, flashlights, charcoal for the grill, ice, candles, matches, dog food, canned food, and tarps. Jim and I decided to stay and buckle down for the storm. It began that evening with just the wind and got more powerful through the night. It was going to be an ALL nighter for the two of us. If yall know me well, I FREAK OUT during storms! The wind was extremely intense. Jim told me to go to sleep in the kitchen on our air mattress because I was dosing off (YES he was thinking.. I was beginning to get on his nerves). We slept in the kitchen because if a tree fell on our house we would be safe in the center! I slept on and off the whole night. Jim was up until 5 am.

Saturday, September 13th, power went off at 5 am so Jim crashed. We woke up at 8 and the storm was almost over. Everyone begin to walk outside to assess the damage. We had LOTS of limbs down and some of our siding came off. Praise the Lord! There were trees down all around us and ours did not fall. We worked in yards all day and helped other clean up.

Sunday, September 14th, we woke up at 5 am to a HUGE downpour. Jim jumped up to check our back porch (that is where it has flooded before and he built a new drainage system). After clearing out our gutters the water began to flow right and it was not running towards the house. We both went back inside and laid down. Then about 45 mins later Jim went back out to check on everything. Let me remind you its PITCH BLACK out. No electricity. He takes his flash light and walks to the front and could not believe what he saw. There was water in the middle of our driveway. I hear my name being yelled! UH OH! Jim walked out to the street and the water was up to his waist and the rain was not letting up. All we could see was it getting closer to the lower room of our house and flooding it. We moved all our furniture to the higher part of our downstairs and had towels ready to go. There was nothing we could do but PRAY PRAY PRAY. Jim woke up all the neighbors to let them know to move things out of the way. It came within 1" of flowing in and the rain began to sprinkle and eventually stop! Thank you JESUS! It was totally the Lord.



We were so blessed and are very thankful for having minimal damage. The rest of the week involved living without no power. We made it work and ended up getting a generator to help. Friday, September 19 we got power!! Things are almost back to normal for us but there are still MANY who have no power and alot of damage to deal with. The pictures are from our neighborhood.

We had so many people praying for us during this time. Your prayers were definitely felt!! Thank you all.