As Houston slowly tries to pick its way out of the mess that Hurricane Ike created on Saturday, here’s my own side of the story:

Luckily my mother was able to evacuate and spend a few days with family in the north of Houston. This kept her away from the storm surge but the eye still passed very close to them in Conroe, so they got to sit and listen to the howling winds through the night and then lost their power with the rest of Houston. Fortunately, she returned home Sunday to a house that was in one piece, although she described the ride home as one of the most harrowing of her life, since most lanes of the freeway were still flooded and debris was everywhere.

House-wise, we were particularly worried about windows being blown out, since we have a lot of big ones, but all of them were intact. Part of a tree fell over, but it fell away from the house, and the back yard fence is leaning but not fully knocked over. My car, which had a back window that needed to be taped up as it had fallen off the runners and into the door, managed to weather the storm fine, which was a great surprise. My aunt’s house was fine as well, although my cousin’s gym wasn’t so lucky. The metal roof got ripped off and rain poured in over all of the gymnastics equipment. Luckily she has insurance but it’s going to take quite a bit of work to get it back to normal, plus all the time it takes for everything to dry out and for a roofing contractor to become available.

The majority of Houston is without power at the moment; they’re gradually restoring power but they think about 3 million people are still without it and that it might take a month to get everyone back on the grid. Once my dad gets back from a business trip to Tokyo (he was supposed to fly in on Saturday, which clearly didn’t happen, and now he’s due to fly in today), my parents are thinking about going to San Antonio until power gets restored, since my mom’s college has canceled classes for a while. It depends whether my dad’s office in west Houston has had power restored, since they were the least affected by the storm. I think my mother is hoping that there is no power there because at least in San Antonio they would be able to buy food that needs to be refrigerated and take hot showers!

A few nights ago my mom joined up with the neighbors and had a big BBQ with all the food that was about to spoil and my mom is still having to go down the street to take showers at a neighbor’s house that has a gas water heater. She has all of the windows open in the heat and can hear all of the neighbor’s power generators going…but unfortunately we don’t have one and they are pretty much sold out across the entire state of Texas now. I wish I was there to help clean up but I’m kind of glad I’m not because at least here in Oz I have power…and I don’t have to eat meals of canned vienna sausages and crackers like my mom did last night. She’s absolutely bored out of her mind because there’s not a lot to do except clean up, especially once it gets dark, when she can pretty much only read by flashlight. She’s also going to have a lot of fun trying to buy more food, since some supermarkets are finally open but there are mile-long queues just to get in. The gas situation is worse, with gas supplies expected to be low until at least the end of the month and massive queues at the few open stations.

There are some photo galleries on The Houston Chronicle that show the full extent of the damage. We got very lucky that the storm surge wasn’t as high as predicted because our house was spared, but Galveston Island was pretty much destroyed as were a lot of other coastal communities (Kemah, for instance, where there is a nice boardwalk with loads of seafood restaurants, games, and even a wooden roller coaster…all of which was under about 10 feet of water after the storm). I’m hoping that nearby League City fared alright since I haven’t heard from my tennis coach about whether his Fitness Centre or his house are okay. The pictures coming out of the disaster areas are just unbelievable, from boats and houses sitting in the middle of the freeway to shocked fish stuck in chain-link fences. The authorities say it’s going to take more than $10B to clean up because structures all the way across Houston were mangled, and lots of school districts have cancelled school “until further notice.” Overall, it’s just a mess and it’s going to take a long time for the city to get back to normal.

By the way, things are going really well here in sunny Brisbane. It’s much warmer than it was in Perth and I feel like I need an entire wardrobe change…but I like it! Much better than battling down the Terrace as the chilly wind howls past. I’ve got a great physio here that’s put me on a fixed gym routine to help strengthen my back muscles as well as improve my posture, which has always been terrible, so I’ve invested in some dumbbells, a medicine ball, and a fitness ball so I can work on my fitness from home and be pain free as soon as possible. Also, it’s great to be around James for more than just a weekend, even if I do feel like the housewife because I’m staying at home all day cleaning the house and doing laundry!

All photos in this post have been obtained from the Houston Chronicle. Mouseover the image to see the credits.

This satellite image is just scary, especially when you notice that the hurricane is actually the size of Texas itself. Even worse is the fact that I watch the news here and see waves splashing over the familiar seawall in Galveston like it wasn’t a 17-foot barrier to the sea. My family is safe and sound in San Antonio/north Houston/Tokyo, but I’m still thinking of everyone at home and hoping you all have homes and businesses to go back to after the 25-foot storm surge has its way…