Allright guys, so I stayed in Beaumont (technically a small town outside of Beaumont, but its all the same over there) and survived the storm. I promised you pictures, so here they are. Neighbor's Back Yard: Across the street: Down the street: Powerlines: Quite the roadblock: Friend's House: Childhood Friend's House:
CRAZY big tree root: Close up: Only gas station I had access to: One of many GIANT holes blown in the wall of the local grocery store: Humorous: Local church:
At my grandmothers: Grandmothers backyard: Another home of a childhood friend: My Cousin's Garage is Toast: Boat got creamed: The nicest sunset the night after: Quick points: -never ever, EVER stay for a cat 3+ hurricane. ever. -my family, both immediate and extended, has been displaced all over texas -no one was hurt, thankfully, but property damage was extensive. -my childhood home and my brothers home both made it through the storm with only damage to our fences, amazingly. -we all stayed after the storm for 3 days but eventually the heat overwhelmed us and we had to leave. I would continue, but i left my laptop's power supply behind when i evac'd to houston, so I better get off before the power dies. Anyway, I hope no Beaumont-Lake Charles BBSers suffered because of this storm.. peace.
That's what Nacogdoches looked like when I was there for it. They got 30-40 mph winds with some 50+ gusts. I don't even want to think about 100+ winds.
I'm pretty sure we had 100+ winds. The eyewall, as I understand it, did not pass over us, but essentially "grazed" us.. so we had to put up with the center of the storm throughout. keep in mind these pictures are just a SMALL scope of the damage that I was able to get on camera mostly via foot.. as the downed trees made it almost impossible to drive anywhere..
Great thread, Donny. Like I was saying, Houston dodged a bullet. Rita didn't hit Houston. It hit Beaumont.
that was my intention. it's hard to keep spirits high around here. my family is bunched into my tiny apartment with me for now, it's not exactly ideal living, but it beats the hell out of going back. my brother's wedding has been pretty much called off.. it was set for the 8th, but i doubt beaumont will even have power by then.. so we're all trying to figure that mess out. despite the situation we all managed to get our first laugh in days today while watching a rerun of the daily show's hurricane rita coverage.. it felt good to laugh again.
we're simple folk. beer was more valuable than gas in our town. i'm DEAD serious. you could take food, water, etc from whoever.. but if you so much as touched my dad's beer he was going to shoot your @&*(# on sight.
Wow, Donny, glad you're OK. I was wondering, after hearing you were going to ride it out there... Looks like every tree had a house fall on or near it. Freaking scary. What a mess. So, "Donny Does Rita", but he got screwed more than he wanted to. Rita blows hard. (if you want a quick cheap laugh, then put your mind in the gutter and think of comments like these)
Here is an SOS I am putting out to all Clutch BBSers. The one casualty of this storm that can't be rebuilt is my brother's wedding. It was scheduled to take place the weekend after next near Beaumont, and well, it's pretty damn obvious that power won't be back by then, nor will the church be repaired, nor will people probably even be allowed back in. So my plea to you guys is this. Does anybody work for/know of any wedding planning agencies in the Houston area that could help us put together a wedding on Oct 7th or 8th? The date is imperative because the honeymoon stuff is non-refundable, unlike the current wedding expenses that were in place. If anybody can give ol' Donny a hand here he'd be eternally grateful.
