[kev]

I have seen stuff this past weekend I thought I would never see. Or rather, I hoped I would never see.

In short:

My mom and dads house was totally flooded. As of sunday, the flood waters were still 4 - 5 feet deep. Saturday, just the top of the roof was sticking out of the water.

My brothers house has marsh mud dripping from the ceiling. Everything was a total lose.

My buddy got about 2 feet of water in his house.

At least 10,000 people (my estimate) of the orange, west orange and bridge city areas are now homeless because of flooding.

Resources have been pulled from all across the state to secure southeast texas. National guard is patrolling in Hummers, game wardens have been pulled from all across the state, The Texas Department of Public Safety has some of the roads blockaded and the water still have some roads blocked.

The 3rd largest city in the nation (Houston) is under a curfew.

There is no way to provide enough food, water and ice to the people that stayed in Houston. Even the relief workers are running out of food and water.

======================

Everyone is alive and well, we just have to sort through the mess. My wife and I took over 7 gigs worth of videos and pictures this weekend.

I am back at work today, got stuff to take care of - bbl.

 

[Josiah922]

Kev,

Do you, your family or other board members need ANYTHING? You have a family of people on this board ready to help. You have but to ask.

If not, then since you are down there, what is the best way that we can help the people in that area? Is there one organization that seems to be more effective than the others.

To everyone,
Also I thought about sending in an extra months worth of membership contributions this month to the board. This is ONE way I KNOW that we can help Kev. Yall think about just giving a little extra this month.

 

[Smudge]

As long as the friends and family are ok, the things can be replaced. Glad y'all made it out the otherside in one piece. :thumb:

It's times like this the preping pays off

 

[kev]

Thank you, Josiah922 - but everything seems to be going good right now. Recovery efforts in this area are going good. Life here should return to normal in a week or so. Bridge city, port arthur, orange and beaumont on the hand might take weeks. I do not look for life to return to normal in west orange or bridge city for months. At least one of the elementary schools was flooded. Just about every business in bridge city was either flooded or wind damage. I have no idea how bad houston is.

In the next couple of days I will be posting more information, pictures and videos. Power and internet is off at my house, and I can not edit videos at work.

 

[jaygriff]

Hi Kev
sorry to here about your mum,dad and brothers houses.
How are the kids?
Hope you manage over the next few weeks. Good luck and keep us informed.
Give my regards to all your family.

 

[Ramius]

Was any damage done to your home at all?

 

[rridgeoutlaw]

God Bless Dude.

 

[haha49]

that sucks 2 family members loseing thier home.... i hope they got out ok at least..

 

[bebop1034]

if it was my choice id be down there with my AR15 and stuff riding it out helping kev all the way it would have been a great vacation for myself helping a fellow survival brother out

 

[mikim]

kev - sorry to hear about your losses..... Here at the office we had 3 people with major loss - everybody else came out pretty well...I lucked out totally. Lost a fence and a few shingles - that's it.
We lost a weather sensor group in Galveston early on during the storm. Went down there to survey it yesterday and discovered the whole thing went under 8 feet of sea water ...hmmmm... and it quit working, imagine that. That will take a lot of work and money to replace. -- I'm outta here in about 100 days so I may not even be here to see it. Galveston took such a hit - it's gonna take over a year to get a lot of it back.

 

[mikim]

if it was my choice id be down there with my AR15 and stuff riding it out helping kev all the way it would have been a great vacation for myself helping a fellow survival brother out

Actually the best help is staying away -- food and water are scarce and another mouth to feed or find 6 feet to sleep in is a burden. All the rescue workers - are needed with all their equipment and such -- but there is limited space and other resources so we (as an entire community) need to save what little is available for those that are here working on restoration. Until power and water is back ... there's not much the rest of us can do in the way of recovery. We can try to clean up our own areas - but unless trash pickup is working - it's just going to pile up, and it's real hard to wash anything without water to do so. My wife is going to our son's house with containers of water to help cleanup there. She plans to empty out the fridge and try to sanitize as best she can. Son is working 16 hr shifts and his family is still evac'd. His house doesn't have water or power so no sense in them coming back yet.

 

[mikim]

a couple of pics of Bolivar http://coastal.er.usgs.gov/hurricanes/ike/photo-comparisons/bolivar.html

 

[Dwind]

glad to see you guys are safe, Kev. everyone else in the area check in here when you can.

ive been doing a lot of anti looting duty here. I'll have pics eventually. When my mom's friend told us people have been getting their homes raided for food last night, I drove up there in my vest, chest rig and Saiga on my lap. ended up staying the night.

Came back after getting the shaft in one of those FEMA lines (wanted some MREs) and found that i had power. it doesnt matter how much comes in. reliant center is full of supplies. FEMA just cant get them distributed properly. some people are getting food but no water- others ice and water but no food. theres no real way to volunteer either- since i had to drive and walk around george r brown for hours trying to find someone that knew what they were doing, including what needed to be done. futile. beds and beds- thousands of cots in multiple sections empty. maybe 200 there all said and done. no one knew what needed to be done there or how to do it.

again, glad youre people are ok Kev, be glad you weren't anywhere NEAR here