As many of you know I'm sure, here on the gulf coast we are preparing and waiting to find out where hurricane Ike will make it's landing. Does anyone have any hurricane experiences they would like to share or perhaps some good advice for preparation, riding out the storm or just getting out of the way? Any Katrina survivors out there that would like to share some wisdom?

Hi, Deb. I'm here in Houston and yes, we're gearing up too. It seems that the hurricanes that have come our way this year, all seem to dissipate before it makes it to the Fort Bend area. I think we're behind over twenty inches of rain this year. Definitely a drought. Haven't had to ride out any storms thank God. However, I do remember being scared to death of all the rain that I've experienced in the past here in Houston. When those tropical storms come our way, those are what seem most frightening and threatening.

I'm just glad several years ago when a lot of Houstonians decided to take the highway and leave and were stuck in traffic for hours that me, hubbie and our lil' heirs decided to ride it out and stay put. No rain even came Houston's way. Now, on the other hand, if it looks life threatening, and since I cannot swim, I say get out while you can. Get gased up a few days in advance, stock a few non-perishables if you're staying to ride it out, keep some cash on hand and take any prescriptions and/or personal information in a lock box with you if you're leaving.

P.S. Also read somewhere to put photo albums in a large plastic bag so at least your many memories won't be lost. Take care and be safe. Stop by our forum sometime to prepare for those spring gardens we have many challenges with in South Texas (smile).

Deb, here's the latest: all the way from Houston.

We are well and slowly getting back to the norm. The experience my family and I have had will never soon be forgotten and hopefully won't happen any time soon.....again. Considering we are a coastline state, we can only hope and pray that the Lord continues to have mercy on Texas.

It all started with various warning of what we were in for: that is, 90-120 mph winds, lots of rain and possible deaths. What we received early Sept. 13 was just that. As I braced myself with what faith I thought I had, I began to feel like no hope after everything set in motion. We were prepped as you were I'm sure by nature with slowly, gaining winds from 20-45 mph in which we welcomed considering its been so hot here. The winds increased every hour. As the time passed, the winds got higher and harder. Trees began to sway and bend like rubber bands that have been here longer than my neighborhood of twenty-five years.

After much anticipation, over twelve hours to be exact, I felt exhausted and decided to lay down. After all, I've prayed what did I have to worry about. Then, while sleeping, Terry woke me with a kiss and asked if I was okay? Why would he ask me if I'm okay at 2 a.m. and I'm sleeping? Quickly, I picked up the signal by the look on his face. I got up and proceeded to take a look outside, but before I did, the noise I heard, quickly made my faith begin to diminish.

At first I didn't want to look but I did and words cannot describe what we experienced but I will try to equate the fear I had with this scenario: a roller coaster ride with the highest dip ever made heading downwards and someone with a gun at my head. Yeah! That's the fear we all had. Brandi, Tyler, Terry and I. We couldn't sleep, couldn't eat, could hardly talk during several hours of 95-100 mph winds, rains slashing against the windows like ice chips, trees in our yard that were broken like Godzilla broke them and prepare the limbs for a campfire. It was dark as never seen before. Imagine encountering this small description of what words I cannot find (as even to this day, we are still a bit shaken), with complete darkness surrounding you.

Would it stop? When would it stop? When will it stop? These were our questions. I wanted it to stop so bad. To have your throat in your chest is not a good feeling especially for several hours. Then everything got quiet. Hallelujah, it was over. We made it through the storm.

Not! We were told this was the eye: the calm, the get yo' self together moment and know that the Lord will protect you. This was the eye? That meant that now the storm would reverse itself and come back through with double the strength, and power and damage. Whewww!!! How can I explain round 2, if my words were few in defining round 1?

It was monstrous!! That's all I can fathom in words. We have some damage but others had worse. All the houses in the neighborhood held strong but the landscapes were pretty much messed up. Established trees uprooted like sticks in the sand, fences broken in to, debris everywhere, no power, no water, no gas, no food and ice melting by the minute.

And then a rainbow held in the sky on early Sunday and God granted us even more mercy. Even before, Fema (yeah right), or even the well organization efforts of the city, he sent us some rain (for water) and cooler temps (our air condition). I saw people come out enjoying the rain like they had never seen water before and we slept much comfortably with the cooler winds creeping into our windows. Still we remained in the dark. As Hurricane Ike, took a hike and left our now "humbled" state with much work to be done, many bodies to recoup, many families without a home, a downtown viewed as one of the most beautiful to a war zone and the largest and best medical center in the world hanging on to a thread of electricity, children now tramatized with adults who survived on GalvestonIsland but went through over twelve hours of 120 mph winds and waves at 20 ft.......the Lord had mercy. Our prayers were heard and still he had mercy.

As I looked at so many, many pictorials of our dear city in rubble, the Galveston ones were the worst. Where at least 45,000 people refused to leave and now, only there foundation of their homes were left. Where are the people? They may never find them. Most of them I'm sure may be in the ocean at Galveston Bay. They are being very hush-hush about the death count but we all know, if we live, some of us thirty minutes and others at least an hour and a half from the beach and experienced what I know we did, what happened down there with all the little surrounding towns nearby.

Never, ever, have I seen anything like this. God is truly powerful and intriguing, if I may say that so humbly. My sister is coping as well. She lives at least an hour and a half from me in Spring. They have yet to get power, or ice, or gas but as I've learned our confidence must be in the Lord.

No matter how dim it looked you all, even when the windows seemed they could take no more and the trees were about to snap, he held us and held my mind. He took all fear and hopelessness away in a moment after a frantic prayer I engaged myself in many tears as the winds beat against our house like Godzilla was shaking it fierceley. He heard and saw that my faith was dwindling but he came to my rescue and my household and I thank him for that. I thank him for Terry who kept strong and a good leader throughout. I thank him for keeping Mac sleep the whole time.

We have finally received power and our phone lines are slowly coming up to part. The neighborhood has worked together to clean up mostly all debris and I'm starting to revamp my landscape that looks like a shredder hit it but I sing today because I am happy, free and am blessed to be alive! Give me a respond to let me know that you are alright.

Just an FYI on Deb:

She will not be around the forums for a couple of weeks. Her house was hit pretty hard by Ike.

SO if you need to get hold of a moderator, either contact me (ChelleLaunch&Spirituality) or JeanneDaigle.

And please keep Deb in your prayers.

Will do. Thanks for letting me know.