We’re home. *Hip-deep* in tree limbs, but the house is OK. We’ve lost the 2 big trees in the front…part of one is on the house, but surprisingly as we remove limbs it doesn’t look like the house is damaged (gutter crushed, but everything looks OK otherwise).  We didn’t flood or leak during the storm. [...]

We did evacuate ahead of Hurricane Ike. We’re safe, but not allowed to go back yet. I don’t have internet access where we’re staying, so I’m only online via a hotspot for a very short time and not necessarily every day, though I’m hoping to get online briefly every day. I appreciate all the messages [...]