WE SURVIVED IKE !

 

As most of the world knows, Texas was hit hard by Hurricane Ike.

Ike came ashore in Galveston which is about 250 miles from where we live in East Texas. Most hurricanes or more likely, tropical depressions will make their landfall and then weaken significantly before they make it as far as our home in Athens.

Ike, however, was different. At one time, it appeared he would come straight up from Galveston, through Houston and right over Athens.

My brother and I spent Friday cutting limbs and getting our house and yard ready for high winds and the certain rain.

Due to the wonders of modern television, we were able to watch as Ike came ashore. It wasn't long until our weather changed and we started getting quite a bit of rain and wind. To our good luck, Ike's path changed to the east and it looks like we missed the worst part by about 35 - 40 miles. There were lots of trees uprooted, power lines down and damaged roofs just a few towns away. We are thankful we were spared.

We were glad that it worked out that we were able to be here with our boys to ride out the storm. It would have been really hard to have been trying to keep up with how things were going in Texas if we had still been in Latvia.

Thanks for all of the prayers and concern from our friends in Latvia. We really thank you for remembering us. Please continue to pray for the people of the Texas Gulf Coast and others that have been affected by this huge storm. There is much clean-up, repair and rebuilding that will be taking place as Ike has left his mark on a huge area of Texas.