everything designed

The news is labeling Hurricane Ike as a #freak. Intersting. We were not even expecting the storm to hit Galveston until 12 hours before. Kind of scary to see peoples faces and reactions when the news started predicting the path to hit us, directly. We scrambled and put together emergency plans and communication channels just before the storm hit. National Geographic sums it up well. Right before it hit us, it smacked right into Cuba and Haiti. Check out the shots and video:

“Hurricane Ike will be entered into the record books for the severe damage it inflicted in and around Galveston, Texas, experts say. “This one’s going to be famous for a long time, if for no other reason than it hit Texas, which hadn’t gotten a strike by a damaging hurricane in 25 years,” said Jeff Masters, director of Weather Underground, a private commercial forecasting service.”

The shot above is from the video “Giant Waves Crash Over Buildings” in Cuba.

link here: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/09/080915-hurricane-ike.html

From Boston.com “News Stories in Photographs”. These are actually the first photos I have seen since Hurricane #Ike hit. Our power was out up until yesterday and the local news is not covering the story as much now.

“In its brief lifespan of only 13 days, Hurricane Ike wreaked great deal of havoc. Affecting several countries including Cuba, Haiti, and the United States, Ike is blamed for approximately 114 deaths (74 in Haiti alone), and damages that are still being tallied, with estimates topping $10 billion. Many shoreline communities of Galveston, Texas were wiped from the map by the winds, storm surge and the walls of debris pushed along by Ike – though Galveston was spared the level of disaster it suffered in 1900. “

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/09/the_short_but_eventful_life_of

Highway 242, The Woodlands, Texas – Waters Receding, on my way to Saturday Night services just after Hurricane Ike moved north.

Hurricane Ike Hit us Friday Night with about 70 to 100 MPH winds; trees fell, power went out and life seemed to stop for about 24/48 hours. Woodlands Church however pushed forward and held services as promised Saturday evening at 6:00pm. About 400 brave people decided join us for services (without power) in the Chapel in The Woods. Pretty cool service actually. Afterward we held sign-ups for those who needed help with trees, food, water, ice, etc and those who were able to get out early and start helping. Since then we have cleared over 100 homes of trees and debris, distributed over 50,000 meals, hundreds of thousands of bottled water, not sure about the hot meals, I think about 15,000 to 20,000 so far and we are just getting started.

Check out more information on what we are doing to help the community get back to par.
http://www.fotw.org/main/connect/churchimpact/

After all the houses were packed, lawn chairs and barbeque pits brought in. The neighbors drove by and picked us up for a quick look at the lake and of course the kids had to jump in! I am usually crazily updating Facebook with new photos but for some reason the new iPhone is failing to send photos. Anyway. We had a fun dip in the lake around 5:00pm this evening. 

Don’t you wish you were a kid again.

Yes, we are open for Church services this weekend. Our Church is located just north of Houston, Texas. During the 2005 Hurricanes Katrina($41 Billion in damage) and Rita we had hundreds and thousands of people come across our campus seeking shelter, food, water, restrooms and just a break from the gridlock traffic on I-45 north.

In the past twelve hours Hurricane Ike decided to take a turn pointing directly at the Galveston and Houston area. This morning Pastor Kerry called an emergency meeting and we quickly worked out an action plan for the predicted impact and devastation. We have listed six areas on the website at www.woodlandschurch.tv, we also integrated a church staff text communication process that will allow us to communicate internally regarding action items and updates. You can track with us on the website and also via twitter http://www.twitter.com/woodlandschurch.

Overall the evacuation is going well, much more organized. Mayor Bill White and Houston city officials have done an excellent job with communicating and evacuating appropriate areas. The storm is expected to make landfall early Saturday morning about 1:00am. My grandmother and Aunt have decided to stay at home in League City, Texas. I think they will be fine, but this will be a rough storm to ride out that close to the coast. What’s interesting is that we just move my Aunt Carol from Texas City, Texas (just north of Galveston) here to our neighborhood. Well she is actually staying with us for a couple of weeks until her house closes. Always fun to have a hurricane party!

If you would like to make an impact with us; large or small; you can check out areas where we are focusing relief here: http://www.woodlandschurch.tv/

Related: The Weather Channel
On Twitter: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=hurricane+ike