Hurricane Ike Update

We are back home and we have power. Our neighborhood was one of the first to have power restored. Our house faired pretty well. We lost some shingles and we think there's a little water damage but other than that no problems. There was quite a bit of erosion in my flower beds we just worked on and the crepe myrtles were nearly uprooted along with the rose bush, but the fence remained standing along with the front pine tree. Our neighbors lost part of their fence and the other neighbor has a street sign in his back yard. Many neighbors' roofs look worse than ours and many lost trees. A lot of people on our street have friends and family staying with them because of the power outages. Businesses are beginning to open back up. Monday, when we got home, we had to wait in line to go into Wal-Mart. There was no cold stuff but we got free bananas. Stoplights are sporadic. The local stations have shown news around the clock until today. We are now getting bits and pieces of tv programs. Many school districts are closed. We are under a curfew. As of yesterday, we can drink our water again. The weather has been pleasant allowing everyone to enjoy being outside and opening windows.