It Could Have Been Much Worse

Many of you have asked how our family in Houston fared in the aftermath of Ike. Fortunately everyone is ok.

The first picture below is one I've seen a lot around the web and is part of a set of photos in the Boston Globe's Big Picture series on the hurricane (The Short - But Eventful - Life of Ike). The shot is of the one house left standing in a part of Gilchrist, Texas.

The second picture is an aerial shot of the neighborhood (Pirate's Beach)where my in-laws have a house. The house seems to have come out ok, though it will be some time before anyone can get down to Galveston to see exactly what happened. Here's what my father-in-law said:

Here is a confirming satellite photo of Gull Cottage immediately after Ike. Our house is on the second street in from the highway, the sixth one to the right of the roundabout, with the vacant lot next door. The black spot is the stairwell and the pergola seems to be missing from the deck. Looks like a bit of sand on the driveway too. Our yard mowing service checked in today by phone (they stayed at Pirates' Beach during the hurricane!) and said the house looked good on a cursory inspection from the street. About six feet of water were under the house at the hurricane's worst.

Amazingly, only 37 miles separates Pirates Beach, where there seems to have been relatively little damage, from Gilchrist, where just the one house is left standing (you can see the details on this map)

Photo by David J. Phillip-Pool/Getty Images via The Big Picture.