We are surviving Ike!!

[Ninebird8]

To all: Our internet is back, our power/water is on, and reg cable is back but no digital/dvr/movies yet. But 1.5 million still no power in the 4th largest city in the US. However, thanks to the martial arts, classmates, fellow teachers, and judges from all over have been calling to lend support,a kind word, etc. I would like to thank all of my fellow martial artists for your prayers,well wishes, etc. Houston still has 1.5 mm without power, and most of Galveston is wiped out!! It was pretty scary that Friday to Saturday, then getting hit again by rain from a cool front Sunday morning. Weather now is unseasonably cool but as always feds and state did not have their act together but local authorities were great.

Will keep apprised. To all, wish this on nobody!!

[shesulsa]

Glad you're all right. Please keep us up to date for the goings-on in your area, eh?

[bowser666]

Glad things are alright again down there. We only caught some of the rain and wind up in Dallas , but nothing serious here. Spring storm season was worse TBH.

[shihansmurf]

Glad to hear that y'all are doing well.

Best wishes
Mark

[terryl965]

Glad you and the city is doing good, keep us advised on everything.

[arnisador]

Good luck until all is back to normal!

[grydth]

Up in central New York we had 50+ mph winds from Ike's blown out remnants that still toppled big trees and knocked out power to thousands. I can only imagine what you Texans had to contend with. Good fortune to you all.

[chinto]

Great to hear you are all right and have power. I hope most are in your good shape very soon.

[crushing]

I'm glad you are alright. My sister and her girlfriend escaped from near Beaumont and made the trek up to Michigan to visit family until some order and power is restored. She showed me this website last night, which I think is pretty slick, especially if Entergy is your electric company.

http://entergy-texas.com/outages/tx.aspx

My sister has been in contact with people that stayed in the area. Fortunately, and unlike Hurricane Rita a couple years ago, this hurricane didn't drop any trees on her house.

[Ninebird8]

Grydth, thanks...I am from Dallas originally but spent 10 years away from Texas, including 7 years in Astoria, Queens, and training/working in Manhattan. Right now 33% of homes now have power, the rest anywhere from 1 day to two weeks. An irony: a good friend of mine in Pittsburgh lost power from the remnants and now they have to wait a few days as most electric workers from there are now down here!! FEMA and the state keep arguing while the local officials including the Mayor and County officials run the show! Galveston may be partially uninhabitable for years!! I was just there with the wife the week before the storm, and we went to Kemah boardwalk in League City and it is now virtually destroyed. The county judge of Galveston is trying to get the State attorney general to give some ruling on what rights the county has to expel remaining survivors until everything is restored. We Texans like to face adversity, even when it is stupid.

Thank you for all of the wishes. Sure makes us realize we are all in this together, and Mother Nature has a better sidekick than all of us...LOL!!!

[bluekey88]

damn, I grew up in Galveston. That's a real shame. hang in there and keep us posted. Good to get some news from the inside.

Peace,
Erik

[Mimir]

Good to hear that your power is back. Hope everyone else's is back on soon!

[Josh Oakley]

One thing my company is doing to help out is an organization-wide kick-a-thon. We're raising funds as fast as possible to get generators, food, clothing, and housing back to our students in the damaged areas.

[bowser666]

One thing my company is doing to help out is an organization-wide kick-a-thon. We're raising funds as fast as possible to get generators, food, clothing, and housing back to our students in the damaged areas.


That's awesome !! More companies need to do that !!!

[MA-Caver]

Found these AWESOME photos of Ike and the aftermath... They tell the story I think.

[MA-Caver]

More photos...

[MA-Caver]

And a few more... (source of all photos .... http://www.biertijd.com/mediaplayer/?itemid=9243 )

[arnisador]

Wow. Thanks for sharing those disturbing images. It hadn't really hit home for me yet.

[MA-Caver]

Wow. Thanks for sharing those disturbing images. It hadn't really hit home for me yet.
I didn't find the images as disturbing but amazing actually. What was incredible were the shots of one home still standing while all the others around were flattened.

[Ninebird8]

Bluekey, my wife and I had just gone to Kemah the week before and one of my masters and some classmates were down in Galveston by the San Luis hotel. You would not even recognize it!! I have lived in Dallas, where I am from, New York City, Hong Kong, London, Austin, etc. and I have never been really scared until Friday to Saturday. The winds in Richmond/Sugarland, 65 miles from the coast and a Houston suburb southwest, got hit with 75-80 mph winds, rain, and carnage. They are estimating may be first of next month before all power restored. People here were pissed by the lack of cooperation between FEMA and the state, so our good mayor and county judge took over. With a potential financial collapse of the economic system, I do not know how the govt will cover the expenses!!

I am so grateful for my long practice of martial arts, as it keeps me centered during this time. Mother Nature, the best female martial artist ever!!!

[IcemanSK]

Bluekey, my wife and I had just gone to Kemah the week before and one of my masters and some classmates were down in Galveston by the San Luis hotel. You would not even recognize it!! I have lived in Dallas, where I am from, New York City, Hong Kong, London, Austin, etc. and I have never been really scared until Friday to Saturday. The winds in Richmond/Sugarland, 65 miles from the coast and a Houston suburb southwest, got hit with 75-80 mph winds, rain, and carnage. They are estimating may be first of next month before all power restored. People here were pissed by the lack of cooperation between FEMA and the state, so our good mayor and county judge took over. With a potential financial collapse of the economic system, I do not know how the govt will cover the expenses!!

I am so grateful for my long practice of martial arts, as it keeps me centered during this time. Mother Nature, the best female martial artist ever!!!

You are in my prayers!

[masherdong]

Everything that Ninebird has said is dead on. My wife and I were so scared that we were up around 3:30 AM when the storm took out our power. Fortunately, our house and neighborhood suffered only a few loose shingles. We had our power restored Saturday afternoon, so we were lucky. We live in Katy and the winds were at least 80 mph. My house is 2 years old so at least our house is built to the new standards or codes. My Si Hing on the other hand had his roof collapse and his house was trashed. We went to help him out a couple of days ago and just to see the damage made my jaw drop. Good thing is that he was able to get his family out in time before it fell.

There are still over a million people without power and they are working as fast as they can. My work place is still without power. They are estimating that power will be back on at my workplace around Monday, the 22nd.

I hope so because I am starting to get a little nervous about not getting paid. Dont get me wrong, I love the time off and all but HURRICATION has got to end soon!

[Ninebird8]

Masher, great that you are safe! As I stated earlier, we live in Richmond just past Sugarland and same things, could not believe how easily huge trees were mangled, snapped in half and flown 3 blocks! We have everything back except our landline, even our cable finally!! I continue to be amazed at how little FEMA learned from the last time, and it is also interesting to me that this time no governmental agency is offering up to 3 years of public housing/vouchers to live??? I went back to work on Tuesday, but my firm had the payroll messed up from California but we did get paid yesterday. My martial arts friends, our long years of training prepare us for what to generally face in life, and to handle situations with human beings, but this was incredible. I did see a typhoon when I was in Hong Kong, and Masher I assume you were here in 2001 when Alison parked over us and dropped 31 inches of rain in 18 hours, but the combo of wind/rain was overwhelming. To bring the 4th largest city to its knees was, from an organizational perspective, very interesting. To all on this site, thank you for your wishes. Masher, just out of curiosity, who do you train with in Katy? One of my students and his family lives off Fry past Saums over there? He told me parts of Katy did get hit, and the Cinemark theatre off of 99 is closed at this point. Hope to take the wife and son to a movie just to normalize this weekend!! To all, hug your family this weekend, thank your teacher (s) for the skills they are giving you, and thank your friends for being there!!

[terryl965]

Well hopefully the aftemath will be handle better then some other ones.

[Ninebird8]

There are some very strong rumors down here now, and I have some contacts at UTMB med center in Galveston, that there are a significant number of body bags and things are being held back. A couple of questions: why is there so few people being shown on High Island, Crystal Beach, and Bolivar Pen, and yet there were enough there originally with no account made for the disparity in numbers...and yet, they are finding all sorts of abandoned animals. Also, why is the gov't not immediately offering all the free vouchers that they did in Katrina? Why is the media being kept from doing certain flyovers or visiting certain areas and there is a significant news blackout in those areas? I know, I know, another conspiracy theorist...LOL!! Just questions that have arisen down here. But, I have talked to several people with contacts who have verified at least this possibility. But why would these potential death numbers be any more shocking than seeing floating bodies in New Orleans?

I am very disturbed by the govt reaction to this and the lack of solid crisis management with the current financial issues. What I would not give for some strong leader to arise in this world, but alas none appear around. My brothers and sisters, I am thankful for the great mental comfort the martial arts afford. I can always go and do standing meditation, qi gong breathing, or practice hard for a few hours. Easy way to escape. Another is getting to see my 12 year old son for the weekend. He always provides me with a new perspective, like texting me and his stepmother to see if we are going dirtbiking or 4 wheeling with our friends and kung fu bros/spouses this weekend. I love his outlook!!

[masherdong]

Masher I assume you were here in 2001 when Alison parked over us and dropped 31 inches of rain in 18 hours, but the combo of wind/rain was overwhelming.

Yes, I was. I grew up in Katy so, I have seen my fair share of hurricanes. I was about 8 yrs old when Alicia came to Houston. I think Ike did far more damage than Alicia did, at least from what I remember.


Masher, just out of curiosity, who do you train with in Katy? One of my students and his family lives off Fry past Saums over there?

I train at Jade Mountain Martial Arts under Sifu Whit McClendon. His Sifu is Laoshi Arthur D'Agostino.

Here is our website:

www.jademountain.org

[Ninebird8]

I know your Si-gung some. Met him awhile back. I have heard the name Whit McClendon before. My teachers the last 31 years are Jeff Bolt, senior of Yang Jwing Ming, Ricky Anderson, high ranking under Abbot Wang Fui-Yen in Hong Kong, and Leung Shum, Ying Jow Pai eagle claw, under Ng Wei, his teacher and godfather, who was senior and god son to Lau Fat Mon, the Lau sisters' dad.

If I remember right, is not D'Agostino Preying Mantis? Is he the brother of John Cheng and Jeff Hughes who I have know since they were kids almost 30 years ago? Sorry to digress from Ike Masher, just curious. Thanks, my student in Katy just had yard and fence damage. Except for our ATT land line which was up until Wednesday and down since, we are all the way back now, hope the same for you.

[masherdong]

If I remember right, is not D'Agostino Preying Mantis? Is he the brother of John Cheng and Jeff Hughes who I have know since they were kids almost 30 years ago? Sorry to digress from Ike Masher, just curious. Thanks, my student in Katy just had yard and fence damage. Except for our ATT land line which was up until Wednesday and down since, we are all the way back now, hope the same for you.
Thanks

Yes, Laoshi is a teacher of preying mantis. I do not know if John Cheng and Jeff Hughes are his brothers or not.

Good to hear that your student only had minor damage compared to many in the Houston/Galveston area.

Yes, we are up and running and have been for a week now. I am finally returning to work tomorrow. Sad thing, we will be working a lot of overtime to make up for the down time last week. :(

[Ninebird8]

Enjoy the traffic this morning, it was crazy!! Usual 3 minute trip almost an hour, looks like everyone is back. Just waiting for land line to come on, and everything else is good to go. Amazing, unlike Katrina, already taking away the pods. Interestingly, FEMA says you must basically be poor before the storm to get help afterward. OH well, thanks to the govt and their bad financial decisions, guess our help went to the $85 billion for AIG. At least ours was a natural disaster....LOL!!! Funny, we can find money for that and for war, but not to rebuild our domestic infrastructure, guess it is not a sexy political topic right now. Oh, there I go again, letting my draconian political nature come out.....I must believe, I must believe!! I guess like chi, never seen but always felt, LOL!!