As you can probably guestimate, I live in Texas. East Texas to be exact, and we got hit pretty hard by Hurricane Ike, and were without power for only 8 days (considering they'd said up to 3 wks without power, I was pretty impressed it was only for that long!). I'm a bit depressed because when we moved to this house 2 yrs ago, we had to do some MAJOR cleaning of the yard, including stuff that had fallen from Hurricane Rita 3 yrs prior. The previous tenants never bothered to clean it up, and my IL's (who own the house we are in and are buying) never forced the issue. There was trash all over the yard too, so at least with THIS clean up, we don't hafta worry about trash, just all the fallen trees, limbs, and whatnot. Gotta be watchful for snakes too, but hey, that's TEXAS for ya! We have a long road ahead, but, thankfully, the vehicles are fine, we had a travel trailer to be able to keep food in, bathe, and cook in, the animals that we have are fine, and the house just got hit on the roof-overhang, so it's minimal damage. Especially considering that we are SURROUNDED by red oaks, it's all a blessing to be sure! Thanks for reading! I gotta go delve in and catch up on here!! <3 less

Watching the news and seeing the devastation has been heartbreaking for my husband and I, we can only imagine how much more difficult and painful it is for you guys to be the ones going through it!I'm glad to hear there wasn't huge property damage, I completely understand what it's like being forced out of your home because you don't have running water or electricity. I'm from Maine and in 98 we had a HUGE ice storm. We were without power in the dead of winter for 2 weeks. We couldn't stay, we took the cats up to a kennel that somehow had power and the dog rode around in the car with us when we went from relative's house after relative's house. When we finally made it back after power had been restored we didn't recognize our farm. We lost a lot of trees and everything was just covered in ice.I'm glad to hear you, the family, and the pets are okay. Take some time before you set out on the chore of getting your house back to looking the way it did. Think of it as an opportunity to make it look even better than it did before, that's the only way you'll get through it. I'm sending positive thoughts your way! less