The Proof Is In The Pictures

Well, I promised in my last post that I would get around to sharing some of my photos of Baytown post-Ike. Let me preface the picture portion of the post with this: these are not award-winning photos. I took most of these from the car, and my photographic abilities in a moving vehicle are not stellar (to say the least). With that being said, I did do my best to tinker in PhotoShop to get the best version of each photo. Unfortunately, uploading these to blogger drains the color out of them and makes them look flat.

I have probably chosen too many to include, but I had a hard time leaving some of these out. I hope you will enjoy (is enjoy the right word? maybe appreciate is more apt). I sincerely hope you will be able to appreciate the damage that these photos represent not only to the structures pictured but to the people's lives they represent. Oh, and one note of suggestion - I recommend that if you really want to "see" these photos, you click on each one. Otherwise, you'll be squinting at the screen trying to make out what you're looking at.

This is a photo of our neighbor's willow tree being whipped around as the high winds began to blow. This was only the tip of the iceberg, of course. The tree was ultimately snapped in half when the 100+ mph winds hit.

This is a church that we pass just about any time we leave the house to go somewhere. As you can see the wall was torn down exposing the interior to what I'm sure was severe damage.
Here you can see Cedar Bayou, which had already receded a little but was still severely over its banks. Very little of what is pictured here would normally be under water - notice all of the half submerged trees.

Perhaps I have an odd sense of humor, but I found the location of this fallen tree a bit comical since the sign was posted long before Ike struck.

I would say you could classify this one as a close call for the trailer behind that huge tree.

I couldn't tell you exactly where this tree was because at this point I was too turned around to know. This was one of many trees we saw laying across power lines. We had to turn around at least 3 or 4 times in order to avoid running over the ones that crossed the road.

These were the power lines down along Garth Road the day after Ike. This was just a small taste of all the lines that fell, I'm sure.

This mobile home looked better than others we saw. In fact, we saw one where nothing was left but the bottom portion of the frame.

I thought this picture was almost poetic. The little yellow flowers survived, but the enormous pole was laid over by the powerful winds.

I'm not sure what this building was going to be. I would not want to be the one to try to sort it out though.

These were the first trucks we saw working on power lines and such. I cannot tell you how grateful you are when you see lines of trucks rolling in from across the country to help restore electricity. Seriously, I know they make good money to do that work, but they leave their homes and families to come help restore civilization to our homes and families. That's just classy no matter how you slice it.

We (like so many others) went to Home Depot a couple of days following Ike. After hearing that we could be 3 weeks or more without power, we were hoping to purchase a generator or at least a camp stove. This line wrapped around and doubled over itself. We waited for about 30 minutes when someone finally emerged to say that they had no generators. There was a mass exodus from the line following that announcement. Seriously, at least 2/3 of the people dejectedly walked back to their cars.

This was an auto body shop on N. Alexander.

This is a local restaurant on N. Alexander (not one I frequent), and it used to be a Kettle back in the day.

I know the sign on this one says (said) taqueria, but when I was growing up, this was Tasty Treat. I used to love this place - it was kind of like Dairy Queen, only better.

This sign used to sit just down the street from our subdivision, and yes, I had to put at least one in black and white.

At first glance (if you don't live around here) these signal lights and street signs seem untouched. However, they are turned an almost perfect 90 degrees from how they normally sit.

As you can see, this boat is sitting on dry land. It had dozens of others to keep it company. Unfortunately, I couldn't really get close enough to get a good photo of those.

My husband insisted that I include this one. I'm not sure the explanation of his affinity for this particular photo. He does like chicken, but I digress. This sign fell from great heights. We pass it every time we exit I-10 to Hwy. 146 going toward our house.

I saved the best for last (at least, in my humble opinion), so I hope you hung in there with me until the end.

This particular tree is located in a field between Ferry Rd. and Hwy. 146. Let me just say that I wish this photo in particular had uploaded better. In the original picture the sky is so blue (and a beautiful shade of blue) that it looks fake.

In my mind this last picture is a bit of a microcosm of the storm. You can see the debris washed in around the horse as well as the water and high voltage towers behind.

Well, there you have it. Those are my photos from the aftermath in Baytown. I hope these give you a little insight into our community following hurricane Ike.

Blessings!