Just some pictures

Above is a before and after picture of an area called Crystal Beach. This is on the Bolivar Peninsula which was obviously decimated by our friend Ike.

Several fires burned on Galveston Island during and after the hurricane, mostly caused by transformers blowing out. The fires were left to burn themselves out. Our favorite restaurant and Houston landmark, Brennan's burned down during the storm. How's this for irony. Brennan's in Houston is owned by the same family that owns Commander's Palace in New Orleans. Commander's was devestated by Katrina and many of their employees were hired on at Brennan's in Houston. Since then Commander's has rebuild and has already said they will hire on some of Brennan's employees.
This is in my neighborhood. It is someone's trampoline that was picked up and dumped in the front yard. Judging from the damage in the neighborhood and some of the noises we heard in the storm we think there were lots of little tornados that touched down here and there during the storm.
This is my backyard. We didn't lose our tree but we lost several very large branches out of the tree. We also lost our fence. Our neighbors behind us had their swingset blow over. Ours is original to the house. Very Old and sort of decrepit looking...still standing!
More of our backyard. James has gotten it all cleaned up but it truly looked like a war zone after the storm.