Crescent-News.com - Former area residents survive Ike

By HEATHER BAUGHMAN

baughman@crescent-news.com

HOUSTON -- Hurricane Ike struck the Houston area overnight Friday, creating chaos and panic for many residents. They woke to downed trees and branches, broken glass, no power and a lot of cleaning to be done.

Many residents were urged to flee the area in the days and hours before Ike landed on shore, but thousands of others were asked to stay put and seek shelter to ride out the storm. Former Defiance resident Deb (Keller) Binkley was one of those residents who was told to stay home.

"Only certain ZIP codes were mandated to leave," said Binkley, who lives on the northwest side of Houston. "Those of us who were not in a mandatory (evacuation) ZIP code were asked to stay put," giving people who were in the most dangerous paths of Ike a chance to evacuate with less-congested roads.

Once the hurricane hit, Binkley and her husband, John, lost power Friday night. The winds kicked up, knocking out electricity, but that was mild compared to many other people whose homes were damaged or even destroyed by the immense forces of the hurricane.

"People seem pretty much OK," said Binkley, who lives in northwest Harris County, which was on the very left side of the hurricane's eye.

During the storm Binkley said, "It was very scary. At 6:30 Friday night we lost power." With no electricity and no television to know what was happening, "You didn't know what was coming. I just heard things pelt the house."

For a while, Binkley listened to a transistor radio, but ended up heading to another room to read a book to keep her mind off the storm.

"It's really something to go through. The destruction is unbelievable," Binkley said. Though her home was not damaged, she said a neighbor's pine tree smashed into their home and another crushed a neighbor's garage.

Throughout the neighborhood, she said, "Neighbors are helping neighbors, kids are out in the yards breaking up sticks."

In her yard alone, Binkley said 52 bags of debris were collected.

Her house escaped damage, but destruction still looms. The Binkleys have been using a generator to keep their food from spoiling since her power went out. "We're real hopeful that it (power) could be (restored by the) end of the week."

To keep the generator running as long as possible, Binkley said she and her husband on Sunday drove to Texas A&M, northwest of Houston, to fill up their five-gallon drums with gas, which was costing $3.40-$3.60 a gallon, to operate their generator.

"When it runs out, there is no gas," Binkley said. On Tuesday, they had enough gas to last one more day.

Gasoline to fuel the generator is becoming scarce, though. With gas stations in Houston just now reopening, Binkley said lines of "cars are waiting hours and hours" to fill up, optimistic that there will be fuel left when its their turn at the pump.

Her son, though, lives in an apartment complex about 45 minutes away. His complex suffered a lot of damage, though he is doing fine.

Local relief, Binkley said, has been going well. After the experience of previous hurricanes, distribution centers around the area are flowing well. "You just pull up and volunteers put two bags of ice and a case of water in your car and you drive on. There is no congestion," she said.

A resident of Texas since 1981, Binkley experienced the intensity of Hurricanes Alicia in 1983 and Rita in 2005. "This storm was a lot worse than Rita," Binkley said, when she lost power for just five days.

She returned to work Tuesday, happy to be back in a building with power, air conditioning and the Internet.

The wake of the storm brought beautiful weather, Binkley said. Instead of the normal 95- to 100-degree days, temperatures are comfortable now with highs in the low 80s.

Faring even better in the Houston area was former Defiance resident Betsy (Kondas) Daves, who lives on the west side of Houston. Like Binkley, Daves was not ordered to evacuate and stayed at home as Ike hit.

The power went out around 10:30 p.m. Friday. After hooking up a small battery-operated television and listening to the wind pick up (reaching sustained winds of 80 miles per hour), Daves said she finally fell asleep for the night. Though she woke intermittently, her house was not damaged and her family was safe, including 15-year-old daughter Nicole, who "slept through the whole thing."

Assessing the damage the next morning, Daves said her "yard didn't have any major damage. A few pieces of my fence were down and my pool was a disaster, but nothing happened to my house."

Unlike many in the Houston area, Daves had her power restored Sunday at 10:30 a.m. "I feel very, very lucky. Our water is fine and we're back to normal, except for having cable TV," she added.

"I know other people haven't' been so lucky. I think 1.5 million people are still without power," she said Wednesday morning.

A resident of Texas for 29 years, Daves said this was her first big hurricane. "I was out of town in 1983 for Hurricane Alicia," she said.

Her partner Paul Kraft, told her after the storm, "You don't know how lucky we are."