Hey everybody, I'm back on-line here at work. No power at home yet and water comes/goes. Can't say I'm having any problems, though. Y'all's concern and offers of support are heartwarming and I thank you very much. I have to admit that I've been having the time of my life with this event.

A cold front showed up the day after Ike dropping nightitme temps down into the fifties! That doesn't normally happen here until November. I'm thinking God realized he upset a bunch of Texans and is trying to make up for it before we go and kick His tush (should "tush" be capitalized when talking about a diety's tush?). Anyway, I've been downright chilly at times.

I kept notes throughout this event and will be posting some pretty extensive reports about preps, what worked, what didn't, what I'll do differently, etc...

I've read the posts concerning Ike and have lots to add. I think there are some misconceptions that should be clearered up.

Unfortunately, I can't upload pictures at work so you won't be able to see what I'm talking about. Eventually I'll have all this information/pictures on my blog, to. So, those of you who read it will see the stuff twice.

-Blast

Welcome back! Glad you had fun...

Correcting, "having fun"! I'm at work in only the loosest usage of the word. Tonight I'm frying a turkey for the neighborhood followed by tango lessons.

-Blast

"...tango lessons.."

Pics of that should be fun...

Welcome back, Blast. I look forward to your reports.

Ike was a huge storm in size which luckily diffused it's power somewhat. The eye passed 22 miles to my east as a class 2 hurricane, though it was only 1mph under what is considered class 3.

Our neighborhood was hit with a constant windspeed of 72mph for over twelve hours. During that time we suffered gusts up to 97.75mph. It took about five hours to go from no wind to the 70mph winds. It took another 4-5 hours to drop back down from 70 down to zero.

There was suprisingly little rain during most of Ike, less than 5 inches in our neighborhood. However, another storm front hit as Ike was leaving and this storm dropped another 10 inches of rain in a six-hour period. 15 miles to the west recieved 19 inches of rain post-Ike. This resulted in minor flooding.

There was almost no lightening with Ike, at least in my location. The exploding transformers made up for that witha very impressive light show.

There were reports of tornadoes, especially to the east of the eye. There are indications that we might have been hit by some micro-twisters, but I have not been able to confirm this.

No hail.

-Blast

As mentioned earlier we had twelve hours of 70mph winds with gusts up just under 100mph. At this speed rain was being blown horizontally. This resulted in water trickling in under the windows exposed to this wind. Placing towels on the windowsills soaked up this water and prevented any damage.

My two-car-wide garage door no longer stays open, to get in/out I need to prop it up with a stick. The garage door's spring was replaced this summer and there wasn't a problem before the storm. The door itself has some barely-noticable warpage, but I'm not sure how this could affect the springs. The door was not braced or re-enforced in any manner.

Many oak and loblolly pine trees are down in the neighborhood. Which ones survived and which ones fell seems to be very random. In most cases the rootball was tore out of the ground rather than the trunk breaking.

About 1 in every 10 house suffered some sort of roof damage. In most cases this was just missing shingles, but the tar paper remained. Some cases the bare plywood roof was exposed. The damaged sections were all under 15'x15' in size and usually limited to only one section of the roof. No roof in the neighborhood is over 12 years old, most are less than seven years old.

One house lost 2-3 planks of their siding, exposing the insulation beneath. I'm not sure if the siding was wood of hardiplank (cement-composite wood).

Each yard in our neighborhood is surrounded by 6' tall cedar-plank "barricade style" fences. Sections of these fences were blown over. In each case the fence broke at two posts. The posts were not up-rooted. The broken fences stayed where they fell, they did not become missles. Nor did I see any individual cedar planks missing from fences. These fences are 7-12 years old.

No windows were broken in the neighborhood except in one case where a branch from a falling tree hit it.

The large amount of broken branches clogged the storm-sewer drains slowing down the escape of water. However, the water never got deep enough for me to go kayaking down the street. (I had stored my kayak inside the front door in hopes I could take her out)

Yards will filled with small and medium (2" diameter) oak and pine branches. The trees were partially stripped of leaves, needles, and pine cones.

I and a few others had boarded up some of my windows. In light of the lack of damage I probably will not board up next time unless I think it'll be a class 3 or higher.

-Blast

Glad to hear all are okay. Very interesting observations.

I'm glad you're back, Blast!!!!

I'm looking forward to reading all of your observations.

Blast..i recall you lived here in Minnesota at one time.
homes up here are built to carry a snow load and seem for the
most part to be fairly sturdy. on the few trips i've taken down South the homes i've seen are made for warm weather--thiner walls..more and bigger windows..the shots we see on TV show nothing but heaps of 2x4's after these storms.i know there is another thread on this subject but how do you feel about "flimsy"
Southern homes V.S. "heavy" Northern homes..yes, i know not much would stand up to a class 4 storm..