Dis Ole House - Houma, LA

"Houma, LA... Hello from bombarded Houma. We are HOME. We are safe. Both our home and rent house next door are undamaged. Other than a tree, several large branches, and much tree debris, we escaped with little problems' only lost four shingles.

We were ground zero. Gustav came ashore thirty some miles below us, and the eye went right through Houma. Houma is a mess. Ike pushed a nine foot surge onto our shores as it passed to the south, bound for the Texas/Louisiana state line, flooding thousands of buildings to our south. Although we live near the Intracoastal Canal, which is joined by a deep water channel to the Gulf, there was no flooding in our area. However, we are suffering from subsidence, and erosion of our barrier islands, and if the big one comes in just right won't go into that here.

I don't know why we were spared. My two brothers live further south. David's house lost most shingles and had a hole in the roof. Jack, a few blocks away lost only a wind turbine on the roof.

We went to Baton Rouge to our son's home, came home, spent the night in our boarded up home with no power, and were told it could be weeks before it was restored. So, we took off for northeastern Missouri and Martha's brother, since Ike was coming and were already in an evacuation mode. As luck would have it power was restored to the city of Houma a couple of days later.

Our main loss was from a tree branch falling on top of our car in Baton Rouge when the storm went through, some 90 miles north of Houma. I knew that the storm might go through there, but at least we had no danger of flooding or storm surge. We have a pretty big dent on the roof of our car. Living in south Louisiana for a week with no power and AIR CONDITIONING isn't any fun, but we should be grateful, to say the very least. It got down to 48 degrees our second night in Missouri what a change.

My home was built by my late father and my late maternal grandfather in 1953. They not only don't build them like that any more, they didn't build them like that even then. I am very, very grateful for everything.

Thanks to all who sent messages to me. I appreciate your concern. I'll be busy for a while, but hope to be in touch.' -- Charlie and Martha (Cook)
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