After Ike

By yesterday, people all over the area had had time to get lots of the tree damage cleaned up. All along Northcrest Drive (the primary street between us and the schools) and its neighborhood areas, the streets look like this -- piles and piles of branches and cut up trees, large and small. Some people have run out of room along their own curbsides and have had to haul it into the median. And many of the downed or snapped-off trees have to be taken care of by the electric company's crews if those trees are entangled in power lines. This is why it's taking so long to get power restored to some of the surrounding neighborhoods.



One REALLY encouraging sign yesterday was the lone truck on Anne's cul-de-sac -- a tree crew to disentangle a tree from some power lines in one of her neighbor's back yard. That lone truck was a real beacon of hope for us!


Then when we returned to the Linehans' after going out for dinner, we found this scene -- the entire cul-de-sac was filled with electric company trucks. These were crews in from Florida, Ohio, and other midwest states. All of Anne's neighbors were ecstatic to see these guys! Within half an hour of our return, we all had electricity again -- after 7½ long days of no power except for what came from the various generators all over the place!