80 years old and starting over, that was the sad reality of the facts. There was no denying that around 5 feet of flood water had gotten into the house and there was no denying that the couple did not have flood insurance. The hard wood flooring that everyone had liked so much, after the water went down the flooring swelled and split the walls. There was so much pressure generated from the swelling wood floors, that not only did the walls split, but some of them were pushed off the concert slab.

Having lived in Bridge City for most of their lives, neither the husband nor the wife had ever heard of the type of flooding that was on the way. Hurricane Ike was like a dark cloud in the distance, almost like a bad dream, but this dream was real. For decades Southeast Texas had avoided the critical strike of a major Hurricane.

In 1969, Hurricane Camille made landfall near the mouth of the Mississippi River.

In August of 1992, Hurricane Andrew was working its way towards Southeast Texas and Southwest Louisiana. But the wind currents turned Andrew to the North, and Andrew Made landfall around Morgan City, Louisiana.

In August of 2005, Hurricane Katrina made landfall in the New Orleans area.

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These pictures were taken in Bridge City, Texas after Hurricane Ike made landfall in Galveston, Texas. Using Google Earth, and measuring from where these pictures were taken, its estimated that 20 miles inland, there was about a 14 - 15 foot storm surge. This is not a scientific measurement, its just an estimate.

How the storm surge was estimated - my parents house is is about 4 feet above sea level and they got over 9 feet of water in their house. This picture was taken 3 days after Hurricane Ike made landfall and the flood waters had receded about 7 - 8 feet.

Bridge City Texas Hurricane Ike

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Making your own candles is easier then it looks. This is a basic skill that urban survivalist should take the time to learn. Not only is making candles easy, its a lot cheaper then buying them.

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When some type of disaster occurs, the owners of a store will take measures to protect their business and their property. A lot of places like wal-mart will stack bales of compressed cardboard in front of the doors.

These blocks of compressed cardboard act as a barricade to help stop people from driving cars or trucks through the front doors. Most of the time the front doors of these large stores will be made of glass - which offer little to no protection from a car or truck. During the Rodney King riots, some store owners also used these blocks of cardboard as bullet stops. Its kinda difficult for a bullet to penetrate 3 - 4 feet of compressed cardboard. The store owners were able to band together behind these blocks of cardboard, and stop the crowds of looters from destroying their stores .

This video was filmed just before Hurricane Ike made landfall in Galveston, Texas.

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On the morning of September 13, 2008, the eye of Hurricane Ike approached the Texas coast near Galveston Bay, making landfall at 2:10 a.m. CDT over the east end of Galveston Island. People in low-lying areas who had not heeded evacuation orders, in single-family one- or two-story homes, were warned by the weather service that they may “face certain death” from the overnight storm surge.

In regional Texas towns, electrical power began failing before 8 p.m. CDT, leaving millions without power (estimates range from 2.8 million to 4.5 million customers).

September 11, 2008 - parts of southeast Texas have started calling for a voluntary evacuation.

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