Hurricane Ike

[M&S Norrell]

Early Wednesday morning Mike took our Excel 100+ miles inland due to the storm. Then he came back to LJ (40 mi. west of Galveston and 10 miles from the coast) to close down and secure our business and board up the windows at the house. Our son was finally evacuated from Texas A&M (Galveston Marine Location) at 3:00pm. Then back out on the road Wednesday evening to spend the night(s) in our RV. 8:00am Thursday the rv park was officially closed and we had to get out on the road again. Headed toward Austin (with literally 1 million others) and got about 10 miles out of Austin when the tranny on the brand new F450 went out. Our friend from Austin came with a strap and a F250. Pulled the F-450 w/ the 35MKE Excel still hooked up, 15 miles to his shop. (Nice "redneck" pic!) Then disconnected the rig and towed the truck to the local Ford dealer. Now 5-7 business day wait as a new tranny had to be ordered. Ford selected a PT Cruiser for Mike's rental unit...a little difficult to get our trailer home, don't you think? Our scheduled trip to pick up our brand new Excel next week is obviously been put on hold for a few more weeks!!!! How was yall's day?

[M&S Norrell]

Early Wednesday morning Mike took our Excel 100+ miles inland due to the storm. Then he came back to LJ (40 mi. west of Galveston and 10 miles from the coast) to close down and secure our business and board up the windows at the house. Our son was finally evacuated from Texas A&M (Galveston Marine Location) at 3:00pm. Then back out on the road Wednesday evening to spend the night(s) in our RV. 8:00am Thursday the rv park was officially closed and we had to get out on the road again. Headed toward Austin (with literally 1 million others) and got about 10 miles out of Austin when the tranny on the brand new F450 went out. Our friend from Austin came with a strap and a F250. Pulled the F-450 w/ the 35MKE Excel still hooked up, 15 miles to his shop. (Nice "redneck" pic!) Then disconnected the rig and towed the truck to the local Ford dealer. Now 5-7 business day wait as a new tranny had to be ordered. Ford selected a PT Cruiser for Mike's rental unit...a little difficult to get our trailer home, don't you think? Our scheduled trip to pick up our brand new Excel next week is obviously been put on hold for a few more weeks!!!! How was yall's day?

[Workshop]

Sue glad that everyone is OK. Dishearting just the same to have the problems while on the road and having to move out in the middle of everything going on. Have found, living in Florida, sometime our plans are forced to be changed and adjust to whatever comes our way. I know there's a lot to deal with in the short term and that your up to the task.

Hard to believe what these storms do to our daily lives, its not a one day ordeal. After Fay, a TS, came through our area last month, it took several weeks to get caught up and back into our boring daily schedule. Hope you and your family are alright and the business came through without damage.

What's wrong with towing your rig with a F-250?

Chris

[motojavaphil]

Hi Sue,
What happened to the F450? I had the tranny stop changing gears, 08 with 2000 mi on it.
We also found local coverage on DirecTV 361, Channel 11 out of Huston.
Phil

[bbry]

Oh my Sue. I want to say "when it rains, it pours, but that's too corny even for me. I'm feeling a little giddy, Today we finally got electricity back and a crew from "God's Hands at Work" came & cleared our yard for us. It took them less than a day to do what it would have taken us months to do. We lost lots of trees but on the upside, the yard will be much easier to mow now without all those trees. However, it is going to be a lot sunnier too.

Did ya'll have much damage to your home or business? I think after a couple of new roofs & a floor or so, we'll be good as new.

[M&S Norrell]

Still no electricity yet... Mike went and picked up the truck yesterday while i was in College Station finding apartment for my son who was a freshman at Texas A&M in Galveston; he was transferred as his school was on an island (Pelican Island) between Bolivar Penninsula and Galveston. They are still without power, water or access as the road on either side of the drawbridge was washed away. Everything is still stuck in his dorm, so we had some shopping to do.
As for the truck,apparently the converter (torque?) and punp failed and sent metal shavings into the transmission causing it to fail. Ford replaced both parts with brand new, so we are up and running again.
Our business (located in Clute) has 5 large metal buildings and showed no signs of damage other than losing the electricity. Our home is in Lake Jackson and 80% of us still are without power. Oak/Pecan trees litter every street along with downed power lines and 6' wooden fences stacked along the curbs waiting for heavy trash pick up. We feel very lucky as we only had slight damage to our roof as a large limb decided to fall on our patio roof and although the yard took several days to pick up,all the branches have now been hauled to the curb. i am back at home now listening to the sweet(?) hum (???) of the generator.