Hurricane Ike: Houston Mod Thread.

[BenH]

Hey guys, I wanted to start a thread to find out everyone's whereabouts and status post-Hurricane Ike. Just a place to check in and report on any damage you've seen to Mods or any other significant structures, as well. Also, post any news stories you find that might be of interest.

I've been able to drive through a large chunk of Memorial in the passed few days, and am glad to report that it seems everything is in tact mod-wise. I haven't covered everything, but hope to in the next few days.

Looks like the Galveston County Daily News building by Howard Barnstone lost it's roof:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metrop...an/6001867.html

[Scott08]

Drove by the Menil House on the way to work, looks like lots of trees down in the yard fronting San Felipe but the house looks okay from what you can see. I would volunteer to clear debris to get a look inside it.

[BenH]

Heard from Jason (Willowisp) today. He, his wife and the house are ok, but no power yet.

[Happy Historian]

This house at Bacliff designed and built in 1951 by Houston architect Harold Weisinger suffered major damage. Luckily it is owned by his son, a historic preservationists, who is already in restoration.

Taken in August 2008 at night -

Taken 9/14 -

Taken in 1953 -

Taken 9/14 -

Anybody have ideas on how the clean up massive amounts of broken glass in lawns?

[sevfiv]

This house at Bacliff designed and built in 1951 by Houston architect Harold Weisinger suffered major damage. Luckily it is owned by his son, a historic preservationists, who is already in restoration.

Taken in August 2008 at night -

Taken 9/14 -

Taken in 1953 -

Taken 9/14 -

Anybody have ideas on how the clean up massive amounts of broken glass in lawns?

So sorry to see the damage to the home - I hope restoration and clean up goes smoothly.

[NenaE]

This house at Bacliff designed and built in 1951 by Houston architect Harold Weisinger suffered major damage. Luckily it is owned by his son, a historic preservationists, who is already in restoration.

Taken in August 2008 at night -

Taken 9/14 -

Taken in 1953 -

Taken 9/14 -

Anybody have ideas on how the clean up massive amounts of broken glass in lawns?

Beautiful home, what a shame, know it will rebound. First thing that comes to mind about the lawn is to carefully pick up large pieces with good thick leather gloves, maybe large shop vac for small pieces, then a thin layer of sand for covering other small pieces. Probably best to consult a glass installation specialist about it ( I imagine they would have the proper tools), since you will need them anyway.

[BenH]

Jason tells me that the mods on Briar Hollow Lane are ok.

This house at Bacliff designed and built in 1951 by Houston architect Harold Weisinger suffered major damage. Luckily it is owned by his son, a historic preservationists, who is already in restoration.

Taken in August 2008 at night -

Taken 9/14 -

Taken in 1953 -

Taken 9/14 -

Anybody have ideas on how the clean up massive amounts of broken glass in lawns?

Probably a lawn vacuum.

http://www.drpower.com/TwoStepDualCategory...awnVacDual2Step

[Pokeyhawk]

Anybody know what happened in Glenbrook Valley? Did it flood?

[Willowisp]

Hey all,

Yes, all is good in my neighborhood... We rode it out at home and cuddled in the hallway with Jake, the dog. I prayed a lot that night, and slept very little, and the "spirit of Jenkins and Hoover" seemed to have come through for us and protected the house. We cleaned up a lot of branches and may decide to cut the big Arizona Ash down as it's pretty well dead anyway and I don't want to risk it next time.

Jenkins Second house down the street had a tree fall on their new gutter system, so that's going to be some insurance issue. They lost that tree and lots of banana trees and such in the back.

Everyone else in my area seemed to have the same thing where it was just tree issues, and for that we are thankful.

I have driven over to the Owsley and Carter House and they look fine too. Drove over to Institute Ln and that's good. Parade of Homes in Meyerland are all good.

I'm still out of power but have the week off. I'm at the library which has free internet and have been able to charge up the computer here, so it's not that bad. The cool weather is what my house is designed for, so it has been nice living the simple life and I haven't even really missed the tv except for Mad Men and The Shield and the Astros and the NFL and... Well, never mind. I need my tv back on. But opening the doors and windows and reading books have been great for my psyche.

I'm thinking and praying for all the people who didn't fare as well and hoping we can all stay calm if the temps go up before the power goes on.

Jason

[Happy Historian]

Glass cleanup - after consulting with a few experienced glass companies here and having concerns for all the little ones that want to run again there in bare feet, we have decided on a two step process. Step 1 is to rake and pickup all large pieces immediately to a construction dumpster. Step two will be after all construction and heavy machinery have completed, I will take a box blade on the tractor and remove the the lawn and top inches of soil, regrade, finish with bank sand/topsoil mix, and resod. All the landscaping against the house was stripped away by the storm anyway and the salt water has killed most of the grass. B

[stolitx]

Anybody know what happened in Glenbrook Valley? Did it flood?

No serious flooding in Glenbrook that I know of. But this storm seemed to be more wind than rain. There was high water where Stoney Dell and Santa Elena meet, but that is flooded during any rain and usually runs into several houses' garages that are below street level. It does apprea that a sewer line may have broken in that area.

We were worried about flooding since early Friday Sims bayou was flowing backwards with storm surge already pushing back. But it held the water just fine.

Like most of Houston, tons and tons of trees down. Still no power except in a handful of lucky houses. I'm one of those lucky houses. I lost all my fences, some siding and the large driveway gate. That gate survived the other big storms to hit Houston, but toppled over during Ike. They don't make them like that anymore so I'm sad to see it laying in a pile of debris.

Toulouse's house and his Kit Kat Lounge survived. His huge, huge, huge oak tree in the yard didn't survive but luckily it fell away from the house. I think most of the Glenbrook haifers came through with just downed trees, limbs and fences. A couple had trees/limbs land on the house. But everyone is ok.

It was a long night for all of us, we were texting and emailing to each other's cell phones throughout the night. Now we keep each other company and those of us with eletricity are sharing our conveniences and cold beer/wine.

[NenaE]

No serious flooding in Glenbrook that I know of. But this storm seemed to be more wind than rain. There was high water where Stoney Dell and Santa Elena meet, but that is flooded during any rain and usually runs into several houses' garages that are below street level. It does apprea that a sewer line may have broken in that area.

We were worried about flooding since early Friday Sims bayou was flowing backwards with storm surge already pushing back. But it held the water just fine.

Like most of Houston, tons and tons of trees down. Still no power except in a handful of lucky houses. I'm one of those lucky houses. I lost all my fences, some siding and the large driveway gate. That gate survived the other big storms to hit Houston, but toppled over during Ike. They don't make them like that anymore so I'm sad to see it laying in a pile of debris.

Toulouse's house and his Kit Kat Lounge survived. His huge, huge, huge oak tree in the yard didn't survive but luckily it fell away from the house. I think most of the Glenbrook haifers came through with just downed trees, limbs and fences. A couple had trees/limbs land on the house. But everyone is ok.

It was a long night for all of us, we were texting and emailing to each other's cell phones throughout the night. Now we keep each other company and those of us with eletricity are sharing our conveniences and cold beer/wine.

Good to know Glenbrook came thru OK. There are some beautiful old trees there. One of my favorite houses sits at the bottom of that gully at Stony Dell, no doubt that garage had water in it.

[BenH]

That's sad to see...I'm sure most of the mods in the Galveston area are damaged in some way.

I hate to report this, because it's one of my favorite houses, but the Lasher house at 203 Timberwilde by Galveston architect Thomas M. Price suffered major damage to the porte-cochere, it's defining exterior feature. I didn't want to take a picture when I went by this morning, as people are suspicious enough right now.

To get a scope of the damage, imagine one of those trees falling parallel to the house and landing right in the middle of the porte-cochere, basically wrapping the tree like a hot dog. If that's what happened (there was no tree there this morning), I'm sure it could be rebuilt, but its sobering to see that kind of damage to a structure that seemed so solid. (I'm not old enough to remember Hurricane Alicia)

An update on this house: It looks like the concrete screen in the front survived the tree impact unscathed. They've removed the damaged porte-cochere, and things don't look quite as bad as they did. It shouldn't take much to rebuild.