stupid hurricane.

my dad wrote this email tonight, and since it's about sara and this is her blog, i thought y'all might like to know:

CJ called tonight while they were waiting for the fireworks to start at Epcot. They learned today that there is more damage to their house than they had originally hoped. Yesterday, a neighbor looked around and called them and told them that everything looked pretty good, no broken windows or anything, but he told them that shingles and roofing material had been blown off down to the plywood in one area. (Which, of course, makes it vulnerable to serious water leakage in a hurricane that is dropping 5 to 10 inches of rain while it is blowing at 100 mph.) He didn’t go inside.

Today, a group from the ward was going house to house to members’ homes to assess and help. They went inside CJ and Sara’s home – the neighbor had a key. There is apparently a significant amount of water damage in their home in the area where the roofing was damaged. The insulation soaked up a lot of rain water, the drywall also got wet and then it all collapsed into their large open foyer. Those of you who have been there know about the lovely foyer/entry way of their home. This is the area they had professionally painted recently. (You can look at here to see what it looked like before and after it was painted). Anyway, the ward group did some clean up and then some patching (Hopefully that means putting a tarp or some plastic sheeting over the roof area where the damage was to avoid further water damage). I expect they won’t know the full extent of the water damage until they get home and get up into their attic.

The good news was that while the ward members were working in their house, their electricity came on. So they now have a little more information about what they are going to come home to. They have not yet decided which day they will go home, but they will check with the neighbors to make sure the electricity is staying on and, if so, may start for Houston on Wednesday (it’s a 16 hour drive so it will take a couple days). Of course, they also have to make sure they can get gasoline to get there. Things all along the gulf coast are still pretty iffy – especially through the Beaumont area. CJ said they may have to go further north. He also said they may drive directly to Austin first and leave Sara and the kids there with his sister – depends on what he learns about what things are like in Manvel before they head back (stores open? gas stations open? water pressure in the homes? sewer system working?, etc.) If things are still not really functioning there, they will probably just stay in Florida another couple days. They also, of course, want to find a contractor to start repairs as soon as possible, but I expect that may take a while due to how busy insurance adjusters and contractors will be.