The verdict is in and it's not good.

The beach neighbors got a helicopter and flew in to the beach on Sunday. They sent my dad some pictures of the house...and it is bad. Like, made me cry, bad.

My dad was able to talk his way down there yesterday in his truck and said it was the "most surreal thing" he had ever seen. The town is like a war zone. An the front side of the house didn't fare nearly as well as the back. The front walls are gone as well as about half of the floors in the house. Dad was able to take a ladder up and salvage quite a bit of stuff that was in the back portion of the house.

I will post some pictures that he took once he gets them uploaded and sent to me. These pictures are some that the neighbor took from the ground.

Our place on the left and the neighbors to the right.

No more deck or walls or floor

Again...you can see the kitchen is still there at the very back!

Even the foundation was washed out from under.

Looking up into the great room from the ground

Looking up where the master bedroom was into the master bathroom.

All of this is still very hard to fathom. Like I said I will post more once I get them. The ones my dad took should be really good since he climbed up there. My dad suggested having a goodbye party at the beach to tell the house bye...I will let you know!!

Crystal Beach...

I know that everybody has already heard all they can stand about the recent hurricane...and I have cried all I can over it. My dad lives primarily in Crystal Beach. He has a beach front home there, as well as a rental house, and his branch of Chicago Title. Ike wasn't too kind to the Bolivar Peninsula and no one has been allowed to go down there yet to survey their homes.

On Monday, I was able to find an updated satellite images site that confirmed to us that dad's house was still standing!!

This site had all of us feeling very blessed. Our neighbors...to the left on this image...have absolutely nothing left of their house! I still can't fathom how random the damage can be! We were able to see a picture of another house on the front row just down from dad's and it didn't look so good from the beach side.It is amazing to see that the slab is cracked and the sand is gone from under it. The front of the house has literally been pulled off. Only time will tell what the front side of our home looks like.


This picture is the once green and beautiful neighborhood. From this photo, we were able to see that the beautiful front deck (that is shown in my header) is gone. But for the most part the rest of the house looks good from the back...my dad's design held up well.

Dad's rental house is now non-existent and his office has been hollowed out. The windows, furniture, documents, and offices are gone...but the building is still standing. Hopefully everyone on the peninsula is given to opportunity to rebuild!


While we are glad to see that our house is still standing and overjoyed to think that we will be able to go and retrieve items and memories from inside the house, we are devastated at the damage that has been done to the wonderful community of Crystal Beach. My dad has many friends who have lost everything. We also know that some people lost their lives. It is hard to fathom that in the course of one storm entire neighborhoods can be gone...And that one storm can cause such great damage to a place that so many from Southeast Texas have enjoyed for decades.

My dad went to a meeting yesterday in Winnie for residents of the peninsula and they were told that in the next 10-14 days that would be escorting residents in for a short period of time to salvage what they could and secure what is left. Hopefully in the days and weeks to come more information will come out and more can be known about the future of the peninsula. Keep the residents and their families in your prayers and pray especially that those who are missing will be located.

I found one last picture to share of a beautiful Crystal Beach sunset. This is a great juxtaposition of the beauty of the area with the destruction of the storm.
I will try to update more often and post more information as I get it. This has been very humbling for me to see how truly blessed I am to have what I have. I am grateful for my life, my family, and all the wonderful things that we enjoy. I am also so grateful for the many beautiful memories that I have had at this wonderful beach. Dad...thanks for being the most positive person through all of this and yet the most affected...I love you.

This is a good slideshow of the damage.