As many of you already know, Hurricane/Tropical Storm Ike was devastating to the Texas Coast and left a trail of destruction as it traveled north. I cannot speak of any damage firsthand other than what it did here in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. In the very early hours of Sunday morning the Ike met up with very strong Canadian cold front. We experienced very strong straight line wind and torrential down pours for several hours.
At 6:30 in the morning as the first rays of sunshine started to light the sky, I surveyed the damage. Driving down Main St (HWY 23 North) was a chore in itself. There was a mixture of deep runoff (around 8 inches deep) and a huge amount of debris in the roadway. Trees were blown down and many of them were laying across power lines. Most all of Eureka Springs and surrounding areas were without power.
Even now at around 2:00pm many places are still without power. Some areas won’t have power until Wednesday at the very earliest. Cleaning up is going to take a very long time and it will take months if not years to recover from this. I know that we were pretty luck for the most part. Other areas were hit much harder. And though we are thankful for our luck we have the thoughts of those who were not so lucky in our minds.
