Sep 13, 2008 6:57 pm US/Central
Houston Mother Watches Ike From Minn.
(WCCO)
Hurricane Ike might have been downgraded to a tropical storm, but folks down south are still feeling Mother Nature's wrath.
Sara Davenport has been anxious watching the storm damage in Texas, knowing her family is living through it. She's amazed at the video coming from downtown Houston.
"Houston has a ton of high rises. I think the biggest shock is when you see this and there are so many windows that are blown out. Nobody thought that this was going to happen in Houston downtown," said Davenport.
She's attending a conference in Minneapolis and has only received a few text messages from her husband.
"He said the electricity had just gone out. He, my three kids, my two dogs spent the night in a closet," said Davenport.
Davenport lives in a suburb near Houston and outside the mandatory evacuation area. They thought they'd be far enough away from the coast to avoid major damage and so did many others in Houston.
"It was played up, but it was... people thought they'd be OK. Category two. They've seen category four," explained Davenport.
Even an hour inland, Davenport's mother in-law had some scary moments.
"She had branches come through huge windows, shattering glass all throughout her downstairs. That's an hour inland. people thought they were safe that far in, but this storm is as big as Texas," said Davenport.
Davenport was a television reporter and anchor and covered Hurricane Rita. She thinks that evacuation nightmare kept people home.
"People got stuck in traffic for 12 hours, 18 hours. People died with their older relatives in the car. It was a crazy, crazy scenario," said Davenport.
Though the main storm event is over for Houston, she knows from experience, the next few weeks could be even worse.
"The hardest thing is the fact that there is no electricity. It's 95 degrees. You can't get out of town because there are limbs everywhere and trees everywhere. What do they do?" said Davenport.
Davenport's family is OK, but her home may have some roof damage.
She said another big concern after the storm is how much floodwaters will rise.
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