Oh my. We finally got power back.
Woke up this morning around 6am and there was no power. It went out around 3am. Wind was howling and rain was heavy. From what I gather, the eye of the storm passed by fairly close and we were on the dirty (east) side of it, so we got the worst of the wind.
Mature (~30 years old) Live Oak in my front yard dropped two 10-12' branches (safely on the ground). There is a 3rd branch broken but still hanging sadly from the tree. We lost one section of our back yard fence and one downspout from our gutters was laying in our front flower bed (fully intact and not twisted/bent, so I should be able to hook it back up later).
My veggie garden in the back yard got wrecked. Frames and stuff were blown all over. Scotch Bonnet pepper plant looks completely unscathed, however, and has 4-5 peppers ready for harvest. That plant is going strong.
I got our generator out of the shed and tried to crank it up, but that was a no go. It didn't even come close to ignition. I'm guessing the fuel line is gunked up even though I had tested it (run it) a year ago. I was getting a bit concerned that we might not have power this evening and food in the fridges/freezers might spoil. 13 hours without power isn't too bad all things considered.
We also lost cell phone reception (5G internet was a no go). I guess the closest cell towers were knocked out. My son and I drove over to check on my brother (lives about 15 minutes away) and he was also very lucky with just a few tree branches lost and no major damage. On the drive, we saw a lot of fences blown down and an unbelievable amount of tree debris everywhere. Tree debris in every yard and every street. There were tree branches broken off of almost every mature tree in the area and many mature trees were just blown over (roots pointing to the sky).
Neighbor across the street from my brother had a Live Oak branch that was about 2' in diameter break. The branch had grown over the roof of the house, but because of the direction of the wind, the branch had been bent backwards towards the street, broke and fell onto the trunk of the tree. It was gnarly to look at and I would have taken a picture if I weren't concerned about my cell phone battery power. That huge branch is going to be a huge PITA to chop up and remove.
I spent about 3 hours cleaning up the debris from my front yard and I still have the two large branches to break down, but they will have to wait for another day. My lower back is telling me I'm done for today.
I seem to recall there were a few members here also in the Houston area. I hope y'all made it through without trouble.