Update

Wanted to give y'all an update. Mark spoke to a neighbor of ours back in Beaumont as well as a couple people who work at the Exxon chemical plant and refinery. They said the city looks like Rita occurred all over again. Trees are down and power lines lay everywhere. All power is out across the whole town. No clue when it will be restored. Will likely have a problem with water retention in the city. They said winds were around 100 mph last night. They're still over 50 mph currently. Downtown is 9 ft under water. Flooding prevents anyone from getting into the plant to assess any damage, so we're waiting on that news.

Our neighbor said there is no flooding yet to our neighborhood. From what he see's, there's minimal damage to our home's structure, but our fence is toast. May be shingle damage and not sure if rain blew in. If he can, he's going to go into our home later to assess any other damage. Our neighbor had rain blow under his front door, etc. Rain may have blewn through the vents and into the attic. Their fence is down and their really large wooden play structure secured in the ground by concrete, blew across the yard and knocked down the fence.

All that being said, we're still waiting to hear from management what Mark needs to do and when he'll need to come back. He was given a hologram card that would allow him back into the city, because he is with petrochemicals. But, madison and I would not be able to come in. Madison, Tyson our cat, Sarah and myself will likely fly to Portland to stay with my family for an undetermined amount of time. We'll be able to make that decision in a couple days. Mark, obviously, wouldn't be able to stay in our home, but Exxon will provide a place for the few hundred people considered "critical employees" to stay. After Rita, they provided a cruise ship for employees to sleep on. They may likely do that again this time. I'm not kidding! And no, this is not your nice Carnival cruise line ship you may be imagining right now. :)

So things are still up in the air, but I'll update this site to keep you posted as we get more info. It's raining and windy in Dallas, but not bad at all. We're very lucky to have a hotel room. A manager at our hotel was saying how long the wait list is for any cancellations. Talk soon.