South Padre, before the storms started...and after

I have hundreds of pictures, and many of them are from the first few days of travel, spending the night in Austin, and then a day and night in San Antonio. I'll get to those later. For now, I'm starting with the South Padre pictures, taken Monday through today.

First day on the beach:

When the hurricane warning was announced, businesses started shutting down and boarding up. Most people left; we're the only family left in our condo. The Queen Isabella Causeway is now closed, due to hurricane winds. It's the only bridge into the city.

The sky looked pretty ominous yesterday evening...

and it started to storm last night...

This morning, when we woke up around 6:30 am, the storm was in full gear.

We spent some time on one of the patios, during a break in the harshest weather.

Below, the rain was so hard, it was impossible to see down the street. The winds pushed us back against the wall. A street sign flew off, singles came off of the house across from us, and the neighbors next to us lost their fence. Our power went out for several hours, came back, and went off again. I doubt we'll keep it through the night, as the storm gets worse and worse. When Hurricane Alex makes landfall in Mexico, they are predicting a major storm surge here. As they say, "you haven't see anything yet!"

Please pray for safety, power, and that our vehicles won't flood.

We're safe on the second level, but our cars are not. We have plenty of food, water, flashlights, and we're enjoying this memorable family time.