We took a trip over to the Heights today at lunch to see how the historic neighborhood was faring five days after Hurricane Ike. The Heights, like many other older neighbohoods in Houston, was badly battered by the high winds and tornados that Ike produced. The incredible wealth of beautiful old live oak and pecan trees in the neighborhood only gave Ike additional fodder during its destructive rampage.
Driving down I-10 towards the Heights, the first thing we noticed was that most billboards are still hanging in limp, ragged shreds from their metal structures. Far from seeming sad, the lack of advertisements along the freeway actually improved the view, although it's too much to hope that the billboard companies will leave them empty.
Turning onto Studewood, we were pleased to see that the intersection of Studewood and White Oak is as busy as ever: gas stations open, Fitzgerald's still intact (which, given the questionable integrity of the structure to begin with, frankly surprises us) and the small ice houses playing host to local residents, landscaping crews and police officers.
Heading north on Studewood, we quickly came upon one of our favorite burger joints: Someburger. A roof made slightly wonky from the high winds did nothing to deter the hungry masses. It was just another busy Thursday afternoon along 11th Street.
Want to check out the rest of the tour? It's after the jump...
Heading on to White Oak, we passed another popular restauarant: Onion Creek. Despite numerous power lines dangling above and swaying lazily in the breeze, the restaurant and its shady patio were as packed as ever.
Just down the street from Onion Creek lay a house in distress. Piles of branches covered its lawn and curbs. Part of the roof was covered with a blue tarp. Power lines hung dangerously, all around the side of the house. The desperate owners had resorted to making a sign aimed squarely at CenterPoint Energy:
If the sign is a success, homeowners, make sure and let us know. Although we admire the ingenuity, we have to doubt its efficacy.
Reaching Heights Boulevard, we drove past Marmion Park, which you can see in a "before" picture here. Today, the massive magnolia trees that line the entrance to the park lay obliterated on the ground. One giant limb is spread across the gazebo, with many more littering the ground and street. A local resident was still making good use of the park and the nice weather, though, laying in the gazebo and reading a book.
Driving east again, we came across this mansion on Harvard Street. Trees are missing from the front yard and the normally tidy and well-kept lawn is currently a debris field, with branches and limbs stacked so high on one side of the lawn that it blocks half of the street.
Its neighbor on the other side of the street is another Victorian mansion. However, this mansion appears to have had the opposite problem: the trees seem as if they were sucked towards the house, with many of them still resting on the house. Very little work has been done yet to clean the debris.
In the Norhill District, the bungalows were almost obscured by the piles of limbs and branches that were piled out front:
And in the grassy esplanades along Norhill Avenue, entire trees lay quietly and undignified across the lawns, as yet untouched by chainsaws.
In many areas, power lines still littered the streets. While we saw many U.S. mail trucks, AT&T trucks, FedEx trucks and even Comcast trucks during our drive around the Heights this afternoon, we didn't see a single power crew or CenterPoint truck.
At this house in Woodland Heights, a fallen tree limb had badly damaged the roof and knocked over the brick chimney. But the overall structural damage to a good 95% of the homes seemed minimal.
Most damage, in fact, seemed to be limited to minor inconveniences (aside from the damage to the power lines, of course):
Perhaps this could usher in a return to the old corner street sign trend?
Either way, Houstonist was relieved to find one of its favorite -- and one of the city's oldest -- neighborhoods mostly unscathed. Despite an absence of power in most areas, the Heights seems to be returning to normal, picking itself up, dusting itself off and getting back on its feet in true Houston style.
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Stay tuned to Houstonist for more Ike photos in the coming days.
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Onion Creek isn't on 11th St., m'dear. It's on White Oak!
Nice post, though. I'm going to send it to my mama so that she can see that my neighborhood fared a-okay ;)
Thanks, Fayza! I've corrected it. I was in such a hurry to get this up, I'm surprised that's the only typo so far... :D
Thank you for posting this information. I moved out of the Norhill District at the end of August as a job relocated me to Florida. I've been searching for information and pictures about how Ike had affected my beloved Houston Heights. I'm pleased to see the damage is minimal. However, the loss of so many trees is sad to see.
http://beardshalls.blogspot.com/2008/09/privacy-of-strangers.html
Amy, I'm sorry this article upset you. But as I commented to you on your own blog, that wasn't my intention. The only thing that interested me about your house (aside from the fact that it's beautiful) is how oddly all the trees seemed to be angled towards your house -- just like I stated above. And I obviously had no way of knowing whose house that was (unless I was being completely nosy and decided to go looking up HCAD records).
I hope that you'll read my explanation here and at your blog and see that it wasn't my intention to upset anyone with these photos. It was just a little documentation, post-storm, of a popular neighborhood.