I weathered out Claudette in my bay house on Washington near the Little Jetties. Having been in many hurricanes and the eyes of two (including Celia) previous to this one I was interested in observing the storm surge from Matagorda Bay. Of course I didn't expect Claudette to strengthen to a Cat 2 storm at landfall either. But it was a very interesting day, to say the least. I won't go into the life threatening situation I found myself in here but it involved wading through the storm surge during the eyewall and maneuvering floating pilings around beneath my house in 100 mph winds and 3 foot surging bay waters.
    The reason I found myself in that situation was because I bailed out of my house to move to a neighbor's new home on concrete pilings thinking it to be safer. I couldn't take my camera because it would get ruined so I didn't get any shots during the first eyewall event which lasted about 30 or 40 minutes. The eye moved in about 10:40 a.m. and lasted until almost noon at which time the 'second coming' roared in with a vengeance pushing a second storm surge - from the Intracoastal Canal this time.
    Amazing wind effects on the flood waters. A lot, if not most, of the wind damage occurred on the backside of the eye. I did not notice these kind of wind vortexes, which contained very high gusts, in the first half of the storm. I was VERY concerned about these vortexes slamming into my house as I watched them ripping toward me.    ~ Ron Howard