Wink Adams’s family is fine after Hurricane Ike

By Rob Miech

Monday, Sept. 15, 2008 | 5:48 p.m.

About 16 hours passed before UNLV senior guard Wink Adams talked with his mother, Reandre – known as “Mama Wink” to everyone in Houston – late Saturday night.

“It was good to hear her voice, to make sure she’s OK,” said Wink Adams. “We talked right before the storm, then we couldn’t talk for a long time. There was no power, so they couldn’t charge their cell phone.”

Hurricane Ike had wreaked its havoc, leaving Wink Adams’s grandmother’s house among its estimated $22 billion in damage.

But his grandmother, Bea, his mother and his brother, Jarvis, are fine.

“My grandma got the worst of it,” Wink Adams said. “The roof of her house caved in and water got inside. The house is totaled. There’s so much damage. I feel bad for that, but as long as she’s OK.”

Adams had just finished practicing Monday afternoon – UNLV can conduct limited team workouts until practice officially starts Oct. 17 – when he was asked how his relatives weathered Ike.

They did not evacuate, Adams said, because they had no place to go or relatives outside Houston to stay with.

He said his grandmother had planned to ride out the hurricane in her home. But Reandre Adams, who lives 10 miles away, picked up Bea about 15 minutes before the eye of Ike passed through town.

They and Jarvis rode out the storm in Reandre’s second-floor apartment.

“I was real nervous,” Wink Adams said. “I watched the Weather Channel all day. That storm was humongous. All I could think about was my family, but they’re OK.

“I’ve been there for a couple of hurricanes, but they weren’t major. The wind blows, but it never tore anything up. They say it was the worst since 1985.”

Ike smashed Galveston before ripping through Houston. Friends have told Adams that hotels and gas stations were charging double their normal prices.

“Right now,” Adams said, “Houston is not the place to be.”