Ike Story - 9/23/2008

I have gotten a few e-mails from people around the country asking how I am doing and how it was to go through Hurricane Ike. 

First of all I guess I should write about the day of the storm.  I had the day off as my office was closed.  I went to the grocery store and bought alot of canned foods, snacks, bottled water, dog food, etc.  Not much, the bill was under 30 bucks.  I sat at home looking at hurricane coverage on TV.  First thing I noticed was that it was about 10 AM and it was already flooding in Galveston.  That was an onimous sign already.  But locally, not much was going on.  Perfect sunny day with light winds.  That changed around 2 or 3, the winds picked up bigtime.  I went outside to catch a view of everything.  Becoming partly cloudy, but nothing out of the ordinary. 

Around 5, the winds were constantly high and gusting to out of the ordinary speeds.  Little did I know on the other side of town lights were already going out.  The rain in my area started late, around 11.  I live about 90 miles from the coast, so I didn't think things would be bad.  Well, around 12 the winds were tropical storm level and the rain was nonstop.  Amazingly I still had power and cable TV was working fine.  Everything stayed going until 2:30am, the lights went off for good after blinking a couple of times.  I had a lantern, flashlight and radio, so I started listening to the local newstalk radio.  They had people calling in giving updates from around the city.  Some were scared crap-less, some were actually calling from outside, some were actually driving around the city during the storm. 

I wasn't really scared, I didn't think the house would blow away, but I was worried about something hitting the windows or windows blowing out.  So I kept away from the windows, but listened to the radio the entire time.  From the hours of 4am to 6am we had the highest winds of the storm in my area.  Could really feel the home standing up to the winds at that time.  The rain continued north of Houston until 11AM.  Most of the city stopped getting rain hours before.  No damage to my house at all.  But a week and a half later I still have no power at the the house with no real idea of when that will happen. 

It was an intense night, but considering my house is still brand new I hoped it would last and it did. 

Hurricane Ike - 9/17/2008

I have just got to some power and able to write.  I am fine, the house is fine, Petey is fine.  Everyone in my family made it through it unscarred.  The night of the storm may have been the most nervous I have been.  I hesitate to use the word "scared".  I thought my house would withstand the winds, but I was really nervous something would hit the windows and break them.  Around 4:30AM the winds picked up to an amazing speed, the howling got incredibly loud.  At that point I was ready for windows to blow out or something.  It turns out that a tornado touched down not too far from my house and destroyed some trees in the front of my neighborhood.  No houses were damaged, but many old trees are now uprooted.

At this point I have no power at the house.  Today I cleaned out the fridge of decaying food and cleaned the fridge surface for germs.  The neighborhood streets are full of kids riding bikes, playing games, etc.  Reminded me of myself during the aftermath of Hurricane Alicia.  Nothing to do but go out and play.  A couple of night ago we had a street grill night.  Everyone brought some food and we ate.  It was cool to get to know your neighbors better. Even though in one case, we all wished that knowledge had kept itself hidden.  The next day my parents got power, so I headed there with Petey.  Been there every since.  Not sure how long I will be here.  I am hoping to get power soon at my house so I can go back to that building I have been paying monthly for.  Nothing like sleeping in your own bed.  Petey has loved this visit.  He is getting all kinds of attention and loves the stairs here at my parents house.  Though I do think he misses our house.  Atleast I would like to think so.