I know that it’s been a couple of months now that Hurricane Ike came and went but I never did write about it. Even though most of you have been told this story a thousand times, I still feel that I should put in print because in a year, I will have forgotten all the details about that time. I’m sure even now, I’ve forgotten quite a bit.
We chose not to evacuate for a few reasons. Beau wasn’t going to leave the house. I didn’t want to travel alone with the girls. And the traffic was too insane. I was supposed to have a “girls’ weekend” that weekend with Gina & Heather but at the last minute, I backed out because I just couldn’t imagine leaving Beau alone with the girls. Even though it was a Cat 2 storm, it was
We were let out of work early on Thursday and Friday, we spent the day preparing for the storm. We had pretty much done everything we thought at the time that needed to be done to prepare. We had cars with full tanks of gas, plenty of drinking water and we filled the bathtubs full just in case we needed water to flush the toilets. We also (thought we) stocked up on enough food to get us through no electricity. However, when it really happened, we realized that no – we didn’t have enough food. We had junk and it’s not the same when you are really hungry. Next time – we will make sure to get a generator!
We put Emily in her room that night and Madi slept in bed with me. Madi’s room was next to a few really large trees and we didn’t want to risk them falling on her room. Beau stayed in the living room with the only flashlight in the house (we also know to buy more flashlights and a LOT more batteries next time). Sometime after midnight, we lost power. I’m guessing it was around 2:00 a.m. but I’m not sure about the exact time. All I know is I just kept hearing Christina saying – if you lose power, expect to be without it for 2 weeks. So, I was done. I was up and couldn’t go back to sleep. So, I went to the living room to hang out with Beau and listen to the wind and respond to text messages and phone calls from friends. By 4 or 5, Beau decided if I was going to stay up, he was going to bed. I feel asleep around 6:00 and by 8:00, my phone was blowing up. So, I jumped up to look outside – hurricane is still going strong and our big pine in the front yard is laying on its side narrowly missing our mailbox. I go wake Beau up and he runs around looking at the trees and he sees that one is about to fall on our house. He goes outside to look and it’s being held up by the power lines. The girls and I clear out of the house and head over to the neighbors house. Beau and the guys from our block tie a chain around the tree. Beau drives his tahoe over to apartment side of the fence and they tie the chain to his car. Tracey gives Beau one warning, you know that if you pull this tree, it could land on you. I guess it was worth the risk because they start cutting and Beau guns the car and the tree falls miraculously the perfect direction not hurting anyone or anything except the fence. I really cringe thinking how close it came to probably hurting someone. Those guys were really brave to do that. All things considered – we were very lucky. No damage to our house or property and the fence was the apartment’s and they took care of fixing it.
The most important thing that happened during this storm was the amount of bonding we did with our neighbors. I know it sounds really cheesey to say but you really learn who your friends are during something like this. We have the best neighbors in the world. Everyone really pulled together to get all of the trees cut down and the yards back in as much order as possible. We are finally back to normal, minus a few trees.
Till next time...
xoxo
1 comment:
I still cant believe how scary that was. After living in TX for so long you almost begin to think hurricanes weren't that bad. But wow, when they really hit, they hit hard!
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