Friday, September 12, 2008

Ike.

Hurricane Ike is approaching the Houston area and we've decided to stay here and ride out the storm. The city is encouraging those who have not been asked to evacuate to stay and allow those who need to, to leave the city. We live on the west side and are expecting high winds and a lot of rain. For the most part everything is closed today, including Wal-mart and Home Depot. We already had enough water and food stored, but we made a quick trip to the grocery store last night to grab whole milk for Carter and some fresh fruit and hot dogs to tide us over for the weekend. Our plan today was to finish laundry and the dishes, move everything outside of the house into the garage and pack a small bag just in case we have to pick up and leave. We do have 72 hour kits, but being pregnant, mine could use some updating. So I plan to throw some clothes for Carter and I into a separate bag. Mike is in the process of filling up the bath tubs with water, another just in case thing. I have our bags now packed and by the door. Both cars are full of gas and hopefully I've packed enough snacks for Carter in case we end up taking off for Oklahoma to stay with Bryan and Nikki. We're hoping the storm doesn't do too much damage and at the most we are planning to be without power for a few days (but praying that we won't have to deal with power outages with the Houston humidity.) The storm should hit tonight, so we're planning to have Carter and the dogs sleep in the room with us, just in case.
For the past two days there has been nothing on TV but live Hurricane coverage. This alone would make anyone have anxiety about the storm. It seems a little extreme to me to show nothing but the same thing over and over again, almost like they are trying to scare people. So today, while we were checking off tasks to prepare I've had this eerie feeling. The calm before the storm. It was a beautiful day, bright and sunny this morning and not real humid. If we hadn't have known the storm was coming I'm sure we'd all go about our business. Instead, neighbors have been boarding up their houses and everyone has been in a mad dash to get ready. How lucky are we to live in the world now with technology to prepare us for natural disasters like hurricanes. I also know that not every natural disaster can be predicted and we are fortunate to have been able to plan for Ike. Am I little nervous? I'd be lying if I said no. But am I grateful to have been warned and able to prepare as much as we could before hand... definitely. Ike is going to leave a mark on the Texas gulf coast without a doubt, our prayer is that as many people as possible will be prepared and will be safe. Keep our area in your prayers. We'll keep you posted as much as we can, if we're lucky enough to make it through the night with power.
Here's a picture of the mad house at Kroger. All lines were open with over 15 people in each line. Absolute craziness.
Here's the water aisle at Wmart. Mike said the only thing left was some fancy carbonated water. Notice Carter with spoon in hand, eating a nutri grain bar, he loves these and pounds about three a day. It's the only thing he wants for breakfast anymore.
The neighbors house across the street. It took them literally all day to board up the house and each time I looked out the window he added another person to help.
Here's another house kiddie corner from our house. They worked on boarding the house last night and all day today, yet only managed to board three of the seven windows out front. Oh, and they parked all four of their cars outside instead of in the garage- Just like our neighbors with the white SUV you can see. Really? Here's a picture of the sky tonight. It was gorgeous- the calm before the storm.



7 comments:

Jeanette said...

All the news coverage has been insane and nerve racking. I was amazed when they said 40% of Galveston residents DID NOT evacuate. WHAT?!!

Hoping and praying you weather the storm with no damage and don't loose power.

Heather said...

Oh all that news had to be nerve racking! I am thinking of all of you and you're in my prayers.

lynette said...

stay safe as you "hunker down"!
were the freeways as congested as last time?

Jana Dille said...

I'm so glad you gave us an update, it said Houston on the news and I said to Joe, "your cousin lives there, I gotta check their blog" I'm glad to hear that so far you are doing great. It's nice to have those 72 hour kits and some food storage for times like these.
We're praying for you guys!

Kathy said...

I was just saying to Brian last night that I was wondering if you guys were going to evac. You are in our prayers and I'm glad you are prepared as possible. Love you all

Cody and Jessie said...

I hope everything went as well as it could yesterday. That's great that you guys are so prepared for a time like this. I couldn't believe the picture of the empty water isle at Walmart!

Noel Family said...

We'll keep you in our prayers!