Preparing for Ike

Hurricane Ike continues to make its way towards us. Even though it looks more and more likely that we will be affected by this storm, it is still hard not to keep thinking that it will turn as all the other storms we have experienced while living here in Houston have. This note I sent to Joe on Sept. 9th shows how very unconcerned I was about this storm:

"There is another hurricane entering the gulf. Ike has been a pretty big storm. We'll see what it does as it moves towards us. Once again, I think this is a storm that we don't need to worry about. It looks like its going to head towards the Texas/Mexico boarder--so at the most we should get some rain. That would actually be nice--it has been a dry few weeks here."

Apparently I was wrong, and we are now making sure we are totally prepared for Ike's visit to the Houston area. Before I get into all the details of the coming of Ike, I have to make a confession. I am an emergency supply line cutter. I'm not proud of the fact that I did this (and was highly successful at obtaining two of my desired items), but feel I should include the good, the bad, and the ugly in my accounting. This one was bad and ugly--and I am truly sorry. Although I wonder if I am really repentant because I am no sure I wouldn't do it again if faced with the same situation--I think it's that ugly survival instinct again! Anyway--this is the story of how we purchased our generator:

One emergency item we have never purchased is a generator. This is a item that you really, really want if you need it. But the price tag is so high, we could never bring ourselves to get one. We even talked about it early in the week before Ike--with me actually pricing them out at Costco. But we just weren't sure we wanted to spend the money for it. Well, on Friday the 12--when it became clear we were going to get hit, Greg decide he wanted to buy one. I was sure at that point we had waited too long and there weren't going to be any left in the area. But we got in the car and drove to Loews to check it out. Lots of people buying supplies, but not a generator in sight. It was still about 30 minutes before Costco opened, but we decided to try there next. When we pulled up to the store we were shocked--there was a line that wrapped around the side of the building. I was thinking we should just go home as there was no way we would get a generator even if they had them--the line was just too long. But Greg told me to get out and get in line and he would go park. So I walked up to the front of the store and grabbed a cart. As I did this, they opened the doors and started letting people in. Now here is where hurricane panic feeds from the crowd. I was standing back from the entrance intending to wait as the people in line entered the store. But the others who were also not in line and were waiting around me instead started forming their own line and entering the store. Like a sheep I feel in step and slipped into the store well in front of people who had been waiting their turn. Sorry guys--I'm not sure what was controlling me, but I slipped to the side and worked my way to the front of the line behind a rather large stack of generators. I called Greg on my cell asking him what kind he wanted--there were smaller ones in front (the line I was in) and larger ones in back. He said he wanted the small one, came and found me--and we ended up getting 2 of them (one for us and one for the Martins. Bishop Martin had driven to Brehnam that morning looking for generators and we had the agreement that whoever found some would buy two). Any way--Greg got another cart and we loaded our two generators up, and then started walking through the store to see if there was anything else we wanted to stock up on. I was feeling pretty guilty for cutting in line and taking 2 generators (not enough to give them back, of course), but then we realized that there were plenty of them in the store that morning. They went pretty fast, but there were enough that everyone who was there when the store first opened, as well as a few that arrived after we were all inside, were able to get on if they wanted. That eased my conscience a bit--although it would have been much better to wait my turn and get one. Course I don't know how I would have felt if I had waited in line and not gotten one. I know that sounds bad, but I am just being honest!

OK--so we had the last of our emergency supplies--a new generator, four 5 gallon gas cans we filled up (tried to buy more of them but they were harder to get then generators), some new battery operated lanterns. We went home to check out the news and make the last preparations to the house.

When we got home and watch the news I was shocked by a couple of things. First of all, it was response of some of the residents of Galveston and the other coastal cities. Mandatory evacuations had been announced yesterday--but there were still a lot of people who said they weren't leaving and would ride it out at home. I think a lot of these people were remembering the evacuation for Rita and thinking this was going to be the same. But Ike is a bigger storm than Rita was--and wouldn't it be better to evacuate and not need to than to not evacuate and wish you had? Anyway, we came home and watched some news which included live video from Galveston. It was amazing to see how much the tide had risen, and how high the waves were when it was more than 12 hrs before they were predicting land fall. People were out playing in the huge waves while the streets were flooding. We saw a couple of mothers with young children say they were afraid to leave because their home might not be there when they came back. I could not comprehend this train of thinking, especially when they were risking the lives of their small children just to stay with their home. Amazing! Galveston was quickly flooded, and anyone who changed their mind about staying no longer had the option to leave. Here are some photos from the early effects of Ike, all of which were take on the 12th, before Ike made landfall:

This boy enjoyed the early surge. No idea what happened to him once Ike came ashore.

This is a memorial to the Great Storm of 1900, which killed as many of 8,000 people. It sits along the seawall of Galveston. The granite blocks around the monument were destroyed by Ike, but the monument was undamaged. Pretty amazing.

The flooding from Ike came early.

This picture was taken earlier today and shows why people who waited too long to evacuate missed their chance
Don't think this car is going anywhere soon!

Not only was there flooding in the early part of the storm, but several fires broke out. Homes were destroyed since the streets were flooded and no emergency vehicles could be sent out.

After watching the news for a while, we went out to prepare our yard for the storm. We put everything into the garage so it couldn't be blown around--the BBQ, benches, pots. Then it was time to put up the boards over our big back windows. Last time we did this, Joe and Greg did it mostly on their own. With Joe being gone on his mission, the girls and I had to help instead. Greg came up with a new system that involved a pulley and rope and it went pretty well. It wasn't a quick or particularly easy job, but we felt better knowing the bit windows we can't reach without a ladder were protected from any limbs or debris that might be flying around during the storm.

Once the windows were covered, we were as ready as we were going to be. All that was left was to wait for Ike to hit. In the calm before the storm, we enjoyed a beautiful sunset and wondered what tomorrow would look like.