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.
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.
Since moving to Houston 16 years ago, and have witnessed a lot of destruction from tropical storms and hurricanes. We have always been blessed in that most of this has been from news reports on TV, or helping others in our area who have been flooded. 2005, however, was very different for our family. After watching the destruction of Hurricane Katrina, we were a little nervous when Hurricane Rita came into the Gulf of Mexico and continued to move towards Texas. Living in the hurricane zone is an interesting thing. You watch the storms as they are tracked each night on the news. Sometimes it looks like it will head right for you, but it always seems to turn and hit someone else. Rita was no different. We watched for several days wondering if the projected path for Rita would stay on line and miss the Houston area, or if it would turn and hit us. As the storm drew closer, the fear of what might happen increased. But we continued to hope that once again the storm would not affect us.
As time went on, it looked more and more likely that Rita would make landfall close our area. After several days of waiting and watching, I finally got around to taking stock of our food supplies. I have always struggled with keeping my food storage at constant levels as I am really good at rotating my canned goods out, but not so good at replacing them. Once again, this was the case. Although we had plenty of staples like rice, oats and flour, my canned goods were very low. Unfortunately, I had now waited too long to do this and by the time I went to the store, the shelves were empty. It was the eeriest feeling to walk up and down the isles at places like Wal-Mart and Costco and see 95% of the shelves empty. It was just like scenes I have seen many times on TV--there were no canned goods, no cereal, no bread. The bottled water was mostly gone, and what was left was extremely expensive. At the first store, I got a little nervous. After the third, I was starting to panic. At the fourth store, I found some spaghettios and tuna, so that is what I bought. I knew we would be ok--we had gassed up all our vehicles as well as a couple of 5 gallon gas cans to use in our chainsaw (which Greg had purchased in preparation for this storm), we had wood to cover our largest windows, we had our 72 hr. kits, we filled our water barrels, and we had enough food to get us by--but it was extremely scary to know that there was no way to increase our supplies. And I felt extremely stupid for not preparing sooner.
We continued to watch the news to see how the storm was progressing. They began evacuating Galveston and the coastal cities, which turned the highways into parking lots. People were sitting in the cars for hours and not making any progress. They continued to run their engines because the temperatures were around 100 and they needed the air conditioning. Because of this, many ran out of gas on the highway. We watched closely, thinking this meant we would definitely stay put as there seemed to be little hope of being able to evacuate. This, however changed when it was announced that Rita was expected to hit Galveston as a category 5 storm. This meant winds of more than 155 mph and a very high storm serge. The last storm to hit Galveston was Hurricane Alicia in 1983, which was a category 3 storm. Its winds were high enough to blow out windows in sky scrappers in downtown Houston--which is about 50 miles away. We live 20 miles north of Houston, but knew that a direct hit on Galveston by category 5 storm would cause some severe damage in our area. We sat with our children trying to decide what to do, when we got a call from our Bishop saying our Stake President had sent out word encouraging everyone who could evacuate to do so. We started boarding up our windows and trying to come up with a plan. My husband Greg was in the bishopric at the time and wanted me to take the kids to Austin while he stayed in Houston to help with the clean up after the storm. But as we talked about it, we felt like the best thing would be for our family to stay together. So we loaded up my van with our 72 hr. kits, our portable water and all of our photos and scrapbooks. My husband planned to return to Houston once the storm had made landfall in order to help with the clean up, so he loaded his truck with his chainsaw gear and the extra gas and we evacuated in two vehicles.
