My Encounter with Ike

I didn't ever write about my Hurrican Ike adventure. I feel bad because I escaped very unscathed after the storm and so many people lost so much. Recovery is ongoing and it's tough to think that my life is completely back to norman when so many people are still devastated and merely coping. Here is what I did during the Hurricane. Some of it is funny. You may think it's boring. But it's what I did.

On Wednesday before the hurricane, I was determined that I was not going anywhere. The thing that stresses me out most about the threat of a hurricane is the potential traffic jams. So, I really just wanted to watch the storm coverage in my PJ's in my house. However, by the time I left work on Wednesday I was in a panic. We had had 3or 4 meetings to try to decide what we were going to do at the plant and I became more and more frantic as the day went on. Our management team (which includes me!) decided that we had to meet at 5am on Thursday morning to make a final decision. Of course, I only had 1/4 tank of gas and there were gas lines everywhere.

So, Maradee, Mandy, and I decided we weren't going to evacuate. We're so far inland that it seems silly to leave. However, I got really stressed out and only slept 2 hours Wednesday night. At 2:45, I finally gave up and got out of bed. I decided that it would make me feel better if I had a full tank of gas and a bag of clothes just in case I couldn't go home after work on Thursday. So, I went to get gas. There are not many people at the gas station at 3:30am!! At work, we had our meeting and decided that we would stop all work for the hurricane. So, then we were in full preparation mode. I walked around the plant with a co-worker making a list of all the things that needed to be tied down or moved inside a structure. This is a surreal exercise. You are literally looking at things and saying, "That's heavy enough. 100 mph winds won't pick that up. OK, tie those other things to it now and they'll stay down, too." It's just weird!

Around 7:30 that morning, Maradee called me. Our house was in a mandatory evacuation zone due to potential storm surge from one of the bayous near us! I was totally not prepared for that. The house wasn't ready at all and I had only packed a few things. Fortunately, Maradee's school was already closed for the hurricane, so she was able to get things ready around the house and bring me some extra clothes. I was a basket case (mostly from not sleeping). Maradee planned to go to the Woodlands to stay with a family she knows from her time at Baylor. So, I invited myself along because I really did not want to drive to Louisiana! Since I was freaking out so much, I left work about 9:30 that morning and just drove up to the Woodlands. There was very little traffic and I got there around 11:00. So here I was in the Woodlands at 11:00 on a Thursday morning with nothing to do (Maradee wasn't there yet). So I went shopping at the mall. It's a really nice mall and it was very quiet. I bought some face stuff and a suitcase and some books. It was just funny that, in the middle of a hurricane evacuation, here I was at the mall!

The family we stayed with were wonderful. The dad is a chaplain at Hermann Memorial and had to go in for the hurricane ride-out crew at the hospital, so it was just Maradee & I with the mom and their 3 kids (18, 15, and 12). On Friday, we decided to go out into the traffic and get some necessities like brownies and milk (we had a pan-a-day brownie habit during the hurricane), but everywhere we went had closed just before we got there...very amusing/frustrating. We had a "last meal" at Raising Canes. We found a Target that was open and got what we needed. We also moved our cars to a parking garage so they'd at least be away from flying debris (thanks to Brent for that plan because our cars would have been toast if we'd left them on the street!). The storm hit the Woodlands around 1:00am Saturday morning. We were all staying in the living room downstairs. There wasn't an interior room in the house, so we covered the sliding glass doors with a mattress and hunkered down (a very popular term that week!). At 4:00am, we were all woken up by the transformer blowing (it sounds like a shotgun if you've never heard it). We all looked outside...it was crazy! The wind was so strong! When we laid back down, we could hear what sounded like more transformers blowing around the area. Every time, there would be a bluish light in the sky. It was eerie. And then it was very dark.

This is a crazy thing to say, but I'm kind of glad I stayed and rode out the hurricane. I've lived on the Gulf Coast for my entire life, but I've never really been through a hurricane. We were so blessed to not have been hurt, but it is crazy when the wind is blowing 90 mpg outside the window that is 4 feet away from where you are laying!

The storm didn't completely pass through the Woodlands until about noon on Saturday. The house we were at had minimal damage. One leak in the roof, fences down, and lots of branches on the ground. We discovered the leak because we were bored and flashing the flashlights onto the ceiling and noticed a tiny spot of water. We ventured into the attic and tried to stop it. Our efforts seemed to help. No one had any power. We had a radio to listen to and lots of flashlights (we were prepared!). We played cards and did a puzzle. The highlight of the day was when Karen (the mom) and Garrett (the 18-year-old) tried to get the dog to use the bathroom in the storm. Smoky (the dog) was too scared of the rain. So, Garrett pulled him outside in the rain by his leash while Karen held an umbrella over him. It took him forever to go. I took a picture because it was so funny! Anna, the 12-year-old, made a "flashlight chandelier" attached to the existing light fixture over the table so we could see the puzzle really well. After it got really dark outside, she did a show for all of us. It was kind of like charades. We mostly laughed a lot.

I got up early on Sunday morning and took a shower and headed out before anyone was awake. I ended up driving through lots of standing water (I am a complete moron, I know!) and made it home after a couple of hours of driving. There were lots of people on the road. I stopped at a Lowe's that was miraculously open, but left after a few minutes because the line to check out was wrapped around the inside of the store. I didn't need anything that badly! My house was basically untouched by the storm, but I didn't have any power. There were a couple houses of friends close by that had power. We went to one house with power, but as soon as we got there, the power went out again. So, we ended up staying at the house of some dear, sweet guys from church, along with 9 other people. It was a party! We ate all the food from everyone's refrigerator that was going to spoil. We had a good time, but I had to go to work the next day to help the plant get going again. I got power back on on Monday and have been enjoying it ever since! I was very fortunate. My house had zero damage. I think that it was protected by all of the 2-story houses down the street. They all had roof damage, but my little one-story was perfectly fine.

Well, that was really long. I though you might enjoy some random details.