Experiencing our first hurricane was pretty scary. Although it wasn't expected to be anything higher than a cat 3, we knew the damage could still be substantial and that hurricanes can also spawn tornados, causing even further devastation. We were not asked to evacuate and decided to ride out the storm at home, where we knew we had two sets of good neighbors to rely on should an emergency arise during or after the storm. A few of the people on our street boarded up their windows while we mainly removed any small items away from the windows and shut the blinds. All we could do after that was wait to see how bad it would get.
Our neighbor's "Take a hike Ike" sign. This became the
talk of the neighborhood and people from nearby streets
came throughout the evening to take photos of it.
With the nice sunset tonight, you'd never know a hurricane
was about to hit. We had a dinner party at our house with
Mike, Lisa, Sarah, and Gi. There's nothing like a party to calm
nerves and welcome a hurricane!
Although we had lost power earlier in the evening, Mike
set up his generator so that we could play Rock Band
until the storm was bad enough that we had to return
to our own homes. When we got home, we lit a candle
and retired to our temporary bed in my closet, one of
the safest places in the house. We were pretty sheltered
from the noise there, though I had a hard time sleeping
while Neal enjoyed a few hours of z's. More than the
hurricane, I was scared of a possible tornado ripping
through our home. Luckily, we didn't have one in our
neighborhood, though just a couple of miles up the road
a tornado virtually destroyed an older neighborhood.
In the morning we awoke to find minimal damage - a minor
leak in our master bedroom and a blown over fence that
opened up our yard to our two neighbors.
Some of the damage within our neighborhood
Trees knocked down like dominos
This is one of our lakes. The wrought iron fence
under the water is supposed to separate the land around
the lake from a soccer field. It was completely flooded.
The fences around the tennis courts got a bit blown around
Dozens of trees were completely uprooted
Just outside of our neighborhood....
power lines were knocked over
Street lights were dangling in the middle of intersections
Shopping centers were mangled
Trees blocked roads
Nothing really appeared normal. There was definitely evidence of a hurricane and after seeing the damage that a category 2 can cause (a high 2), I can't imagine what it was like to be in New Orleans after Katrina, a cat 5. Overall, we are blessed to have come through the storm with a blown down fence, a minor roof leak, and a 4-day power outage. Other cities were completely demolished (Galveston, Crystal Beach, etc.), and still others will not have power as late as an estimated October 6th. Ike was certainly a scary experience but if anything good came out of it, it was the quality time we've spent with our neighbors over the last few days. None of us fully returned to work until today, so we had a five day "vacation" thanks to Mother Nature.
We are so grateful for all of your prayers and support. Thanks for checking in on us, for calling, e-mailing, and texting to make sure we were okay. I have no doubt that all of the prayers that went up from around the country on 9/12 were heard.
