Hurricane Ike tore through the coast of Galveston, TX early in the morning of 9/13/08. It continued North through our town never letting up, turned northeast and continued all the way up to Maine. We live 2.5 hours off the coast. Usually storms coming up the coast line will either die down before hitting us or miss us completely. Unfortunately, this storm did lots of damage! It ripped trees right out of the ground. It snapped 100 yr old oak trees in half! It knocked over light poles. It caused flooding. It totally destroyed houses and restaurants along the beach. It definitely made it's presence known. It was a mean storm!
My kids had no school on Friday so that everyone could prepare for the hurricane. Saturday morning, Hurricane Ike left us with no power and no water. It was BLAZIN' hot that day. Because of our remodel, we are already confined to the upstairs of our house. We were all going batty and were on top of each other....with no power......and no water. We had to get out. We drove to College Station and booked a hotel room. Air condition, a fridge that cools, microwave, running water, toilets that flush, TV......oh the TV! Not since 9/11 have I watched so much news coverage in one day. Plus, they had a pool! We had a good time, but headed back home on Sunday. Still no power. No water. At the few gas stations we passed, they had lines that stretched for miles! People getting gas for their generators...and vehicles. Most gas stations didn't even have the power so they could open, so it left people with no other choice but to wait. We stayed with some relatives who ended up getting their power back at 7pm. Oh, and they had running water too.... We grilled a lot of food from our fridge/freezer before it went bad and had quite an interesting dinner. We had hot dogs, grilled chicken breasts, french fries (cooked in foil) and corn nuggets (cooked in foil). We returned home on Monday when our power came back on. But, we still had no running water. We had filled up our bathtubs with water before the power went out..thankfully! So, we use that for flushing the toilets. School has been cancelled for the entire week! Most every one's lives have been disrupted. Businesses are closed, and power and water are considered a luxury item at this point. Neighbors and friends are all offering up showers to those who have no running water, and others are offering a place to charge laptops and cell phones to those with no electricity. We finally got our land line back on Wednesday. YAY INTERNET! I missed my Internet! My cell phone provider had a down tower in our area, so I had to go into town to use my phone, or wait until my hubs got home from work and use his. (Yep, he had to go back to work because his company had power and water, so it was business as usual for them....sorry bastards) So, for the first few days, I had no communication lines open at home. Not good when you have 3 kids!
So, here we are, almost a week after the event, and still have no running water. We have electricity, but our street is one of the few in our neighborhood who have been restored. I'm not asking why, I am just thankful for the power at our house! We have been going over to the in-laws house every night to take showers, and to wash dishes, and fill up "toilet flushin'" buckets. Thankfully, they just finished their bathroom remodel, and have a "family" shower, so we are in and out quickly and back home to our waterless house.
Most of the town, Houston, and the coast still are without power! We are thankful we have it, and a home...with a roof. We suffered no house or car damage. Others weren't so lucky. People are waiting in long lines every day for ice, bottled water, and MRE's (Meals Ready to Eat) offered by FEMA. Oh, speaking of FEMA.....those retarded bastards have a 1-800 hotline for those in need of filing a claim and it actually says "We're sorry, our operators are experiencing an overwhelming amount of calls right now" (YA THINK????? We were just declared an area of natural disaster by a wonderful public speaker we call "The President") and then they refer you to their website to file your claim and then they disconnect you! INTERNET....really? Most people who need to file a claim have no computer, no power to access the computer even if they had one, or no phone line to get on the internet. Really, is this the intelligence level of our federal government? To refer people to the internet after a hurricane rips through their town, destroying their homes, and leaving them with nothing?....not even a computer. Most of these towns that were hit hard don't even have a library open in order to access a public computer. Then you also have the news reporters and radio DJ's referring people to the internet to check on school closings or POD locations where they can go get their MRE's, ice and water.......again...if they need those items...they most likely don't have a computer anymore or electricity to access the internet.....Duh!!! Just a rant and ramble about things that made no sense to me.
Every day I drive by Kaylee's school, they have updated the marquee sign with the date of when school is back in session. First, Monday..then Tuesday..then closed all week....now, closed next Monday too! Holy cow! Will the kids ever get to go back to school? Our town wasn't even close to being the hardest hit city.....but yet, here we are....going on day 7 of no school! At this rate, there will be no summer break, because they will have make up days till August!
Oh, and make note....there will probably be a baby boom 9 months from now! (not from us! We had 3 kids to keep us entertained!)
Here are some pictures of the damage left by Hurricane Ike.
http://www.chron.com/news/photogallery/Editors_Top_Pictures.html
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/09/the_short_but_eventful_life_of.html
http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Hurricane-Ike/ss/events/us/091208hurricaneike#photoViewer=/080918/480/108026dafabd40b4a0dc8d61e8319a40
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