Hurricane Ike

We are now hurricane survivors -- something, quite frankly, I never dreamed would be within my realm of experience. We have, however, weathered Hurricane Ike -- a mammoth storm roughly the size of the state of Texas or New England -- and emerged unscathed. Due to a slight easterly jog in the storm as it made landfall, we were able to avoid the fiercest part of the storm, but from what I understand, the winds and windgusts in our area were 80-100 mph and we got a lot of rainfall.

In our area, we were told to expect there to be widespread power outages, wind damage, possible flooding, and the likelihood of tornados spawned by the storm so we spent the week preparing. I have to admit that it was a little daunting to face it all without Mark here, but so many people called and were willing to help, we felt really taken care of. It was also good for me, too, to feel that I could rise to the challenge.

Preparing for the storm took me the better part of three days. When I went to Wal-Mart earlier in the week to stock up on water, food, and supplies, many of the shelves were already beginning to look bare and there were large pallets of water bottles by each register. Wanting to top off my gas tank on Thursday night, I had to go to 3 different gas stations before finding one that, while out of unleaded fuel, at least had super unleaded I could use. I got the last three bags of ice at one grocery store I went to, and never was able to find a small canister of propane for my gas burner even though I tried 4 different stores.

The biggest dilemma was whether or not we should stay in our house for the night (the storm was expected to make landfall in the early hours of Saturday morning) or go to a friend's house for the night. In the end I decided to stay at home. Various neighbors, knowing Mark was out of town, had come by to offer assistance and so we thought, if we were extraordinarily worried, we could run next door.

In case anyone is curious about how one spends one's day prior to experiencing a hurricane, here's a rough schedule of my day before the storm hit:
8:00 a.m. breakfast

8:15 pull in garbage cans, grill, bikes, doormats and anything else in the yard that could become a projectile in the wind

9:00 go out in search of D batteries for our radio which I had forgotten to get in my previous shopping trips. After visiting two stores, I asked Abby to say a prayer that we would be able to find some. As we made our way through Target, every battery stand was out of D batteries. We continued back to the back of the store to check in one final place and there was an employee just beginning to restock size D batteries.

10:00 give girls their "final baths" before possibly losing power and water service for days, do laundry, pack a three-day supply of clothes for all of us, organize supplies

12:00 put food in the crockpot for dinner

2:00 fill buckets with water for cleaning and flushing

3:00 take a break to watch news updates

3:30 clear out closet beneath the stairs in case we need a tornado shelter

4:00 take my "final shower" and fill tubs with water

4:30 get dinner ready, have girls pick up, talk on phone (in reality it has been fused to my ear most of the day), I talk to Mark and ask him to start thinking about where he would like to live next :)

5:00 dinner, read with girls

6:00 move mattresses down from girls' beds to prop against windows, set up girls sleeping bags, power begins to go out and come back on

8:30 girls watch Finding Nemo (yes, they chose a water-related movie) on our portable DVD player, I talk on the phone and peer out the window at the gusting wind, the power goes out and doesn't come on within a few minutes, Jane begins to freak out (doesn't know why she is having to sleep in the living room, doesn't like the dark . . .)

11:00 power comes back on and stays on most of the night (only blipping in and out 5 or 6 times during the entire storm -- miracle! It seems that our street was one of the few that had power most of the night and never lost it afterward. Most of the surrounding areas lost power and some are still out), winds are really strong, no rain yet, radio gives word of tornado and hurricane warnings

3:00 a.m. Wind howling outside, rain lashing the windows, I finally fall asleep out of pure exhaustion

6:44 awakened by the bishop's call to see how we are doing. I do a walk-through of the house and find that all is well. The yard is littered with debris, but the house, trees, garage and fence are safe.

We feel tremendously blessed that we have power and didn't sustain any major damage. We know of various people who have lost trees, branches, and fences.

The girls were amazing. Millie, noticing the closet I had cleared out as a tornado shelter, went about decorating it and stocking it with books and coloring supplies. When I explained that I wanted them to sleep with their flip-flops nearby in case we had shattered glass, she said, "You're so smart to think about that!" Abby, while settling into her sleeping bag to watch the movie said, "This is fun!" and wanted to sleep downstairs the next night, too. Jane eventually got to sleep, but for her, it was not so fun. They were real troupers.

Millie was, however, a little concerned about the storm. While we were out getting supplies she said, "Mommy, when are the tornados going to destroy us?" She also asked if I was going to stay up all night long to listen to the radio and make sure that the tornados weren't coming. In the morning, she sat up in her sleeping bag and said, "Oh, I thought we were going to die." She was such a brave little thing, though.

Millie's journal entry about the storm:

I thought we were going to die and that there would be lots of tornados. It was scary, but we had a fun night. We watched a movie. Mom told us stories. The electricity went on and off. It flooded in the back yard all the way up to my ankles. There were lots of twigs around.

Abby's journal entry:

It was so quiet when I was asleep. The wind was a little loud. It made so many trees fall down. I fell right to sleep when it came. It was outside. Long branches came down. I slept in my nap mat. And the wind was really blowing, blowing, blowing, and blowing and blowing and blowing.

All ready to go
Millie's decorations and supplies in our "tornado shelter"

Hunkering down in the living room
Hard to get a picture that does it justice. I popped outside the back door as things were starting to pick up to take a picture.
The backyard after the storm

Water accumulation in our backyard
Branches down across the street.
The remains of a neighbor's fence.