My son has gotten his learner’s permit. I suggest extra prayers for those travelling the roads….I know I’ll be putting extra callouses on my knees.
First. If while you are facing the possibility of “losing it all” you find yourself with consoling thoughts along the lines of “Well at least I will get to replace that bathroom wallpaper that I have hated for the last 14 years.” You are not truly facing the possibility of “losing it all.” I am grateful for a very strong and supportive safety net. I am grateful for flood insurance that I didn’t need. I am grateful for a responsive and reliable homeowners insurance provider. I am grateful that my husband is employed in a sector of the economy that would not leave us jobless in the event of a widespread disaster. I am especially grateful for family and friends that called even as I was packing up the house to evacuate to assure us that we could stay with them for however long it took to re-build. I am grateful for friends that let me inconvenience them by staying in their home. I am grateful for friends that are willing to fight each other for the privilege of letting me inconvenience them. I am truly blessed and at most, I was facing a serious inconvenience and never “losing it all.”
I have learned a great deal about hurricane preparation. Formerly, I did not take hurricane preparedness terribly seriously not because I didn’t think it couldn’t happen to us, but rather because I was always of the opinion that 1. I would be nowhere NEAR my home in the event a hurricane took aim. 2. I had no intention of going BACK to a home until essential services were restored in the event a hurricane did hit my area. I have learned that last assumption is a load of stinky meadow muffins. Within hours of Ike clearing my area, I was hitting the internet looking for news and thinking very dark unChristian thoughts about mayors who set up blockades that prevented me from returning. I did not CARE that there was no power. I did not CARE that there were trees down and branches down and pissed off gators in the area. I wanted home and I wanted home ten minutes ago. Fortunately, I routinely have a pantry stocked that could sustain us for a lengthy period of time without access to a grocery store or even a heat source for cooking. Nevertheless, I intend to be more intentionally prepared for the next time because I know I will come back as quickly as possible.
I have learned that it is not possible to keep a determined man away from his home with mere police cars parked across the road.
God bless FEMA. And the National Guard. And the Red Cross. And the ka-zillion tree cutters, and linesmen, and other disaster response teams that showed up within hours to put this city back on its feet. I know that you heard some whining on the news. That is not the general sentiment on the ground here. We are grateful. Sure, we might be a little on edge from evacuating with three kids, three cats, a dog and two birds. (Well at least I didn’t have the dog and two birds.) And cranky because there is two feet of mud on our living room floor. And irritated because we haven’t seen electric power in a long time. We are still grateful. Thank you. If I knew the names and addresses of the crew that turned my electric power back on, you’d be getting Christmas gifts from me forever.
I have learned that if you need a only bag of ice and you go through the FEMA line and they also have MRE’s and water to distribute too, it is not possible to stop them from giving you MRE’s and water as well and they will be sorry that they can’t give you more. So, we have a souvenir box of MRE’s. We’ll add a few extra dollars on our tax return this year in penance.
One of the biggest surprises is how much destruction there isn’t. Yes, it’s darned inconvenient when 90% of the city is without power and frankly if the oak tree is on your dining room table then the destruction is very real in your life. But pictures of Galveston, Seabrook, and Kemah aside and except for a plethora of tree branches down, things look astonishingly normal.
It’s amazing how your definition of “minor damage” gets recaliberated when 100 yards away from you, they are shoveling out the contents of their home.
I have good neighbors. We may not be the sort that talk to each other every day, or even every week, but when the chips are down they will go buy a chainsaw and share. Both the saw and their labor.
The people across the street from our church have credited the church with protecting their homes (the large building blocked the winds some) I like that image.
Hurricanes are funny. With apologies to those who actually have boats washed up in their yards or between homes, it still cracks me up to see it. Beyond that, hurricanes are incredibly unpredictable. At one of the local area plants, one old structure is roped off because they are afraid that it might fall down on its own. Guess what’s still standing after withstanding 100+ mph winds? And for the best hurricane signage? My award goes to a neighbor who has a sign atop his debris pile that reads “Landscaping by Ike.”
Hurricanes are heartbreaking. So many friends have lost so much. At church this morning, you could tell who had been hit the hardest. Normally well-dressed people who had nothing to wear but sweats and the only make-up they wore was fatigue.
Continue to pray for us, even after the news coverage stops. Life will return to normal quickly for many, but for many it will never be the same.
And finally, I nominate this guy as the Ike-affected area mascot. He just looks seriously pissed off to me….kind of like we all are. It’s no wonder Tina divorced Ike.
I am operating on very little sleep at the moment because I stayed up last night to watch the storm come ashore. The eye of Ike passed directly over the top of my house. I want to be very clear here. I do not mean that the eye of Ike passed near my house. I mean that in my front yard there were winds of 100+ miles per hour one moment and 15 minutes later the birds were out and the mosquitoes were biting….and an hour later it started up all over again. I know this because just a couple of miles away (further to the western part of the eye), they were broadcasting live from a hotel that now looks like a war zone. While this was a very scary thing to contemplate, I knew that of all the possible Bad Things that could happen to my house this was not at the top of the list. Worse still would have been to be on the eastern side of the eye or worse just outside of the eastern side of the eye. That would have resulted in catastrophic storm surges in my neighborhood….much MUCH worse than what you are seeing on the news in the NASA area.
As the day dawned and the news crews were able to begin broadcasting from our area, I was closely watching the landmarks to see if I could figure out based on the damage I say whether it was likely the storm surge had flooded my home. (I was resolutely blocking out what 100 mph wind might do, choosing instead to focus on a brand new roof and the hurricane resistant windows we spent a fortune on.) I could tell based on the damage I saw that it was close…very close. I also knew that they weren’t letting any residents back into my neighborhood for the forseeable future. So I tried very hard to focus on building the virtue of patience since I didn’t think my husband would be willing to run the blockades to get an eyewitness report for at least another day if not more. (He stayed in the area but on higher, safer ground.)
Well God bless the stupid people! I mean that sincerely. The people that stayed behind to ride this storm out are certifiably nuts. I want to shake every last one of them until their teeth rattle and tell them that their LIVES are way more precious than anything and that they have NO BUSINESS staying behind. Nevertheless, some of them are my neighbors and they have our cell phone numbers and we’ve gotten an eyewitness report about the condition of our home. I love them dearly for this….even though I am still teetering on the brink of rattling some teeth.
I have a house.
I was right. It was close. Very close. The water came up our street to just a couple of houses away from us. The wind knocked down a very large oak tree in front of our house but it fell away from our home. By all external appearances there is no major damage to our home. I fully expect that some water will have blasted it’s way into my home and there will be minor clean up and repairs associated with that. I also expect to have to refill my refrigerator and freezer when the power gets turned back on and we are being told that may be as long as four weeks. Small potatoes compared to what could have happened if the storm had come ashore even a mile or so further west.
Nevertheless, our area is devastated. The damage is catastrophic. And I don’t just mean the Houston area. Cuba is devastated. Haiti is devastated. The Turks and Caicos is devastated and I am keenly aware of how slim the margin was of our own escape.
If you haven’t already, please consider donating to the http://american.redcross.org/”> face=Arial>Red Cross or http://crs.org/”> face=Arial>Catholic Relief Services.
SO…..We’ve started back to school this week. The children are all joyful about that. My youngest child has been dramatically melting down every time she encounters any task that is remotely new. I have been repeatedly explaining….mostly patiently….to her that this is why it is called “learning.” If she knew how to do it already, then it would not be “learning.” I am keeping a running log of which is most irritating. The effects of estrogen poisoning. Or the effects of testosterone poisoning.
Anyway. Today I am sitting a my desk in the schoolroom and notice….again….that my oldest child is not at his desk. This has been happening with distrubing frequency so I bellow, “Oldest CHILD! Where are you and why are you not at your desk?”
A voice pops up from close by and says “Here I am.” [On the floor behind the bookshelves where I can't see him.]
I say, in a not altogether patient tone of voice, “What are you doing down there? Is it on your assignment sheet? And why are you not at your desk?”
“I’m reading. This is a really GREAT book…”
“Well. I am all for reading and you know that. But if you are spending time reading that should be used on doing what has been assigned to you, I think you are making a mistake. There will be no whining if later you find someone else at the computer and you have squandered your assigned time reading. There will be NO whining if you do not get your work turned in and are graded accordingly. PERHAPS, you might consider taking this really great book with you to bed and reading it tonight before lights out.”
“I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“It’s a biography.”
“Why can’t you take a biography with you to bed and read it?”
“Biographies aren’t supposed to be interesting.”
“So let me get this straight. You are going to allow other people to decide for you whether or not something is interesting and worth reading.”
Oldest child is now grinning. “Yeah. That’s pretty much it.”
At this point I begin to make “baa-ing” noises and doing my best fluffy sheep imitation.
Eldest child says to me, “The Bible says we are sheep…”
I am taking odds on whether or not he will live until dinner.
If I wanted ice to fall out of the sky, I’d live somewhere north of I-10.
Excuse me? When did THAT happen? He, of course, is suitably thrilled and is enjoying making fun of his “short” mom. I am maintaining that I am now and will always be taller than all of my children and I don’t really care about visual evidence to the contrary.
I got even though….about an hour before my world rocked. I got to read him the riot act about not shaving. I am not giggling any. more.
