Wednesday Hurricane Ike was projected to hit Corpus Christi. No panic here, we went about our lives as we normally do.
Thursday morning we woke up to find that it was expected to make landfall at Surfside beach, 1 hour south of Houston. The eye was projected to go right over my house, still at hurricane strength. I made immediate plans go fill up the gas tank, take out some cash and top off my hurricane survival supplies, not to mention buy ingredients for smores, the ultimate camping food. I expected to be out of electricity for 5-7 days and made appropriate preparations.
Friday I spent the day preparing for the worst. The day started out bright and sunny. The winds picked up gradually, but ever so gradually. There still was no evidence that a major hurricane was approaching. By the afternoon the sky was grey, but like a Michigan grey sky, not a stormy grey sky. By 8:30pm the winds started to get gusty. I then knew it was on its way. I made sure I took advantage of all the electricity I could use prior to the power outage ie. last load of laundry in the dryer and dishwasher running, airmattresses inflated, cameras and cell phones charged. Then we just waited. The winds kept increasing, some gusts would get your attention. I had the kids sleep in the hallway on twin mattresses.
The power had flickered on and off all night long. At 2:50am I turned on the tv to check on the storm. The front of the eye was just entering downtown Houston and the back of the eye was just approaching Galveston Island. I knew I had 1 hour before the front of the eye got to my house and 4 hours before the back of the eye got to my house (I live 20 miles west of houston). I turned off the tv at 3:00 and went back to bed. The power turned off at about 3:05. I am so thankful I caught the news just before it went out so I knew what to expect. Well, 4:00 came and the winds were very strong and they stayed strong for hours, without any relief. So it became apparent the eye never went over our house, thankfully. At 6am I looked out the back window to find our back fence and redbud tree knocked over and the winds still very strong. In time the winds started to weaken and by 1pm Saturday the rain almost stopped. The rest of the day was a stagnant, hot and humid day, like a tropical rain forest. When we went to bed, with no air conditioning, we were wondering why we didn't evacuate. We planned to go to Dallas the next day but that night we had an unexpected surprise, our electricity turned back on. YEAH!! We went back to bed, felt the cool air blowing on us and went, "aaaaahhhhhhh." We have been very fortunate throughout the storm. We didn't have major damage, everyone is well and fine and we got our electricity back within 24 hours. For that I am very thankful. Plus our neighbors still had gas when our electric was out and they cooked us our hotdogs (no need for our camping supplies after all). We love our neighbors.
Here are some before and after pictures of the storm:
House before and after.
Back fence before and after.
Redbud tree before and after.
Back gate before and after.
View from our front door, left and right.
Couple more backyard views.
Bulk of our water supply.
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