The Aftermath...

What an experience! Hurricane Ike turned out to be one nasty big daddy of a hurricane! Since my last post on Thursday, things got very ominous. The stores ran almost completely out of food and water, the gas stations were empty and schools and work were canceled on Friday. I think that Friday was mostly spent in front of the TV watching the news as this giant hurricane made its way toward Houston.

By Friday, the news was showing major winds and water all over the coast and the hurricane wasn't supposed to make land fall for hours. That made me very nervous! John and I filled up both of bath tubs with water in case we lost water. We brought all of our bottled water inside and started filling up pitchers and bottles of drinking water. We rented movies, got out our "hurricane box" out, found all of our batteries and just waited.

Johnny also got the stomach flu that day so that was no fun.

John's parents came over for a "last supper" and by the time they left, the winds picked up big time and we could tell it was time to "hunker down" as they call it. So we got ready for bed, put the kids down and tried to sleep. It's such an eerie feeling trying to relax and sleep when you don't know what kind of a disaster is sneaking up on you.

About 1 or 2 in the morning the hurricane was over us and it was the loudest, most horrible storm I have ever heard. I would cringe every time a gust came, just praying my huge pine trees didn't slam on top of my house. At about 3:00 am, John and I decided to pick up our mattress and take it into the office where the winds wouldn't be as loud as they were coming from the north and the office faces south. That helped. We got a little sleep.

The next morning, we still had power, internet, phone, and cable which was UNHEARD of. So many of my friends and family went without power for a long while. We were so blessed. We had no damage, just some broken limbs and lots of debris over our yard. The phones went out later on Saturday and didn't come back until Sunday evening.

I ended up getting that wretched stomach flu which is why this post is coming a little late. I feel much better and now have time to thank my heavenly father for protecting us from any harm and keeping my A/C on! We are so grateful to have come through this experience unscathed.

If I have learned anything from this experience it is the importance of preparation! So everyone, learn from my experience. Have lots of bottled water, always. Keep your pantry full, always and go buy a generator. I am!