Let me just say that I get it now. Before a hurricane people are all about getting cash, gas and water. (And batteries and peanut butter, tuna, cereal and crackers.) We’d filled up the Civic this weekend and bought food and water before the storm so we didn’t anticipate needing cash for anything.
But. Now. 3 days post-Ike. Lines at gas stations are blocks long. Most banks have no power. And some people have no water still (as well as no power). Grocery stores are running on generators and have limited hours and only let customers in 30 or 50 at a time.
So now I understand why people do these things in a panic before a hurricane.
And Ike. He was a Category 2 (measured only by wind speed) but way bigger than Katrina or Rita. And I’m not going to lie: it was scary as fuck. The sounds of things falling, crashing, blowing up, creaking, breaking outside… All that over the crazy winds and rain blowing in all directions. It makes for little sleep.
Jonathan said that his grandpa, a Louisiana native, says that you can ride out a Category 3 or below. Technically, he’s right. We were fine. And I don’t regret staying because we were able to help out people who didn’t have water or power. And we had it so lucky. 25% of the city has power as of today! Makes our 4 hours of no AC seem like a walk in the park. (And no cable or Internet, no one’s very sympathetic to that.)
But the next time we have a hurricane track line going through downtown houston? 2 days out? Yeah, I’m gone.
4 comments
Comments feed for this article
September 15, 2008 at 10:09 pm
momps
:)
Your bed will be ready!
September 17, 2008 at 1:04 am
April
LOL; I saw a pic of the heights on AOL, a guy’s home ravaged and flooded…makes me wonder how Michelle’s home survived…though I haven’t found her card to call! I’m glad to know y’all fared well enough.
September 25, 2008 at 3:09 pm
Karlos
Ha ha. Yeah, I’m gone too if it’s a Category 3 - Jonathan’s grandpa will have to sit it out by himself! :: Glad you’re okay! :: I didn’t sleep either. I was about a quarter scared something would come through a window or the roof, and three-quarters FASCINATED by the sheer force of the thing. We had a neighbor whose old mature oak tree lifted-levitated-launched out of their yard, roots and all, hopped the 6-ft picket fence without touching it, and landed right in the middle of their next door neighbor’s back yard. How is that possible?! :: Weird: the empty shelves at the grocery stores for days afterward. :: Random: 10 days without electricity sucks in every way. I’m kinda thinking I ought to buy some sheets of plywood in the hurricane offseason - duh. My neighbors are nice people. Mosquitos apparently prefer Karlos blood to anyone else I know. My dogs will stay in the yard, without a fence - that’s nice. Traffic lights that work are good to have here and there, and maybe it’s time for hurricane-zone city planners to think about roundabouts. :: I learned I prefer a hurricane ANY day to a tornado - at least the wind direction changes slowly, you know where the next punch is coming from. And I learned what you learned: gas cash batteries and water - oh, and well ahead of the storm… hotel reservations. We ended up in San Marcos. For a while there, I thought it might be Marfa!
October 3, 2008 at 9:09 pm
laflorecita
Marfa would have been great!! :)
And I’m all about roundabouts. They have them all over Europe. At first I thought it was weird but they really make a lot of sense.