Hurricane Weekend
Wow... We definitely lived through a hurricane this weekend. Everyone is OK but there was considerable exterior damage.
I left Austin about Noon Thursday to get to Houston. Lin was relieved as she worried about everything. I cleaned up the garage and organized it so we could get 3 cars inside and still have the generator setup. We spent the night watching the weather reports and got a little sleep. By Friday morning I was restless and ventured out to the grocery store. It was crazy. My son called while I was out and needed a 4 prong generator plug. He had been to 3 stores so far but no luck. I tried 2 hardware stores that were generally in the direction of the grocery store and no luck. I was back to the Hylander house by noon and we settled in for the storm.
As the afternoon and evening progressed we realized this was the BIG one and it was coming directly at Houston. Lin's daughter & guy were at the Katy house so we compared notes to see which one of us would get the worse of the storm. It so happened that IKE turned more North and went directly over Galveston and headed dead center for Houston. This spared the Katy house some as there were only 50-70 MPH winds in Katy but we got it at 70-100 in Northwest Houston. By midnight Friday/Saturday it was raining hard and the wind was blowing tree limbs horizontally. We heard a big crash and knew something had happened in the back yard but we could not see 10 feet into the back yard even with the lights on. The winds were whistling and sticks and pine cones were hitting the house and windows every minute or two. When we got a little break from the rain we could see a huge tree top upside down wedged between 2 trees about 15 feet from the back of the house. We checked around and nothing came through the roof and all the windows were holding so back to the TV. About 1:30 AM I was worn out and went to bed to get some sleep. By 2:30 Lin woke me up because the electricity was out. I stumbled to the garage and fired up the generator. Everything worked great and we were back on line. We could not use the AC but otherwise we were fine. I went back to bed until 5:30 AM when Lin got me up.
Lin had been up all night and finally went to bed for a while. I was wide awake and tuned into everything going on. One piece of excitement was checking on my Brother's boar that was at Galveston Yacht Basin where there was a huge fire. We had talked Friday and he had it taken out of the water and put on blocks. It's about 40 feet long and quite a big guy. All we could do was watch the TV coverage as no one was going to get to Galveston. About noon Saturday it let up a little and we could get out and see the damage. Tree limbs covered every yard and all the streets. The water was going down but everything was soaked. We talked to most of the neighbors and trees seemed to be the only big loss. Lin's daughter was fine in Katy and they even still had electricity. Power became the BIG Houston story. 3 - 4 million people without power. Just a few stores open, mostly on generators and probably 50 generators burning a gallon per hour, just in my neighborhood. My son, grandsons, and family were also OK about 4 miles away but again no power. Saturday afternoon and evening seemed to be in slow motion. Nothing but hurricane coverage and we were bored. We started watching some Soprano's CDs and passed the time between naps and playing with the dogs. I had tried to find gas but 30 minutes of driving around on tree branch covered streets was fruitless. I tried to siphon gas out of the 3 cars but no luck. By 2:30 AM we were down to our last 5 gallons and decided we needed to go to Katy House where there was electricity (and air conditioning). Our cell phones did not have signals since the towers all over town did not have power so we could not warn the kids we were coming. We surprised them about 3:30 AM but they were up with some neighbors playing Monopoly. Finally about 4:00 AM we were all laid out sleeping.
Now it's Sunday. It seemed like we had been through a week of hurricane fun. About noon we went back to the Hylander House and cleaned out the refrigerator and gathered a few things. We loaded the Prius and by 1:30 were back on the road with 2 cars heading to Katy. There were a lot of people out on the roads but very little power or stores open. My son Steve was out searching for generator gas and I took him some cash as he sat in line just to be sure he was successful after an hour plus wait in line. Lin had headed to Katy earlier but when I arrived she was not there yet. We did have some cell phone coverage and she had called and said she was OK. We found out that she heard on the radio that some of the first responders were at Tully Stadium with no food or water and the radio station had asked for residents to share if they could. Soft hearted Lin took a case of water, peanut butter, and a bad of MY M&Ms to them. There were over a 100 people that came to Houston to help out but they were hungry and the people of Houston came to their rescue. Sorta fitting and cool... We took naps and relaxed a bit until Maggy & I headed to Austin about 6:00 PM. We went out IH10 west and finally found gas in Sealy so we were able to get to Austin safely about 9:00 PM.
It was quite a weekend but we are safe and glad to have survived. There will be a lot of cleanup and probably days before power is back. For now I'm secure in that Lin and all the kids are safe in Katy with power and AC. I have a busy week ahead but it will be quiet compared to a hurricane weekend. Love and hugs to all... Gene
I left Austin about Noon Thursday to get to Houston. Lin was relieved as she worried about everything. I cleaned up the garage and organized it so we could get 3 cars inside and still have the generator setup. We spent the night watching the weather reports and got a little sleep. By Friday morning I was restless and ventured out to the grocery store. It was crazy. My son called while I was out and needed a 4 prong generator plug. He had been to 3 stores so far but no luck. I tried 2 hardware stores that were generally in the direction of the grocery store and no luck. I was back to the Hylander house by noon and we settled in for the storm.
As the afternoon and evening progressed we realized this was the BIG one and it was coming directly at Houston. Lin's daughter & guy were at the Katy house so we compared notes to see which one of us would get the worse of the storm. It so happened that IKE turned more North and went directly over Galveston and headed dead center for Houston. This spared the Katy house some as there were only 50-70 MPH winds in Katy but we got it at 70-100 in Northwest Houston. By midnight Friday/Saturday it was raining hard and the wind was blowing tree limbs horizontally. We heard a big crash and knew something had happened in the back yard but we could not see 10 feet into the back yard even with the lights on. The winds were whistling and sticks and pine cones were hitting the house and windows every minute or two. When we got a little break from the rain we could see a huge tree top upside down wedged between 2 trees about 15 feet from the back of the house. We checked around and nothing came through the roof and all the windows were holding so back to the TV. About 1:30 AM I was worn out and went to bed to get some sleep. By 2:30 Lin woke me up because the electricity was out. I stumbled to the garage and fired up the generator. Everything worked great and we were back on line. We could not use the AC but otherwise we were fine. I went back to bed until 5:30 AM when Lin got me up.
Lin had been up all night and finally went to bed for a while. I was wide awake and tuned into everything going on. One piece of excitement was checking on my Brother's boar that was at Galveston Yacht Basin where there was a huge fire. We had talked Friday and he had it taken out of the water and put on blocks. It's about 40 feet long and quite a big guy. All we could do was watch the TV coverage as no one was going to get to Galveston. About noon Saturday it let up a little and we could get out and see the damage. Tree limbs covered every yard and all the streets. The water was going down but everything was soaked. We talked to most of the neighbors and trees seemed to be the only big loss. Lin's daughter was fine in Katy and they even still had electricity. Power became the BIG Houston story. 3 - 4 million people without power. Just a few stores open, mostly on generators and probably 50 generators burning a gallon per hour, just in my neighborhood. My son, grandsons, and family were also OK about 4 miles away but again no power. Saturday afternoon and evening seemed to be in slow motion. Nothing but hurricane coverage and we were bored. We started watching some Soprano's CDs and passed the time between naps and playing with the dogs. I had tried to find gas but 30 minutes of driving around on tree branch covered streets was fruitless. I tried to siphon gas out of the 3 cars but no luck. By 2:30 AM we were down to our last 5 gallons and decided we needed to go to Katy House where there was electricity (and air conditioning). Our cell phones did not have signals since the towers all over town did not have power so we could not warn the kids we were coming. We surprised them about 3:30 AM but they were up with some neighbors playing Monopoly. Finally about 4:00 AM we were all laid out sleeping.
Now it's Sunday. It seemed like we had been through a week of hurricane fun. About noon we went back to the Hylander House and cleaned out the refrigerator and gathered a few things. We loaded the Prius and by 1:30 were back on the road with 2 cars heading to Katy. There were a lot of people out on the roads but very little power or stores open. My son Steve was out searching for generator gas and I took him some cash as he sat in line just to be sure he was successful after an hour plus wait in line. Lin had headed to Katy earlier but when I arrived she was not there yet. We did have some cell phone coverage and she had called and said she was OK. We found out that she heard on the radio that some of the first responders were at Tully Stadium with no food or water and the radio station had asked for residents to share if they could. Soft hearted Lin took a case of water, peanut butter, and a bad of MY M&Ms to them. There were over a 100 people that came to Houston to help out but they were hungry and the people of Houston came to their rescue. Sorta fitting and cool... We took naps and relaxed a bit until Maggy & I headed to Austin about 6:00 PM. We went out IH10 west and finally found gas in Sealy so we were able to get to Austin safely about 9:00 PM.
It was quite a weekend but we are safe and glad to have survived. There will be a lot of cleanup and probably days before power is back. For now I'm secure in that Lin and all the kids are safe in Katy with power and AC. I have a busy week ahead but it will be quiet compared to a hurricane weekend. Love and hugs to all... Gene
posted by Gene Chesser at
9:34 PM
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