Official Evacuees

Well, it's official. I was an evacuee for a period of time. I never dreamed that I would have that title under my belt, but I do. Hurricane Ike came through the Houston / Galveston area about 2 weeks ago and destroyed or damaged much in its path. We live about 20 miles from the island and about 20 miles from downtown Houston. So, we were in the path of destruction. Before landfall I really did not understand the severity of a hurricane. I had always heard of evacuations but never really understood what that meant. To put it into one statement, it means....Grab what you can and do it quickly.

As Jason watched the weather very closely about 2 days before landfall, I was oblivious to the future. I had a newborn I was smitten with. I was holding, rocking, and loving on Bear. I had no idea what was in store for our family. As the sun set and the hours ticked by, I went to sleep only to wake to Jason telling me I needed to start packing at 1:15 a.m. on Thursday morning. I knew it was a possibility of us leaving but never knew it would become a reality because the last 2 storms that were supposed to come our way never made it. We did not even get raindrops........

I rubbed my eyes and realized that Jason was serious. I fed Bear and began to pack. Lake was sleeping so we decided to pack her things last to avoid waking her too early. Packing for all of us took about 4 hours. Jason was a little concerned because he wanted to beat the traffic and I kept bringing bags to the door. He thought we would never leave. Our area was going to be evacuated at 7 a.m. Jason had a heads up and he wanted to leave before the chaos began..........The gas stations were packed at 6 o'clock. I was amazed.

Finally we had our vehicles loaded and fueled and we headed for Jasper, Texas. My step-dad, Terry, was anticipating our arrival. Luckily he had a generator and we could be there with power including air conditioner. Thank the Lord!

The next day or so was kind of like a family visit. However, that ended. I began to think about all of our things. Everything we had worked so hard to get could possibly be destroyed. Jason helped me understand that our family could not be replaced but material things could. After I had my breakdown I began to pray and then calmed down because he was right. I had no control over what was going to happen. I had to be strong. As the storm hit land, I had never heard or seen the wind blow so hard in my life. I was chilling to hear it howl over the roof and through the trees. It was like a movie.

Luckily, there was minimal limbs down at Terry's house. Jason headed out to check the damage at our home. This is what he found.........

Our fence in the back had been hit with limbs and the roof over our patio had been blown off. Whew! No flood damage! When he made it back to Terry's after hours of traffic and gas stations with no gas I felt relieved to know that we were so fortunate. The loss of others was devastating and Galveston Island will never be the same. Areas about 2 miles from our home were destroyed. My prayers had been answered and I was OK with our damage. It could be repaired.

It took about a week for our power to be restored. In the mean time my mother came into town and got to meet Bear. We hung out at Terry's house. We grilled out, watched TV, and just enjoyed each other's company. We returned home on Sunday September21. Our food had spoiled so we spent the afternoon cleaning out the old and bringing in the new. We had two refrigerators. One in the garage and one in the house. The fridge in the kitchen was zapped by a power surge but at least we had one in the garage. That was a life saver. Our insurance even paid us for food spoilage. Isn't insurance grand?!?!

Jason ended his "Maternity Leave" this past week and returned to work. It was great to be able to have him with us during our first evacuation. He has been VERY busy with all of the hurricane damage and will be for a long time. As I watch the news and see damage for myself just a few miles away I truly understand that our family is blessed. We are lucky to have each other and our home. Our hearts and prayers go out to those that were less fortunate during Hurricane Ike.