Sept. 12
Hurricane Ike was a strong Category 2 storm when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (
MODIS) on NASA’s
Terra satellite captured this image at 12:05 p.m. CDT on September 12, 2008. The massive storm was already starting to pound the Texas and Louisiana coast with high winds and battering waves, even though the eye of the storm remained well off shore.
Pictures of Ike:
Sept. 13
I learn so much everytime there is a disaster that happens. I try to pay attention to the news reports, especially the emergency people. This morning the mayor of Houston was telling the people that the pressure on the water supply is really low and because of that they are concerned it is contaminated. They are asking people to drink bottled water and if they don't have that to not drink the tap water unless it has been boiled at least one minute. Many are without electricity so they can't do that. They told people not to bathe, only to use the water for drinking and minimal clean up.
Note to self of growing list I need to do to tweek my preparedness:
1 - Make sure the water in storage is rotated.
2 - Make a fresh count of how much we have.
3 - Inventory paper plates and cups, wax paper and plastic wear.
4- Make sure we have enough dog food for several months
5 - Vamp up alternate heat source
6 -
Another thing they mentioned was that the people would have to be self sustaining for at least 24 hours, probably longer. They are only to call for help if they are in a life threatening situation and it may take time to get to them, because so many places are impassable.
From my friend Cyndi Sept. 12th, a.m.
Galveston is experiencing flooding- already- storm is still about 15 hours out.. and it hasn't rained ONE drop yet! Thats what convinced us :) Storm surge is going to be nasty.I'll check in when we return!Cyndi in Texasnot liking Ike
From another friend Tiffany
Sept 17th
In our area North of Houston we were told to not leave, it would have made it difficult for people on the coast to get out, like what happened with Rita. We actually heard nothing from the church in our area on this one. I think they just were going by what the media was telling everyone to do. I think they were trying to avoid another disaster like with Rita when the Stake President had all the wards in the middle of night call everyone to get out right then and then nothing happened and the situation was actually worse because everyone panicked. Houston is the 4th largest city in the country, if even everyone south of Houston were to evacuate they would have to be going 1,000 miles before finding a hotel. The problem is that West of Houston there really isn't much. So you have to go north or east and that was the way the storm was going, we also had everyone from Louisiana already here in our hotels and shelters from the storm the week before. So really, for a lot of people there just isn't anywhere to go. Now I will say anyone who stayed on the island is asking to get killed and not very smart.
I wish I could attach a picture of what our house looked like after the storm. We won't have power for a few more weeks. Our Super Saturday was supposed to be on Friday night when the storm came.....
This is the email I sent out to family yesterday... .
Hey all we are doing well. Can't wait to get power. Tired of spending the big bucks to run a generator. We lost power about midnight, we went to sleep about then. Woke up at 2am with the full force of the storm. UNBELIEVABLE! It was really amazing, scary stuff. Our first tree fell about 3:30am so we moved the kids all into the living room because it looked like trees were going down and it sounded like tornados. The second tree fell about 4am onto the house, it was so loud outside you had no idea what was going on. It didn't stop for a full12 hours full speed. Our neighborhood looks like a war zone. They told us maybe 4 weeks without power. Paul and I stood in line for 5 hours the other night for gas. It is really hard to make any phone calls thanks for all the messages we can get texts usually. Paul and Tucker have been working their little rear ends off helping people with their houses that flooded and getting trees off houses. Here a few pics of our house and neighborhood.
When I asked if I could add her post to my blog she wrote me back and shared this:
Sure, that is fine. I have to tell you a few things we learned. We felt like we were prepared and I think for the most part we were. But, I was surprised at how much gas a generator used. We had about 50 gallons of gas stored and 16 gallons in my husbands car and my suburban holds probably 22 gallons. The generator takes about 1 gallon per hour it is running. So we are running it only in the afternoon and evening. Or for a minute to heat up breakfast, like right now! When we ran out of stored gas and didn't want to wait in the long lines we just assumed that we could siphon gas from the cars... nope, both cars are too new and have anti-siphoning devices on them. So that is 40 gallons of gas that we thought we had access to that we don't. There is still no power, and they said maybe another two weeks. School starts Monday so that will be a little interesting getting ready without power for the kids! Since most places around don't have power there is no where to do laundry, I could hook my washer up to the generator but my dryer is on a 220 and can't run off a generator. If you had a gas dryer you could. Here in Houston you have to dry your clothes, hanging them to dry would be pointless as they would just mildew. Also we are 90 MILES north of the coast, the eye did go almost right over us and we were on the "dirty" side of the storm, that is the East side, but I cannot believe how bad it was where we were. I can only imagine what it must have been like further south.
The "dirty" side of a hurricane is the eastern side of the storm. Here, winds from the south, full of moisture, wrap into the storm causing heavy rain. We have had a few that kinda turned out to be "duds" Gilbert in "88, Rita 4 years ago. We have never not had power this long. There isn't much else besides a generator. There are natural gas generators that you can have hooked up to your house permantly that automatially come on when youloose power. I think that would be ideal. But they are about $6k to 10k. I think you just pretend you camping out and grin and bear it! My kids are little and having a blast! they are 10, 8, 6, 4, 2, and 8mo. I have a few kids with asthma, I have to have some special equiptment for them and my baby has RSV right now. My husband is in Dallas for work this whole time so I am a little stressed! But the kids are having fun. I spend a lot of time sitting in the car with nebulizer plugged in using the car battery to power it! I have to say the thing I want the most through all this is a dog! Being here alone at night with no power is scary, the windows are open to let in air and power cords from the generator. You hear about looting and things like that, and it seems extra quiet without power. I would LOVE to have a dog right now just to scare someone off! Every part of the country has different disasters!
View from the front of my binders above; View from the side below - shows how fat they are!
