Quite windy, rain off and on, son, his wife and my grandson visiting, enjoying their company. via Twitter – 3:37pm
Stepping outside, enjoying the wind via Twitter – 4:32pm
Saying hello to ike wondering how far the trees can bend before they snap. . . via Twitter – 6:39pm
Crack, There went a tree across the street, missed the houses and cars thankfully #ike texarkana. via Twitter – 7:06pm
Getting dark outside quickly. via Twitter – 7:23pm
And then I lost my internet, silence for over 2 hours, apology to friends who were worried, hoping I’d only lost power. (Actually it was both our universal backup battery and router on the blink). Another crack and more broken trees.
Ike packed quite a punch, seemed to go on and on. Considering the size of the thing, I guess it would take a while to move on through the area. And I don’t doubt it strengthened heading on into Arkansas because the last little bit was a whammy. You’d think it’d be weakening on the tail end, but not so.
My son, his wife and their little boy were visiting, made a wise decision to to travel back to Dallas that evening. Ike took up the whole interstate between here and there.
Friday, Texarkana went crazy, Walmart parking lot looked like Christmas season. Everyone inside stocking up. Long lines at the gas station and prices had jumped. Some stations were empty. Soon they all were empty. One of my friends was stranded in Hope, Arkansas, she couldn’t get gas there either.
Now I love storms, just not the damage they cause. I love the way it feels when a storm comes in. You can smell the rain, the wind blowing in your face, everything feels so alive, the clouds, the lightshow in the sky. Don’t mind a few sprinkles. But times like this I’m very happy that I don’t live on the coast (although I wouldn’t mind it rest of the time.)
I called friends in close by, to check on how they were doing. Many were without power, but had their cell phones turned on or their old corded phones plugged in. Inside the kids played games while my grandson slept through the first half of Ike. But Ike went on and on, naps don’t last forever.
Envied Angela her blackberry she was twittering from, checking her home from her cell. Yes, if I’d have set up text messages and twitter on my phone, I could have continued to give updates even if my power and internet went down. Learned that if you checked #ike on twitter’s search engine, you’d get constant storm updates http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23ike
We made it through, so nice to see sunshine the next morning. Fences down all over the neighborhood. Chain saws cleaning up the felled trees and branches. We had a pickup load of downed branches from Gustav to which we added Ike’s. When it dries up we’ll take them all over to the recycling center to get chopped up into compost.
Thankful that things were not worse, and as much as I was tempted, I did not run around the block during the storm, dodging falling tree branches, but stayed close to the porch or safely inside.
Feel free to add your storm story to the comments or add the link to yours.
That picture is from a trip to Galveston. For those who aren’t familiar with where I live, it is several hours drive north of the coast, all the way next to Ok and AR.
Thanks to the prayers of so many people, Ike wasn’t as bad as it could have been. Prayers for those who are without power, food, water, jobs, and homes, and thankfulness for answered prayers.
Heidi,
I’m glad to hear you and your family made it through the storm without major damage.
I remember covering Hurricane Hugo back in 1989 as a reporter. I was seven months pregnant at the time. My photographer spent all night out on Emerald Isle with winds gusting up to 30 miles per hour. The winds and damage wasn’t nearly as bad as it was with Ike but, for us, it was a frightful “preparation” time.
I’m so thankful to learn that you, your family and your friends made it through Ike okay. What an experience that must have been! I’ve never been in a storm that bad and I can imagine that it awakens the senses–big time! Anyway, glad the sunshine is back and, hopefully, everything will get back to normal soon.
Sitting here in Florida, hearing about all the damage Ike did from Texas all the way up to Ohio and so on, I can only imagine the ferocity of the storm based on our experiences with hurricanes down here.
I remember one year, not so long ago, we had several hurricanes in a row, Charlie, Jeanne, and I can’t remember the other one, but Jeanne was bad, it caused us to lose power for 10 days. We have a generator, but’s still inconvenient to have to fill it with gas and make sure it’s running and hooking it up and all the power cords running through the house. Hubby had to set his alarm to keep getting up to keep the generator full of gas and oil.
Every year, we stock gas in gas containers in our shed, in case the power goes out again.
I’m so glad that your family made it through safely.
I can relate. I managed through Fran a number of years ago.
I remember that just after the storm, time evaporated and neighbors became neighbors again. Freezers flung open, grills came out, and block parties ensued.
If you spent all day driving to get one bag of ice, and you got that bag, you were a hero.
Thank you for reminding me that it is the simpler times for which I yearn.
Glad to hear you made it through the storm safely. Yes, it was packing quite a punch when it moved through here in Northwest Arkansas. We were without power for quite a while. But I don’t think it was anything compared to what you experienced. I’m just grateful that my prayers were answered and all of my family and friends came through unharmed.
Lots of cleanup and repairs going on down south. Thanks all for prayers, we were alright, When I see so many trees down, missing houses in many cases, I realize it could have been worse, but it really wasn’t that bad here.
Thanks all.
Beverly, you should share your Hugo story, covering Hugo at 7 months along, brave lady.
Vicky, in Florida I imagine you have lots of experience with hurricanes, I do not envy you. They usually dwindle down to nothing by the time they hit here.
Melodieann, not sure we got hit harder than you, at least we have underground powerlines. Agree prayers answered, amazed there were not more lives lost.
I am glad you are okay. I remember living in Florida as a little girl when Donna came through. It was terrifying, but all was well for us in the end.
Leslie and Pat, I think those in Florida are the experts in preparing for storms. That is what a friend in Florida told me, to stock up on ice ahead of time. Everyone else was grabbing bottled water, gas, batteries, but not ice.
Who would have thought Ike would find his way to Kentucky? He did. Wind stormed his way through Louisville and knocked 280,000 people’s power out for several days. It was not funny. Thank God for my daughter’s child like spirit. She treated the whole thing like a camping trip. In fact, we were starting to enjoy the togetherness it caused so much we were almost disappointed when the lights came back on. ALMOST!