Hurricane Ike- Day 9- Thursday 9-18-08

Well, Nick’s tub idea did not work and the water was still unbearable. Cold showers again and no power.

Today we went to two different Wal-Marts, Target, and Academy to look for lanterns to help us see better at night to read besides using candles. We never found any lanterns, but I did find a clip on light to clip onto my book.

Nick and I also have been looking into buying a Wii since this past Christmas. We have never been able to see one at all at any store. While we were in walmart, we were just enjoying time out of the apartment and in some air conditioning. We were walking around just looking at things and all of a sudden I had a thought come to my mine. Surely no one would be looking for a Wii right now since everyone is thinking about this hurricane and nobody has power. I wondered if they had any, so we went back to electronics and there were 5 boxes of Wii’s!! So, we got one for our birthday presents! YAY! The torture now is that we have no power so we can’t even play it!

This afternoon, Matt called and asked us if we would like to help clean up some houses and to carry tree branches away. We went down by Kemah to a couple’s home who had about 2 feet of water in it. Nick helped carry branches away and left to go help other homes as well with the guys. Amanda and I helped the lady on the inside by packing up all of her glass collectible items in their home. It was a lot of work, but I was so glad to help out in any way I could. They were staying with their son and his family, but they had to throw most of their things away. All of their furniture was ruined. It was pretty crazy, but they were very thankful for all the help.

For dinner, Nick and I decided to go to our favorite Mexican restaurant, Don Pico’s! It was so good! We enjoyed delicious chips and salsa, and chicken fajitas. We also found out that school does not start up until the 26th for teacher and the 29th for the students. We have a whole other week of no school! We thought about going up to Iowa to visit family, but we had so much to do here and with such short notice, we decided to not make the trip.

Hurricane Ike- Day 8- Wednesday 9-17-08

Today we woke up with no power again but with cool weather. We also had to take another cool shower. We went to go get some ice at a POD just down the road from us but there was a huge long wait so we decided not to wait. We then saw a sign that said “Free ice and water” at CVS with no wait at all. It was nice to get some more ice to put in the cooler to keep the drinks cold.

We played some games with our neighbor’s little girls to help the time pass by. I also did some more reading.

We found out today that one of our church’s pastor’s home burnt down. There was something wrong with the wires in the house and running the generator caused a fire. Because there was no water running where he lived, the house burnt from top to bottom because the fire fighters could not fight it. His family was not home at the time which was a blessing. He was also able to grab the family photos and got out in time. Unfortunately, the family dog did not make it out of the house. That was some very sad news.

Today was the day that our neighbors offered some MRE’s (Meal Reading to Eat from the army) for us to eat for dinner. I had beef pot roast with crackers and chocolate peanut butter. For dessert I had carrot pound cake. It was surprisingly really good. Nick had chicken fajitas, he wasn’t too thrilled about them but they were ok.

Nick could not stand the cold showers, so he was thinking that if he filled the tub with some water and let it set over night, it may heat up a little bit or at least come to room temperature. We’ll see how it turns out in the morning. Our Asian neighbor’s below were talking so loud that it made it difficult to fall asleep since all the windows were open.

Hurricane Ike- Day 7- Tuesday 9-16-08

We slept so well last night. It was so cool it got down in the 60’s and there was a nice breeze coming through the windows. I absolutely loved it! However, since it was so chilly, the cold shower I had to take was not any fun. I couldn’t bear to get into the stream of water, so I used a wash clothe to take a shower. So did Nick. The water was so cold, it took our breath away!

We decided to go check out the damage around our area. As we left our apartment complex, we could not believe the trees that were down and blocking the road to get out. We had to drive around them just to get out! We drove over to Seabrook to check out my school. On the way over though, I was getting really nervous because there was so much damage in between our apartment and the school which is about 4 -5 miles away. Clear Lake is right in between the apartment and my school. We drove by several marinas and boats were all over the place. Some of the boats were wedged into places on land that you just wondered how in the world did that every get there! We drove past the first marina and there was a boat pushed right up to the edge of the road and it said, “Keep out, we shoot!”

There were trees down everywhere. I also learned that behind my school, all of the houses had at least 2 feet of water in them and a lot of them had over 4 feet of water. I was worried about my students because I wasn’t sure if I had any that lived there. At my school, we were surprised to find that it looked really well. There was just some debris outside and pushed up against the school, but no damage on the outside. We couldn’t go inside to check things out in there though. We drove around Kemah as well. As we drove over the bridge to get to Kemah from Seabrook, we noticed there was debris all along the side of the road. I had heard that there were boats and couches and all kinds of junk all over the road and that you couldn’t get through. I was glad to find the road open, but all of that stuff was just pushed to the side for the time being. It was difficult to see the boardwalk and we couldn’t go down and get in there because it was closed off. I could see that the Ferris wheel was pretty banged up.

Leaving our apartment complex

This palm tree lost it's top

The light signals were all messed up

One of the marinas that had a LOT of water damage

Boats all over the place and not where they're supposed to be

Some boats and debris that were pushed up closer to the road
This bucket was wedged into the fence at Miramar Park in Seabrook (Right behind my school)

The disc golf course at the park in Seabrook

Disc golf course

Nick found this couch just back in the park not that close to any houses

Huge tree uprooted at the park

Highway 146 inbetween Seabrook and Kemah, all of this was under water

One part of Kemah that everyone lost everything

Gas station sign down

Downed billboard that took power lines with it

The McDonald's right by our apartment- was closed for over 1 week

The tree right in front of our front door had a small branch break off

After looking at all of this damage around us, and so close to us, we realized just how much God blessed us and our belongings. All we could do was give thanks to God because it truly was a miracle that our apartment had survived so wonderfully.

We were able to get some ice, drinks, and some snacks today at HEB. There was no cold food and the grocery store was running on a generator so it was pretty dark in there with only a few lights on inside. When we got home, we had leftover pizza from Papa Johns. We sat around and were bored, so we decided to do some cleaning and tackled the spare bedroom closet to clean out and sort through the stuff. We ended up throwing so much junk away! It felt so good to clear some space. While we were doing this, we found some water spots on the ceiling in the corner of the spare bedroom and in the closet.

I picked up my car after that and it was fine. Brad had put it in their garage and he said that if he hadn’t put it in there, it would never have survived. Again, I was so blessed!

For dinner, I cooked some red potatoes and green bean stew on the grill. It was alright, but I wouldn’t want to eat it again. Many of our neighbors came home today and so we sat outside in our lawn chairs, cooking, eating, talking, and having a good time. It was almost like camping. One of our neighbors was grilling a whole bunch of chicken and we were wondering where he found that at knowing that all of the grocery stores had to throw away all of their cold foods and no one around here had power yet to keep any chicken good. We never found out.
Today turned out to be a pretty good day, and we were so glad to be home again! It stayed cool all day and it was cool when we were going to bed as well! Another great night of sleep!!

Hurricane Ike- Day 6- Monday 9-15-08

Happy birthday to me! I got a couple of phone calls and texts through out today. I also found out that people keep getting a message about the fact that they could not reach me because of the hurricane in our area.

We got up and played some more cards because there was nothing else to do. I tried to call the apartment complex to find out if we had power to see about going home. I could never get through to them.

By the time lunch rolled around today, the fridge was very warm and the freezer was warm as well. I wasn’t sure if Ivy would try and cook anything today, but she did. She cooked some fried rice and an egg and sausage omelet. I made sure to say a special prayer for the food just because I wasn’t sure if it would be safe to eat. The food was definitely blessed because none of us ever got sick. :)

After lunch, Ivy decided to teach us how to play Mahjong. I think I failed to mention this in the previous posts, but Ivy is from Taiwan and so she shared a lot about her culture to us. That would also explain the food that we ate earlier when we were there. I love Mahjong and I would like to play again.

Matt and Amanda found out they had power at their apartment during Mahjong and so they both said they were leaving. We felt obligated to go home as well because we didn’t want to be left at her family’s house with out them there. Before we left, Ivy found 3 banana nut muffins and placed them on a plate and stuck a candle in the middle. They sang happy birthday to me. I wished for power to be on when we got home but I didn’t tell anyone of course! Ivy also gave me the Chinese fan that she let me use earlier to keep cool. She is so sweet! We packed all our stuff up and drove home. We surveyed a lot of damage on the hour long trip home.

We were fairly nervous to find out what our apartment would be like. We drove up and discovered that all was well and safe! What a relief! The only problem is that we had no power and no hot water. My wish didn’t come true. :( I was ok about it because the weather was still so wonderfully cool outside. We emptied out the fridge and freezer which was a stinky, disgusting mess! By that time, we figured we should find some food. We drove around for a while and found a Papa John’s that was open. We ran inside because it was busy and we ordered enough pizza to have some leftovers to eat the next day. Just after we got there they stopped taking orders.

We also stopped by Nick’s school to discover a lot of damage. We think the top layer of Nick’s roof, which is tin, flew off of Nick’s portable classroom. We don’t think there was damage done to the inside because the shingles still remained on the roof. We looked at the back yard of the school and found a huge black blanket like thing lying all over the grass. We started looking and realized that part of the roof from the main building of his school blew right off and took out a couple of light poles along the way. The field goal posts were also damaged.

Ike did not obey the speed limit!
We came home and ate our pizza by candle light, and made a few phone calls now that it was finally getting easier to make calls. We were in bed by 10 because it was so dark outside and there was nothing else to do. We are really starting to feel like pioneers or the Amish.

Hurricane Ike- Day 5- Sunday 9-14-08

We woke up and saw that it was only raining lightly, so we opened the windows. As soon as we opened the windows, we discovered a pleasant surprise. A cold front had moved through! It was still stuffy on the inside, so we went around and opened the windows in the house.

Ivy discovered how to use her gas stove properly without any harm done to the stove. I guess there was a concern about using it yesterday. She made an interesting potato salad that is not like the traditional American salad. It had potatoes, shrimp, pears (the ones from the back yard), and carrots with some sort of creamy sauce. Everyone loved it except me of course, because I hate seafood. She also cooked green vegetable (looked like some sort of cabbage/lettuce) with dried pork in it and then noodles with spicy jalapeno and cheese sausage. It was a pretty tasty meal. For dinner she cooked steak, rice, and corn on the cob.

The entire day was spent trying to fill up time. I sat outside on the patio and read a book while enjoying the 60 degree weather. We also listened to the radio to find out any news about power, getting ice, and when things would start opening back up. We found out that Wal-Mart would open up at noon. We got in the car and I kept trying to call my mom, but had a difficult time making any connection. I also forgot to mention in the previous days entry, that we had a hard time getting any reception on our cell phones. We got to Wal-Mart to find a huge long line. We found out that they were only letting 15 people in at a time and they had no ice, water, bread, or milk. So we decided to leave so we wouldn't have to wait in line for hours.

We tried to go to Wal-Mart again in the evening, but it was closed and the traffic was really bad. I got super car sick while sitting in the back seat with Amanda and Matt. While we were at a stop, Nick agreed to change spots with me. We jumped out and I went to the front. I was so grateful, but I didn’t feel good the rest of the night.

We came home and played more cards by lantern light, and then went to bed.

Reporter Blown Away

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nx7-8Rv62LU

Check this out... it's pretty crazy, but funny. :)

Hurricane Ike- Day 4- Saturday 9-13-08

I woke up at 4 am to the sound of the fan in our room turning on and off. After a few times, the power never came back on. I tapped Nick and I said, “Here we go.” I could hear the wind howling outside and the house was making all kinds of creaking noises. I was pretty frightened and I sort of wished I could see outside to see what was going on. My heart rate increased because everything was unknown as to what was happening outside. All I could do was pray and eventually I relaxed and fell asleep.

I woke up around 7 am and Nick and I both got out of bed to go check on the animals in the garage. As we walked through the living room, we peaked outside and it was still pouring outside, but the wind had settled a bit. Both of the animals were fine. Nick decided to try and let Perdi outside to go to the bathroom. She really did not want to go out, but she went and was really quick. As we went back into the house, we were just so amazed at how dark it was inside. We had to use flash lights to get around.

By noon, the wind was finished blowing, but it continued to rain the rest of the day. The house continually got stuffy and hot throughout the day. We decided to get in the car and travel around to see what damage had been done. As we drove, it was still raining. There was debris everywhere and trees were down. Some of the roads were flooded. We even drove past a house that had a tree land on its roof and was resting on the inside of the upstairs. (See photo below) It was amazing to see all of the damage and it almost felt unreal. The pictures we did take do not even do the damage justice. You just kind of have to be here to feel it.

For lunch, we had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches along with some chips. For dinner, we had cold leftover spaghetti and roast from the day before.

The guys went out and took down quite a few of the boards to let more light into the house. Our bedroom window could now be opened once it stopped raining to let some air in since we had no power which ment no air conditioning.

We stayed up and played Euchre by lantern light. That was a lot of fun and kept us busy so we wouldn’t get so bored. It was so hot and I wasn’t sure how I was going to get any sleep that night.

I took a shower to try and cool down and was surprised to find we had hot water. We went to bed with no covers and laid there sweating. I don’t know how we fell asleep, but we did. We woke up in the middle of the night because it was storming and raining. We had to shut the window because the rain was coming in, but it just made it hotter inside our room. This was not a very restful night of sleeping.

Hurricane Ike- Day 3- Friday 9-12-08

Today was a hot day! The boys put up all the boards on the windows. While they were putting up the boards, they found a small lizard which was so cute. It was crawling all over matt. Then we found a bigger lizard hiding out in a tree in the front yard.

They also have a Pear tree in their back yard and so I picked one and ate it. It was huge and it was pretty good.

Another fun thing about staying with Larry and Ivy is that they make all of their guests wear slippers around the house so that their hard wood floors do not get ruined. They also don’t like bare feet on the wood floors because the oil from skin leaves an imprint on the wood. Well, the slippers are pretty comfortable and it was fun wearing them around. It was funny however to see the boys wearing these slippers around the house all the time. I couldn’t resist to take a picture.

Today we sat around and watched the news and I also read my book. Today we couldn’t believe how high the water was in Galveston and the storm was still over 100 miles away! We knew that the storm was really going to be bad and I started getting nervous. I still felt really safe inside the house. It was amazing how dark it go inside once the windows were all boarded up.

Ivy still had us eating food like crazy since we were not sure how long the food in the fridge would last. She made Spaghetti and pot roast today. Both were delicious!

The boys put the last boards up around 8 and 9. The sky looked so beautiful with the sun setting. It was definitely the calm before the storm.

We thought about staying up all night to listen to the storm, but I was so exhausted that I ended up falling asleep around midnight. By then, the wind was already howling outside.