Kathy's Snapshots

One last entry since Hurricane Rita has blown threw with nary a damaging wind. In my neighborhood we weathered gusty winds and some rain and the only damage was to my neighbor's rain gutter which has been trying to fall down for the past 2 years anyway. Part of me wants to feel disgruntled that we put in so much effort protecting ourselves and our home for less than a thunderstorm, but at the same time, I can't help but feel moved and grateful about the support in our neighborhood. I hope it is the same way in other neighborhoods but I feel like I live someplace special.

We are out of bread, milk, and other groceries (from feeding people passing through the house) and my cupboards are stocked with enough peanut butter and jelly to last a year or so since we didn't need to endure any power outages. God told me once a long time ago (surprisingly, it sank in) that I do not have to worry about food or clothes so I never do. We have enough and there will always be enough. It might not be steak, shrimp or dining at fine cuisine restaurants, but I have never been hungry or naked.

This morning my husband's company called and asked if he would drive his truck to their Houston yards to check for damage. I rode along and it was surreal. We drove east, towards the storm so as we traveled the weather changed from gusty winds and light rain to stormy weather. EVERY business was closed with many boarded up. No gas stations, no convenience stores, no fast food restaurants, no grocery stores, donut shops, or truck stops were open, even most hotels were closed and boarded up. Cars and trucks were parked and deserted in strange places like sideways in a driveway into a shopping center. Where did the people who belong to those vehicles go? Light damage had hit a couple buildings such as the roof on a drive thru at a bank collapsed beside the bank, tree limbs blown, and power and cable lines down.

Driving east to the truck yard several highway patrol cars surged by with their lights flashing. A couple minutes later a line of what must have been 30-40 ambulances sped by, I assume on their way to Beaumont, Texas where a tornado touched down. Heading back we observed perhaps 80-100 National Guard vehicles of all shapes and sizes filled with soldiers carrying fuel, water and pallets of supplies. I didn't know there were so many Hummers in existence.

Other than recurring rain showers and winds, my hurricane adventure is ending. School has been canceled Monday and Tuesday and I am assuming that the school district is unable to receive food supplies for the cafeteria or fuel for school buses and maybe the staff needs time to return from their scattered places of refuge. While I am beyond relieved that we came through the hurricane so lightly, I am sorry for the people in other places who are suffering the tragedy that missed us by a hair. Poor, poor New Orleans suffering through another flooding, another levy break.

Thanks to all for their prayers and support. I feel blessed. Now I have to go put my house back together.

kathyssnapshots

All is well. My husband has been called to assess the damage at his work and I am breaking out and going with him! More to tell later.

kathyssnapshots

I'm beat, but not done. It's a contest between my energy and finishing well. The house is secure, kitchen clean and we've all made it upstairs but somehow the computer sidetracked me and I'm having trouble mustering the energy to do pajamas and teeth brushing. We are putting the kids to bed like a regular night knowing that it will be a night of interruptions.

It's official. The silly has hit. Winds are gusting and rain is beginning only is it still called rain when it blows sideways? It ought to have another name when it blows sideways like wavedrops or floating rivers. My husband has turned on his Sirius radio and if I am lucky a good song will play and we can slow dance and freak out the children. In 10 minutes I can watch GH on SoapNet.

Have I mentioned lately that a hurricane is coming? It doesn't seem real at the moment.

kathyssnapshots

Friday 7:16

The sky looks yellow and clouds are moving in that don't look friendly. They look yellow. 90 miles in from the coast we are feeling the temperature dropping, wind gusts, and rain splatters. Garage doors are still up and folks are moving in and out....just checking.

We are finishing dinner and dishes and still have 4 extra kids in the house. I don't mind feeding them, but if they don't go home soon, I won't let them out of the house without a note from a parent. It's not going to be on my head if the wind picks up one of them and deposits them in Kansas. My little kids will be heading to bed soon. I figure they can go to sleep secure in their beds and if the storm becomes too rough we'll pick them up and bring them downstairs.

The news reporters keep saying that 95% of Galveston residents evacuated. I bet about 99% left the vicinity and the actual 5% are all the news reporters still on the island waiting to be swept away in the hurricane. I wonder if the emergency officials and police officers that stayed in the evacuated areas look at them standing by the water with rain beating down on them and shake their heads at media foolishness. They must be tripping over each other from all the stations reporting. Is the rush worth their life? I can understand taking chances to report in a war zone, but a hurricane is an avoidable danger. If I were their mothers, I would call them home and slap them.

kathyssnapshots

Friday 5 p.m.:

The wind is beginning to do more than whip our hair around, it's beginning to howl. Dark, rain filled clouds are moving in and people are standing in their front yards with worry on their faces.

Our meat has cooked and will go into the refrigerator to feed us tomorrow if the power goes. A 2nd loaf of bread is filling the house with a comforting yeasty smell.

The news shows that Galveston is feeling the stormy affects of Hurricane Rita and we know it's coming. I've never been afraid of weather, but my stomach keeps doing a funny little dance.

kathyssnapshots

Hangin' out in a Hurricane

Beginning of the Week:

At the beginning of the week my eyes were rolling over the media hype at Hurricane Rita meandering across the Gulf towards Galveston. Honestly, I thought they were jealous of Louisiana because they couldn't dramatize Katrina for our area. I do not hold the media in high regard. By Tuesday and Wednesday it had become more real than the week before Christmas when anticipation drives every action and the countdown begins. Well, we've had our countdown, but I don't think we're going to receive any presents.

Wednesday:

During the week when I spoke with my husband who drives mainly between Houston and Dallas, I was cool. "Just work, we're fine," I assured him. "I'll pick up the yard and prepare the house." Until Wednesday. Wednesday, 3 days before Rita was due to hit, when schools were closing and everywhere I went running errands people were asking each other, "Where are you going?" Not if they were going but where. That was the day that I called my husband and said I didn't think we would slide through a bit of bad weather and he needed to come home. Now. Demonstrating that after 27 years of marriage he can read my mind, he was already on his way. It took my husband over 6 hours to drive home when usually it would take about 45 minutes.

Thursday:

My sister in law called at 5:12 a.m. to let us know that she was leaving home heading for a town about 90 miles past us on I-10. 14-1/2 hours later she showed up at our door, needing to run to the bathroom, hungry and tired. My brother in law was required to work until noon; however, he headed out planning to meet up with his wife but he arrived at our door also hungry, tired and needing some peace and quiet. With hurricane Katrina graphically fresh in folk's minds, warnings to evacuate were taken seriously. They were taken so seriously that highways clogged and became parking lots. Cars filled with gas idled the tank away as they sat on a highway for over 24 hours not moving. The heat has been intense for the past week and the thought of families with small children trapped on the road in the blazing sun tore at my heart. It also made me very glad that it wasn't me.

Thursday morning we had sensible plans to head out with our neighbors to stay at his mother's house for at least one night. In an unplanned string of events two other families on our street planned to come with us and we packed for a caravan of several cars. A couple events changed our minds. My Dad called with a health crisis for my stepmom, the news showed an expanding gridlock of cars on the highways, 4 miles from I-10 cars backed up into our neighborhood trying to get on the highway. Watching the news and contemplating the horror of driving in my van with 4 little children for hours upon hours, I balked. The temps have been high 90’s and with stop and go traffic, people were baking on the roadways, unable to run their air conditioners. If I had to sit in traffic for 12 hours with 4 little kids in my van I would be insane. My son would drive the car and my husband would drive his truck and I'd be a lone adult in a sea of tiny tots asking questions, bickering, complaining, and needing to go potty. It ain’t gonna happen and I feel for the families stuck on a highway unable to move with the storm moving ever closer.

We thought we were evacuating. I packed for leaving. We waffled, the hurricane wavered. Hurricanes wobble but they don’t fall down. All afternoon they predicted that it was moving north which was good for us, but then it returned to its original course. The good news was that was downgraded from category 5 and should be a 3 or 4 by Friday. Our street looked like a big block party as several homes have extra folks in them.

Friday:

The comaraderie has been phenomenal with neighbors helping neighbors, sharing tools, food and equipment. And we wait. And wait. And wait. Our big downstairs windows are boarded, the inside closet cleaned out, other windows taped, important papers in plastic bags, tubs filled with water, laundry done, dishes washed, flashlights checked, rotary phone hooked up, and air mattresses filled and waiting. What's left except to BBQ and bake bread? That's been my chore for the afternoon other than periodically letting the kids run around outside to use up steam. They feel the tenseness around them, hear and absorb the seriousness of the broadcasters from the TV's playing in every house, see our home with things out of place and they don't know if they should be happy or scared. When the sun is shining and hardly a breeze is blowing, it's hard to buy into the drama and yet how can we not? We can say "Phew! Only a category 3 hurricane." But category 3 can still turn homes into matchsticks and bring rain that floods houses.

I feel for the people who tried to evacuate and now have become refugees within their own town sometimes mere miles from their home. Shelters have opened all along the evacuation highways because folks are unable to make it home after running out of gas or having car problems. Since there is no gas available they are stuck where they ran out. I have never experienced anything like this. No gas stations are open, convenience stores have closed, grocery stores have empty shelves and most have been closed as of 5 p.m. yesterday. On the news I saw that one bar in Galveston remains open, but where I live, no businesses are open as 1) their shelves are empty, and 2) employees are home with their families hunkering down for the hurricane.

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10:25 am 9/24/05 Leave a comment	kathyssnapshots All is well. My husband has been called to assess the damage at his work and I am breaking out and going with him! More to tell later.