Things I won't soon forget
I was 12 when my hometown to a direct hit from Hurricane Alicia. It was September 1983. There are many things I still remember about that storm and it's aftermath. The tornado that ripped the doors from our garage. Venturing out during the eye of the storm and putting stuff back into the garage before nailing the doors back on and waiting for the other half of the storm to wreak it's havoc. Our neighbors being without electricity for 2 weeks. Running an extension cord across the street to run the fish ponds in their backyard. My brother sleeping soundly through the whole hurricane.
What will I remember this time?
- My children sleeping peacefully all night as the stormed roared outside.
- Losing electricity at 2am and watching the radar via my cell phone the rest of the night.
- WeatherBug reporting "mostly cloudy" and 8mph winds as the eye wall was ripping through.... yeah, the weather sensor at that location went totally MIA!
- Not having my husband home to hold my hand through it all.
- Waiting in line 4 hours for gasoline.
- Lines of people desperate to get food and ice.
- The unending hum of all the generators.
- FEMA Points of Distribution (PODs) with water, ice and MREs.
- Towels that feel like loofahs from line drying outside.
- Driving to Katy with my neighbor to get groceries, ice and gasoline.
- Annoying news reporters being total jackasses when asking questions of the FEMA, Centerpoint Energy and government representatives. We just got hit with a freaking monster hurricane! I will never watch Miya Shea or ABC13 News in Houston again.
- Potluck dinners every night with all the neighbors - like one big block party.
- Funny signs telling Ike to go away or the power to come back on.
- Saving ice in my freezer for the neighbors with no working fridge.
- Serving hot meals with the American Red Cross Disaster Recovery vans.
- Dancing like a crazy woman in the streets when the power came back on after 12 long days!
I am sure there are more and I will probably issue an update to this post at some point in the future :)
2 comments:
Sorry, but I had to grin a bit about the towels. In the midst of all of this, at least you had nice, exfoliated skin! Too bad the rest of the spa experience left a little to be desired... ((((HUGS))))
Oh brings back some fond and not so fond memories of David, Hugo, Charlie, Frances, Jeanne & Wilma. Hurricanes are no fun and I don't wish them on anyone.
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