Hurricane Ike - Still Causing Grief

For many in East Texas, Hurricane Ike is still very much on our minds. Traffic seems to be just about double what it would normally be. Fast food restaurants are jammed to capacity. (Sonic Drive-In's coffee machine was down this afternoon.)

Probably one-half of the people in this area are still without power. Some have generators but they just power up a few appliances. Crews are everywhere working non-stop to get things up and running. 

There are central depots to pick up ice, water and meal packs and the National Guard is still at work for these efforts.

Many areas are worse off than we are. We are truly blessed to have our power. 

At the beauty shop, where power had just come back this morning, I told one lady I was sorry about the problems with her beach house in Galveston. 

"Oh, there is no problem. There is no beach house!"

She was very brave to be making light of it, probably because it is not her permanent residence. When the insurance company told her hubby they would be out to assess damages he told them there was no need as there was nothing to assess at the property.

Most area schools are still out and some are still being used as Evacuee Centers. Many people have not yet been given the green light to go back to the Gulf Coast and of course, some have nothing to go back to.

So, our area is not out of the woods yet and we sure hope and pray our power stays on because down the street, they are without.

 

Powered Up Again!

After 57 hours without, power to our house is up and running and we hope and pray it stays that way. Many, many people in our area are still without! 

Because we have been without TV news, we really only know what we have been told over the phone. 

Guess we are out of touch with radio and do not have the right equipment to receive news. A few of our gadgets died, including a TV. Hubby and I really do try to keep up with everything and probably that was the most stressful thing for us: not knowing what was going on. 

The cell phone was super for sending and receiving texts and calls from friends and family. 

If you have been reading previous messages in this blog, then you will understand that we are now “back from our luxurious vacation”. 

On the up side, we loved how young Wil (five and a half years old) was watching and worrying for us. We had many calls from his Grandmother in Ontario. They were keeping us updated from CNN. Thanks for all your prayers from Ontario and Alberta, Iowa, California, Michigan and Ohio! 

Thanks Elaine, for calling Swiss Chalet to deliver the BBQ chicken to us from Toronto, even if only in our dreams! 

Now, we have not watched the news yet, but we are sorry that apparently Ike continued on up, all the way to Ontario! Sorry to those of you who received residual. 

Thanks to all the folks who made it a little easier on us: Raul with ice, Daisy with ice, Armando with the clean-up, and to anyone I am forgetting. Thanks to all the employees who were able to open up essential services quickly. Simple gestures were what we needed. 

We had no church on Sunday – that is another story: first time! 

Will try to post again with some photos of our area in East Texas. We are blessed in that we received very little damage: mostly downed tree limbs. We are in a brick house and it seems to have survived nicely. 

I must stress to you up north that our area was an evacuation area where people came to be safe and we actually probably took a little bigger hit than originally expected. 

I wore my Big Bear Lake (California) 1991 – 1992 Survival Shirt on Saturday – in memory of my niece, Rosalyn who loved California as much as I love Texas.

Luxurious Vacation

Having been away from the Toronto area and living in East Texas for almost 12 years now, I am able to see more clearly the distinct differences.

We are expecting Hurricane Gustav in three to four days. The last two hurricanes to really impact this area were Katrina, the one that devastated New Orleans and another named Rita.

Katrina impacted our area in that many people came here and on down to Houston to get away. Some never went back; they stayed here.

We happened to be in Shreveport, Louisiana when Katrina was on her way and we left early the last morning of our stay and ambled down back roads to keep away from the heavy traffic on the major thruways.

Rita did bring damage to our area – mostly downed trees and many damaged roofs. She also took out our power, or as you in Ontario know it, “Hydro”.

(Electric power in Ontario is mostly generated from water, such as Niagara Falls and since “Hydra” is the word for water, you get the idea.)

To help you get the humor, let me digress and tell you how much people in Ontario love to leave their city homes, often near water and take a break at a cottage. The humorist Stephen Leacock wrote about how much Ontario folks like to live and vacation near the water.

Well, when I was about 20, a friend of mine invited me to her family’s cottage for a week. Their cottage was actually on an island, their island. Now, I had been to her home which was very large and suitably situated in a fine Toronto neighborhood. I had also been to her family’s hobby farm also with a spacious, comfortable house.

Well, I took a bus from Toronto up to Parry Sound on Georgian Bay (maybe 120 miles) and she came to meet me in a fancy car. We drove to the dock where she parked and we got in to a large and impressive boat.

So, I was not prepared for their island. There was no electricity and no indoor plumbing, only outhouses. (Now, I think there may have been more than one outhouse, which of course is impressive.)

I stayed on the island for a week and actually had a very nice break although at age 20, I did not truly appreciate how nice a break it actually was.

In Texas, so far, I have not heard about people taking this type of vacation.

So far, in our neighborhood, the destruction since I have been here has generally been fallen trees, downed fences (which are mostly wooden), and some roofs damaged. The temperature here gets really hot and the most oppressive thing about a hurricane is the power outage. That means no air-conditioning and when the temperature is 90 – 100 degrees that becomes a major problem. (Air conditioning is not a luxury here.)

So Hubby and I are sitting on our reclining sofa in the late evening and it is not too hot yet. We are in the dark, reclined back, holding hands and I say,

“Do you know what we call this in Ontario?”

“No, what?” (Hubby is a very good straight man and is an Illinois native.)

“A luxurious vacation!”

So, it looks like Gustav is heading our way and let’s pray that it is just a “luxurious vacation” again!