Almost a CAT 3 Hurricane

Everyone seems to be saying that this summer has been unusually hot even for Texas. Our air conditioning bill is all the proof I need that it has been hot. The loss of a beautiful tree that shaded the entire southwest side of our house seems to have made matters worse. If you live in Texas you know that any protection from the sun on the southwest side is huge. This particular tree was lost last September during Hurricane Ike.

Hurricane Ike made its landfall over Galveston, Texas as a Category 2 hurricane on September 13, 2008 at 2:10 a.m. CDT. I was 8 months pregnant with Kariana. We are approaching the one year anniversary of Hurricane Ike so I thought it would be an appropriate time to recall the storm.

Like most everyone in Houston we had run from Hurricane Rita in 2005 and like most everyone in Houston we were determined to stay for Ike. One of the most emotionally intense parts of the storm is the preparation and waiting. Everyone’s eyes are glued to the television tracking the path of the storm. Lines are battled at the stores gathering hurricane supplies – food (check) water (check) radio (check) flashlights (check) batteries (check).

Then the real waiting period begins a few hours before the storm. I sensed an eerie feeling in Houston the evening before Hurricane Ike made landfall. The roads and highways were empty except for the convoy of FEMA trucks that were arriving into town. The city was quiet except for the hammering of plywood on windows as people prepared their homes. Our neighbor, Marv Johnson, and Tobin spent the late afternoon boarding up windows and doors on our houses. And then we waited some more.

Late that night the winds started to pick up and the rain began falling. Soon after the wind began howling and the rain began falling sideways. We (including Stripes) "sheltered in place" on a mattress that Tobin wrestled down the stairs into the television room (I'm afraid I wasn't much help at 8 months pregnant). The electricity started to flicker, the transistors popped and then we were left in the dark waiting for the eye of the storm with only the battery operated radio on. The eye passed east of our house so the winds howled and the rain poured all night long. It felt like it would never end.

The storm finally passed as dawn approached. Our neighbors began emerging from their homes to survey the damage. The damage to Galveston and Houston was enormous, but my little Junior Mints and I had survived the storm.

Here are some pictures of the tree we lost in our yard.