Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Post Ike

Hurricaine Ike has come and gone and things around Houston are almost back to normal. It's crazy how a storm that drives through in about 4 or 5 hours can bring the 4th largest city in the country to it's knees for a short time. September turned into a wild month to say the least.

I'll start with the most important things...Leigh, Riley, the animals, and myself were fine. We spent part of the night in our "storm room", which was our utility room. The storm room was pretty quiet, but whenever we stepped out, we were reminded how big this storm really was. It was a little scary seeing the trees behind the house bending over like rubber. Our house was definitely making noises I had never heard before. Luckily, after it all had past, the extent of our damage was a bent over fence. I'd say the majority of the damage in our neighborhood was fences down and lots and lots of trees!

Unfortunately, Leigh's office didn't fare so well. Her company's office is on the top floor of an 11 story building and the roof was severly damaged. Basically, water poured in all night leaving the entire office with standing water. All desks, computers, and everthing else you can imagine was completely ruined! The gym on the other hand came out ok. We had a couple minor leaks in the roof, but nothing major thankfully.

Of course the biggest inconvenience for the entire city was the lack of electricity. We lost power around midnight on the night of the storm...just about the time the winds were starting to pick up and the house was starting to creak. I decided to go ahead and wake Leigh up and move us all into the storm room at that time. Luckily the TV stations were being broadcasted on local radio stations, so we were able to listen to what was happening and knew when the worst was about to hit. Like I mentioned before, it was pretty impressive to hear mother nature, but I'm not sure I want to ride out a much stronger of a storm. That was a high 2/low 3 level storm...I can't even imagine what a 5 could do!

About 7:30am, my neighbor Mike and I decided to take a drive around and check out the damage. Again, it was mostly fences and trees, but you would have thought a bomb went off in some of the more wooded parts of Sienna...trees down everywhere, blocking roads and sidewalks. Luckily though, there wasn't a lot of home damage.

So without power, what do you do all day?? Pretty easy answer...if you are a kid you play ALL day, and if you are an adult you eat and drink heavily almost ALL day! I may be in the minority on this, but we actually had a really good time for the 6 days we were without power. The first couple days was like an outdoor bbq that wouldn't end with all the neighbors. Anything that was in the process of thawing got grilled and consumed. It was a lot of fun getting to know some of the neighbors better and just relaxing a little. Nobody could work so you tried not to really worry about that for a few days and not being a slave to the Tivo was very refreshing. Luckily though, what made all of this bearable was the fact that a nice cool front came through the day after the storm...which dropped the temps down below 60 at night and really dried out the humidity in the air! Without that, the nights would have been brutal, but with the windows open it was cooler than what we typically keep our AC. We even camped out in the neighbors back yard one night. It was probably a little alcohol induced and the wives loved it I'm sure, but Mike and I thought it was a great idea....which it was!! We all got a good night's sleep.

One of the worst things initially was the lack of cell phone service. We couldn't text or call out unless you stood in one little spot in the driveway and got very lucky for about a minute. However, in our neighborhood, there is an overpass that goes over the railroad tracks and it quickly got the name "cell phone hill"...and for good reason. It was the highest point in the area and you could get a signal up there. So for 24 hours a day there were cars on the hill making calls. I never experienced it, but Leigh and Adria frequented the hill.

After a couple trips into town for ice and groceries, I quickly realized that I would just rather stay in our bubble in Sienna Plantation. There was way too much chaos and panic out there...stressed me out. A few of the resteraunts opened in the first few days after the storm but they were only serving limited menus, and fast food places were only open through the drive-up. Although we never needed to refuel during that week, gas did become an issue for many and the lines at the stations were LONG! I'm glad we never sat through that.

So for about 5 days, we really did have a good time in the neighborhood. It's a little sad sometimes to think that it takes a storm like that to bring everyone out of their homes to get to know each other better. I wouldn't wish a hurricaine on anyone, but I'm happy that we were able to pull some good from a bad situation. By day 6, the lack of electricity was starting to get very old. Mike even commented as we began to grill out back that night that he thought the group was at our lowest point. Then less than an hour later, the lights came back on!!! There was cheering in the streets...literally! So what did we do to celebrate...sat outside and got through a few more bottles of wine. Who needs the indoors and electricity???