The one (shingle) that got away...

This is something I wrote on Chad's laptop last Saturday during the Hurricane, before the laptop ran out of power like everything else in our house did. I'm really pretty tired of all things hurricane, but wanted to have something written down.

"Well, it is 1:45 p.m. Saturday right now and the rain is finally stopped, and the howling wind we’ve heard the last 18 hours has slowed. It is strangely quiet. That was not the case last night. Everything was closed Friday afternoon, and the day inched by. We were all so tired of waiting, for this storm, which we knew was coming, but didn’t know what to expect from it, Having made it through Rita without much more than flickering lights. Chad filled our 55 gallon barrel, moved backyard items into the garage, and removed the net from the trampoline and flipped it over, to prevent it from going airborne.

As the day wore on, it appeared from the outside that the neighborhood was holding an impromptu block party. We chatted with the neighbors while our children played. Others walked their dogs, and still more rode bikes through the neighborhood. It seemed everyone was stir crazy, from being indoors, anticipating hurricane Ike. And for that reason, we felt strangely relieved when at around 7 p.m. we felt the wind picking up. Eventually, everyone returned indoors. After putting the children to bed, we sat down to watch the news. We knew Ike would make landfall at about 2 a.m., and so even after putting the kids to bed, the minutes ticked by ever so slowly. We watched the 600 mile across swirling cloud mass inch closer to the beach, and we were surprised to not be receiving much rain once it was about 10 p.m. or so.

We were amused in the news meanwhile, by the Health Official in a News conference informing us we were going to confront “raw sewage episodes” and admonishing us not to “wade into raw sewage.” And also telling us to work with our health care providers to make sure we are current in our Tetanus and Hepatitis vaccines (as if we could do anything about it at 10 p.m. on the Eve of Ike.) We also got a laugh out of the scrambling news anchor, Shern Min Chow who was put on air before she was ready and we subsequently saw her thread her mic up through her blouse with one hand and reach into her blouse from the top with the other to secure it onto her lapel. We had lights flicker on and off throughout the evening, the only sign really, that Ike was really coming.

We moved our kids into our room, fearful about the tornadoes that might be spawned from all the wind. And right about 12 a.m., we heard our little boy from the portacrib in our room, murmur, “uh oh” in his sleep. And as if on cue, the rain came. Quietly at first, and then more forcefully. And at 2:30 a.m., the howling wind joined the rain. We were astounded each time the reports came in on the wind speed… for what I was hearing outside sounded much more forceful than the 45 m.p.h. the news reported. We wondered aloud, "really? Could that be right? It's got to be stronger than that!" It was so dark. We could see outside, but only as far as our porch light shined. I tried to sleep, but the wind blew around the perimeter of our house, like it was searching for a place to come in. I could hear noises outside of unknown things being buffeted by the wind. Then, the lights went out. They did not surge back on this time. We were in complete darkness as the storm outside raged around us. We tried to sleep, but for all the world could not let our minds and bodies rest while just beyond our walls our trees were blowing wildly and whipping in the wind, which had reached 60 mph.

Our children woke up; at what time, we are not sure, because we had no power. It was still dark. The lights were still out. We got up and surveyed the damage. We were not surprised to see two sections of fence on either side blown down completely. Later, we found water dripping from our fireplace. We had heard the metal inside the fireplace being blown in and out during the wind last night, so something must have given on the inside. Not much has been collected in a bucket, but something will have to be done about it. The water pressure from our faucets was very low and we tried not to use it. Later we heard they were testing the water for contamination, and that we needed to ration our water and if we used it for eating or drinking, we needed to boil it beforehand. Our 55 gallon barrel of water, plus our two cases of bottled water and tub full of tap water gave us peace of mind. We also discovered water had blown through the weather stripping on our front door and we had water puddling inside our home by the front door. And we lost one shingle. Just one."

We had no power until Monday night and I and the kids went to San Antonio on Sunday because it was hot and I was not feeling well. My brother in law brought a generator and so that kept our deep freeze functioning and we only lost a little food from the fridge and freezer. We were very fortunate. A sad/yucky picture I saw was a storefront, with literally, a mountain, of ice cream, melted, in front of it, and the ice cream dripping down the road. All that perfectly good ice cream, gone to waste. So sad.

And if I hear "hunker down" one more time, I think I will scream. That is how all news anchors ended their reports: "we're just hunkering down over here," "we'll be hunkering down" "everyone knows to hunker down." Even Ed Emmett, Harris County judge, said, "We're all hunkering down." What exactly does it mean "to hunker"? I had no idea, so I looked it up. The official definition is "to squat on one's heels." I will certify that I was NOT squatting on my heels all night long. And I nominate "hunker down" most overused phrase during the hurricane.