Hurricane! All the Way Up Here

First of all, I can’t believe I haven’t updated my blog in so long.

Secondly, I cannot believe that Hurricane Ike made it all the way up into East Texas, where I live! It was degraded to a tropical storm when it was a little south of here, but it was still worse than I expected.

The strange thing is, we are accustomed to major thunderstorms with lightening and hail and don’t forget the flash flooding. We are not used to the silence of a hurricane. It was traumatizing to me! I was really amazed at the quietness of it all. I think the reason the tornados and thunderstorms are not so traumatic is because they come and go quickly, without much warning, so there is not as much time to totally panic. But with the hurricane, we had days to track it and know it was coming and there was nothing we could do but pray it would slow down or die out before it got here.

As it turned out, this one didn’t die out but kept going. I heard from a friend in Canada even of the horrible rain from it. It is simply amazing that a hurricane could keep going for so long with so much force.

Fortunately, we only lost power for a few hours, and much of the area is still without power. Several patio covers in my neighborhood were twisted beyond repair as I watched. I was thankful we didn’t have large trees near our house because there are still trees down all over the area. One of my co-workers ended up with one in her house. Galveston and surrounding areas were devastated. The images I have seen are horrific. Even downtown Houston was hit hard. Anyway, we made it fine, if not a little grouchy by the time it was gone.

I know this is all old news by now since it was several days ago, but I still have people I am checking in with and people who are checking on me. It will be a while before things are back to normal.

Prayers are with those who lost so much.