Random Tuesday, Here Comes Nick

 Wow.  Hurricanes and tropical storms do not usually scare me, but as I sit here listening to the wind whip against my house, and the rain come down in literal buckets, I'm feeling a bit uneasy.  It's not often that school is cancelled, doctor's offices close in the middle of the day with little warning, grocery stores look like they did during the "Great Toilet Paper Quest of 2020," and even pizza delivery is put on hold.  And apparently, flights are cancelled as well, which, by the sound of the wind, I would hope so.

Tropical Storm Nicholas is set to make landfall some time tonight.  I only live 35 miles north of Galveston, so we are accustomed to coastal flooding and strong winds.  The past has shown that a tropical storm can cause as much damage as a hurricane.  There is a fine distinction in wind speed with tropical storm winds slightly lower than those of a category 1 hurricane.

Am I scared?  Not really.  I've always felt an abiding faith that I am going to be okay.  The noise is a little disconcerting right now, though. And poor Louisiana!  They are set to get much of what we are getting and they are still recovering from the previous storm.

The storm surge is a cause for concern.  It is unpredictable how much the seawater will rise above normally expected tides.  Thirteen years ago, the storm surge from Hurricane Ike caused almost $25 Billion (with a B) in damages.

Iconic Ike Photo from my area

Although Texas and Louisiana have declared states of emergency, we are not under an evacuation order.  I trust our city leaders to  guide us during times of crisis, and I trust God to guide me personally, so I am not freaking out, just a little uneasy with the sound right now and praying for anyone who is actually suffering during this storm.

They say laughter is the best medicine, so....

I could get this for my husband!  Gotta love him!

This always bothered me when I was teaching.

This isn't just a southern thing, right?

One more difference between dogs and cats

And last, but not least,

Awwww.

I'm linking up with Stacy for Random Tuesday Thoughts and Sandee for Happy Tuesday.  Have a great week!

Thursday Thirteen Hurricanes

Living near the coast in Texas, hurricanes are always a concern between June 1 and November 30.  More hurricanes hit Texas than any other state (except Florida). They usually seem to hit our area toward the end of August or beginning of September; in fact, half of all hurricanes hit landfall in August or September.   But the "season" lasts six months.  In my 50+ years, I've lived through many, many hurricanes. 

1.  The deadliest hurricane in the recent past was Carla in 1961.  My mom was pregnant with my sister at the time and completely unaware of the possible danger.  Forty-six people lost their lives.

2.  The deadliest hurricane of all time, for Texas, happened in Galveston: The Great Storm of 1900.  Between 8,000 and 12,000 people lost their lives.

3.  Tropical storms can be just as severe as hurricanes around here.  For example, Tropical Storm Allison in 2001 left devastation in its path.  Many students that I was teaching at the time lost their homes.  This one lasted over two weeks.  It formed in the Gulf, traveled north over land, then turned around and went back to the Gulf.

4.  One hurricane I remember very well was Alicia in August of 1983. I was about to head off to college.  We had no electricity for 8 days!  It came back on two days before I left for college.

At the time, I lived about five miles from where this photo was taken.

5.  I spent my 40th birthday in a crummy motel in Port Lavaca due to Hurricane Rita, and it turned out that Rita was not that bad.  But with having just seen what Katrina (costliest hurricane in history) did to New Orleans two weeks earlier, we weren't taking chances.  This was my first time to evacuate, and instead of going north like everyone else, we went southwest, 100 miles outside of the predicted landfall.  And it worked!

6.  Hurricane Beulah was the first hurricane during my lifetime to hit the Gulf Coast of Texas.  This was 1967, and of course, I have no memory of it.

7.  Since 1851, 64 hurricanes have hit Texas.  That's about one every three years.

8.  The only other time I evacuated for a hurricane was when Ike hit in 2008, and that was mostly so we wouldn't have to live too long without power.  Again, we went southwest to Corpus Christi and didn't see a drop of rain.  Ike did powerful damage in our area:  214 deaths and $38 billion dollars in damage.

This photo was taken near where I lived during Ike.

9.  Hurricane Harvey in 2017 was even worse than Ike due to the 50+ inches of rainfall in our area. $120 billion in damages (some of that could possibly be due to inflation, but not all of it!).  57 tornadoes were produced from Harvey.  It took years for some people to recover from the damage.

10. When my grandmother passed away in 1988, we were forced by the cemetery and funeral home to bury her quickly (the next day) because they were worried about Hurricane Gilbert.  Gilbert never hit Texas, but it made landfall in Northern Mexico.

11. Hurricane Dolly was threatening Texas back in 1996 when my twins were almost two months old.  Dolly also made landfall in Mexico.  We got tons of rain, but it was much needed after a long drought.

12. The longest hurricane-free stretch of time in Texas happened from October 1989 to August 1999, almost ten years.  

13.  My favorite hurricane?

Recipe

Stay safe and link up at Thursday Thirteen for more fun!

Random Tuesday

I'm linking up with Stacy.  Join us!

These last few days, Houstonians have been looking back at Hurricane Harvey and the damage it caused.  Many people still haven't fully completed repairs.  It's estimated that 40% of those impacted are still trying to rebuild. We were lucky. We didn't sustain any extreme damage or flooding, but those not too far from us were not so lucky.  In total, estimates put the cost at $125 billion.

Before

After

Harvey wielded its power from August 25-29, 2017.  In some areas, it dropped as much as 51 inches of rain.  Freeways, highways, and inter-states were completely underwater.  The death toll was 75. A long-time high school coach who worked for one of the schools in my district lost his life while trying to save others.

Humans weren't the only ones who suffered.  Many animals were displaced or left to fend for themselves.  Dogs, cats, cattle, horses, and so on, likely hundreds of thousands.  Here is a picture of a "famous" dog whose picture circulated until his owner and he were reunited.  In the picture, he is carrying around a bag of dog food.

There were many heroes during this time period, and local celebrities who stepped up to the challenge.  Jim McIngvale, AKA"Mattress Mack," owner of Gallery Furniture, had his own down-on-his-luck story prior to moving to Houston, so even though his own home took in three feet of water, he opened his stores to serve as shelters for people displaced by the storm.  He also sent some of his larger trucks to rescue people when it was safe to do so.

Hurricane Harvey will always be part of Houston's collective memory.  I will leave you with this:

“You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.” — Maya Angelou

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Remember Ike

One year ago, Hurricane Ike hit our coast and ravaged through Texas and farther north.
We were lucky.

Others were not. In fact, my friend Kris is still dealing with the aftermath of Ike.

We evacuated at the last minute and drove south, away from where the storm would make landfall, to Corpus Christi. We stayed there two days. We returned to find only minor roof damage and, of course, a missing fence.

But the surrounding areas, particularly Seabrook, Kemah, Bolivar, and Galveston, sustained life-changing damages. Schools, hospitals, homes, restaurants, retail establishments... so many people suffered and still do today. But our community pulled together to help those affected, and there are so many stories of hope like this one. And there are still stories that are sad, like this one.


You're invited to read this post that I wrote September 13, 2008. It includes a poem I wrote that is very dear to me.

Ike was not my first experience with a hurricane. These are the hurricanes (and one really awful tropical storm) to enter the Gulf Coast via Texas during my lifetime. Many others threatened us and produced storms, but these actually made landfall in Texas.

Beulah (1967)
Celia (1970)
Allen (1980)
Alicia (1983)
Brett (1999)

TS Allison (2001)
Rita (2005)
Ike (2008)


History of Hurricanes to Hit the Gulf Coast (very interesting info!)

Governor Perry on Remembering Hurricane Ike

Galveston Remembers Ike

You might also like my post Remember 9/11

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Focus on the Positive

I realize there are people who live not too far from me that are seriously suffering including my own sister who lost a great portion of her roof, my school building that lost a great deal of the roof, and many people who have completely lost their homes. This is in no way meant to downplay that. For right now, I want to focus on something positive.

Hurricane Ike brought my family together like nothing else could do.

We were ecstatic to find that the electricity came on about two minutes before we (my husband, my two step-daughters and I) pulled into our driveway Sunday evening after a two day stay in Corpus Christi. I was even more ecstatic that my twins were there, having just arrived with their dad. It was strange not being with them during this emergency. We were also especially pleased that we had very little damage to our home, mainly just the blown-down fence and a few pieces of siding. We realize how fortunate we are. The tap water is unsafe for now, but we stocked up on bottled water and non-perishable food.

We began to unpack, pausing to chat with neighbors who were out in their yards cleaning up fallen limbs. We had dinner and settled in. The satellite was working, so we could watch TV, although the Internet was down.

Less than three hours later, we were plunged into darkness. No electricity! Out came the flashlights and the candles, with many stipulations being placed on the use of candles. A friend of ours made it through the hurricane only to have her home burn down due to carelessness of the relatives staying with her and their use of candles. It’s a long story, and a very scary one.

With guidelines in place, we gathered in the living room with a couple of candles lit and quickly became bored. Instead of suffering and lamenting our poor luck (as if we were truly suffering), we broke out the family games! We played a drawing game my oldest step-daughter made up (below is a picture 2 of our daughters made up, albeit strange). We played Uno, black jack, Scrabble, and we even colored pictures. It was great fun! Instead of all us doing separate things, we were together. Under normal circumstances, this would never happen.

A cool front came through, dropping the temp into the 70’s, so we opened the windows and fell asleep to a slight breeze. The next day was spent mostly cleaning up more debris in the yard and talking with neighbors, everyone helping each other. We even planned a cook-out. The electricity came on about 2:00 PM, but we carried through with our cook-out plans.

My family and two others got together and grilled chicken, steaks, and corn-on-the-cob in the neighbor’s driveway, and we all donated potatoes and vegetables. We enjoyed the cool weather outside, drank some adult beverages including homemade wine, had a wonderful dinner, and simply enjoyed talking with each other. This also doesn’t happen often under normal circumstances.

A disaster can bring families and communities together like nothing else I know, and while I wouldn’t wish for a hurricane or any other type of disaster to happen to anyone, once it does, making the best of it makes all the difference.

I still have two giveaways going on right now.

Prima Princessa Swan Lake DVD

Book Giveaway-The History of Love

Hurricane Ike Photos

This is my 41st Thursday Thirteen. Here are 13 photos I've taken in the past few days related to Hurricane Ike.

This is what's left of our back fence. It needed to go, though. The gate stayed up even though a branch fell in front of it, and I guess part of the side of the fence was shielded from the wind.

This is the direct back view.

And this is what we see out of our back windows now. Not a bad, view, really, but by next week, there will be kids out in that area because there is an elementary school just to the left of the field.

This is Clear Lake, about a ten minute drive from my house and about two blocks from where my in-laws live. Luckily, they are fine.

The Hilton on Clear Lake is on the side of this picture. The domed roof in the lobby fell in and they lost tiles off the side of the building. There's a boat on the side of the road, but that's not normally where you'd see a boat.

Trees snapped in the yard by the school where I work.

This is a back view of my school. There are ceiling tiles littering the grounds.

Here we are living with no electricity. A cool front came through, so the weather wasn't unbearable.


A Mexican restaurant a mile from my house.

A Wendy's restaurant a mile from my home.

My oldest step-daughter and I had fun drawing on the table at a restaurant while we were staying in Corpus Christi.

The sunset the night before the hurricane. Very orange-ish! Sorry it's not such a clear picture.

And to end on a positive note:
A rainbow the day after the hurricane (photo taken through the windshield - please ignore the bug guts!). God's promise not to destroy the earth by flood.

Click here to go to the Thursday Thirteen homepage.

Friday Fill-ins

1. I enjoy scrapbooking and taking photographs.

2. What I can do to live a better spiritual life is something I wonder about often lately.

3. In your heart, you knew the reasons "it" happened.

4. Take four children, a dog, a cat, a wife, and a husband, add a little bit of differing personalities and you end up with a crazy, chaotic, and sometimes stressful household where there is rarely a dull moment.

5. Life has gifted me with twins.

6. Reading a book is an instant vacation.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to getting out of town before Hurricane Ike gets here, tomorrow my plans include seeing a movie and spending a night in a hotel in Corpus Christi and Sunday, I want to come home to find out that the hurricane didn't damage our home and we actually have electricity! (however unlikely that is, it's what I want!)