Post-Ike #1, Ride & Return

We rode out Hurricane Ike Friday night & Saturday morning in a darkened hotel room. Much to our disappointment and unique among the other hotels in the vicinity, our hotel lost power a good 7 hours before the storm hit at c. 2:10 am CT on Saturday morning, about 3-4 hours before we anticipated. With the power out, the water dried up about noon on Saturday.

The winds were an impressive 100-110 MPH at the peak of the storm. Jonathan and I slept through the worst of it, while Anne and Becky startled at the loud gusts. Though it didn't look like much rain, the freeways and surface streets flooded.

Once Jonathan & I heard on Saturday afternoon that there were no flood waters barring the freeways back to our home, we made a scouting run and determined it was safe to return. We then went back for Anne and Becky (and the pets) and were back home by 5:30 pm CT. I fired up the generator which provided enough watts to run the refrigerator, one lamp, a small B&W TV and about 5 rechargables (phones & flashlights). And we spent a wonderful night in our own beds.

The house had almost no damage, just a couple of shingles lost. We did lose one tree along the back fence but our pines made it through just fine. The biggest loss was to our cars at the hotel. About 1/2 of the 20 or so cars parked in one row in the hotel lot experienced blown out side & rear windows, all of which faced the wind which was funneled through 2 buildings. My truck and Anne's sedan lost a door window each (Becky's was fine). But all in all, we are very grateful that we came through with such minor damage and small hassle.

The biggest inconvenience is the loss of electricity. It'll be out for up to two weeks. It's amazing how much we depend on the stuff.

I'm composing this from Fort Worth. But more on that in my Post-Ike #2, Server to Ft Worth post.