Re: OT - Back home after Hurricane Ike
- From: "Kate G." <grovesfam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 15 Sep 2008 17:33:55 -0400
I hope you and DH can muddle through without too terribly much
inconvenience.
In times like this... we never have too look to terribly far... .to
appreciate our own problems!
--
Kate in MI
http://community.webshots.com/user/K_Groves
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<countryone77@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:30510f81-4976-4625-8ab0-8e246325d495@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
My DH & I decided to evacuate, rather than sit out Hurricane Ike. We
live in the small community of Simonton, TX, about 45 miles west of
Houston. It was not a light decision to make as he hurt his back a
few days before we left (last Thursday morning). At the time, NOAA was
projecting Ike would be a cat 3 storm and the eye would pass over our
house. As it turned out, my DH was able to drive okay, which was good
as I still have problem driving (due to an injury to my ankle 1.5 yrs
ago). We ended up in Fort Stockton, tx, where we stayed until
yesterday morning. We were glad to see the Ike never quite made it to
a cat 3 storm and that it did not hit our house head on. Furthermore,
it moved out quickly, so we did not get any local flooding, which
could easily have occurred if we had gotten the predicted 14" of rain
as we are a stone's throw from the Brazos river.
After a long drive home, we found the house intact -- just a few tree
limbs down. Of course we are part of the 1.67 million CenterPoint
Energy customers (73%) without power and without power we have no
water from our well. We have a small generator, that has seen better
days. Its starter cord broke several years ago after which my DH
found an alternate method of starting it up. He connects a AC-DC
power converter to an old car that we have, and revs the engine (okay,
it's me doing the engine reving), connects the other end of the power
converter to a drill, which he then uses to start the generator. As
you can imagine, that process is fraught with difficulties, but he did
manage to get it going yesterday afternoon.
At that time there was only a bit of fuel in the generator's tank, so
he decided to top it off. As it turned out, that was a big mistake,
because the generator's gas tank has a crack in it and started
spilling gasoline all over the place. He never did get things fixed
last night -- it got dark and he was so tired that we were concerned
that he might make a dangerous mistake. So, we had no water or lights
last night and I don't do very well in a high heat/high humidity
situation. On top of which his back was not helped by all of the
unusual activity; I am extremely lactose intolerant and apparently got
some when we ate a BBQ lunch at a restaurant in Seguin on the way
home. Needless to say, neither of us got much sleep last night!
Things are looking quite a bit better today. DH got some more gasoline
in Wallis, and only had to wait in a short line (unlike the extremely
long lines up near I-10 & Houston). After many difficulties DH was
able to drain off 3 gallons of gas -- below the crack in the gas tank
and get it running again (he tried with the old car again, but that
did not work -- ended up using our "good" car). After getting lights
back on again, DH tried starting the well's pump -- it worked :-).
Anyway, I was able to cook and clean today. We still do not have air
conditioning, as the generator is too small to handle that amount of
wattage, but the weather cooled down about 10 deg. F today, so it is
much more pleasant (especially with ceiling fans). It's supposed to
stay in the low 80s (F) for the next few days. I also cannot use my
iron or washing machine, as they use too much wattage.
Of course we do recognize that our generator has "had it" and is not
really safe to use. However, right now it is impossible to find a
generator anywhere near Houston to replace the old one. Hopefully
more generators will be brought into the area in the next few days.
If not, we will try to order one over the internet. Due to the fact
that we are such a small community, we expect to be one of the last
areas in which power will be restored -- we may have to live like this
for some time to come.
Still we are much better off than some, and are so sorry to hear about
all the devistation along the coast.
I work in a high-rise in downtown Houston (40-story bldg). On the
news they said that buildings with 20+ stories had a lot of window
damage, so it is making me wonder what happened at my office, which is
on the 20th floor. The company for which I work told us to not report
for work today or tomorrow and is supposed to give us another update
at 4:00 pm tomorrow.
Bev
.
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