Hurricane Ike #5

Sep 16, 2008 11:06

A couple of details I forgot to put in yesterday's post:

-- Apparently windows broke in other apartments on our floor (and throughout our apartment building). When we first went downstairs, as the alarms were blaring, Karen went to open the door and thought I was pushing on it, because it wouldn't open. When we finally got it open, we realized that wind was blowing down the hallway, creating a big vacuum that was pulling our door closed.

-- The thunder sounded very strange, it was kind of muffled. It didn't sound like thunder far away, but sort of like thunder would sound with ear plugs, plus the tone was higher than the normal roll of thunder. I guess the wind was distorting the sound. Also, the lightning was occasionally bright colors - green and orange. Plus, I saw a few transformers blow up with big orange bursts. That was impressive.

-- Lyle spent much of the second half of the storm with his hands over his eyes yelling, "No lightning! No lightning!" (and then "No beep! No beep!" once the alarm started). It was very sad. I tried to keep him otherwise entertained, but once another bolt of lightning hit close by, he'd put his hands over his face again.

So, yesterday Karen waited in line for 2 hours for gas, in order to fill the tank for a trip to Dallas. She wouldn't have normally waited that long, even in a situation like this, but she didn't realize how far the line wrapped around when she started. Luckily, they had gas when she got there. Many stations just keep running out. It's funny, I was driving here listening to a spokesman for one of the big oil companies talking about how there was plenty of gas, there just wasn't electricity to most stations, as I was passing several open stations in a row with lights on inside and stores open but signs saying they had no gas.

Anyway, this morning, they left for Dallas and they will be there for 2 weeks. Most of that trip was planned anyway, with or without the hurricane, because Karen's mom will be out of town and she needs to be up there to stay with her grandmother.

The electric company has restored power to many neighborhoods but keeps saying to expect to be without power for several weeks. Our neighborhood has many more downed trees than the ones I've driven through with power, so I'm guessing we're not high on the list. Last night, we had cold falafel on pitas and cold beans for dinner. We have good water pressure in our home now, but I don't think they've said it's potable yet. Somebody said they should make that announcement by the end of the week. About half the normal people are at work. Rice started classes this afternoon and my boot camp class starts again tomorrow, though later than normal due to the mandatory curfew for Houston.

So, for the next few days, I'm just driving to work and back, so I preserve my gas, and I'm probably working as much as the curfew allows. It looks like it will be over on Sunday and I can be out whenever I want.

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