Friday, September 12, 2008

Yikes It Is IKE - Coming our way!

We were amazed at the craziness of preparing for Hurricane IKE. I decided to take a few photos to show those of you who haven't experienced it: "Preparation madness." I honestly think it was worse than any holiday shopping I have ever seen!
First we went to the grocery store: HEB
When we arrived we grabbed a cart in the parking lot - good thing we did! I took this picture after returning these 4 from the parking lot! What carts weren't in line were in the parking lot.


Lines - 40minute wait or so before we could pay. The gentleman to the right of Jeff was here in 1961 when Carla hit. It was a category 4. He couldn't figure out why people were in such a panic. We saw carts that looked like there were 10 teenage boys in the family and mom hadn't shopped for 6 months and wasn't planning on shopping for another 6! Piled so high, things were sliding off and stuff propped on the front on the handle and things being held onto by mom!!! Water aisle - Mind you this is all before 10AM, on Thursday!!!!
This is another HEB - Lines to even get into the parking lot and look at the lines for gas...It is a little difficult to tell but lines were 4 and 5 cars deep.
Lines for gas at another gas station. I filled up the Highlander early in the day Wednesday. Jeff waited till 11:30PM Wednesday to fill up the Cavalier. At 9:30 the lines were still 4 or 5 cars deep. We topped the tank again Thursday night at 10:30PM. There were hardly any cars there! Some gas stations ran out of gas. However there were tankers on stand by - continually filling local gas stations. After the 10:30 gas up I had Jeff take me past to take a photo of all the carts put away - hundreds!!!
Jeff cutting a few boards for one side of our house. The side with our office/master bath/guest bedroom. In hopes it will protect our electronics- even though they are old.
The side he boarded up.
All finished outside! Lawn ornaments in. Mats in. Potted plants in. Highlander in. Only one family in our neighborhood evacuated. They are on the corner in front of us. We face their backyard. One neighbor noticed this afternoon that the evacuees had left toddler toys and garbage cans out front. So the guys (about 5 of them) from our neighborhood started to investigate. The family had left all their toys laying around the backyard - including their grill etc. (What were they thinking??? That a 6' fence would contain them with 50-80mph winds?) Well the men weren't willing to take the chance of projectiles breaking the rest of the windows in the neighborhood...so they covered all the toys (children and adults) with a net and staked it down. Thanks Neighbors for looking out for all of our windows!!!
One set of neighbors has a neighborhood party going on - they are out grilling burgers etc. J and I are doing a few more prep things around the house then it will be time for a late dinner.

3 comments:

Traci K said...

Hey guys, wondering how you fared through the storm? We headed over to the hill country to outrun it (I know...I'm a wimp), but it's been sunny and lightly windy over here, so we dodged the bullet. See my blog for updates.:)

merc n heidi said...

Looks like fun! What we miss out here in boring Vegas, just dealing with 110 degree heat.

Marla said...

I've been thinking about all of you down in TX. Hope things turned out ok. Good thing for "thinking" neighbors who help put others' things away.