A Reflection on Hurricane Ike

jbent10 posted 13 weeks 4 days ago —

I know I missed the anniversary last month for Hurricane Ike, but I would still like to reflect on it. This was a major event in mine and my families lives.

Before the storm
When we got word that we were in the path of a hurricane, I did not know what to think. A week earlier we had evacuated for Gustav and spent 12 hrs on the road and over $500 to get out of the way in San Antonio. My first thoughts were if it is less than a category 3 we would not evacuate. We just didn't have the money. My employer at the time the rental car agency, docked me a day after the evacuation for Gustav because our evacuation order lifted at 6am and they expected me to return to work from San Antonio by 7:30. San Antonio is 5 hrs away with no traffic. I was not doing that again. Many people felt the same way. I have heard of horror stories about the shelters, I would not subject my children to that.

We had several 20 gallon gas cans. I made sure my hubby filled them up. We were gonna hunker down. We were gonna stay thru the storm. I made sure we had non-perishable food items, batteries, and insured our phones were charged.

Three days before landfall, I was in Houston for training. Around 2pm we received word that Galveston and surrounding areas were going to be evacuated. There was no word for my area yet. My hopes were that Ike would hit more to the west of us. Far enough for my area not to get too much of the "dirty side of the storm". I made it back home that evening to hear that Jefferson County (where I live) was not calling an evacuation because they had given their resources to other places. There were not enough buses and ambulances to get everyone out that had no other means. The next day at work, I received a call from the National Guard that needed to have 40 men and women picked up from our county airport. They needed several 15 passenger vans. I went to the airport to pick a few up and talked to them on the way. About 10 soldiers piled into the truck I was driving. They told me that they were to help get the indigent out of the area. Still Jefferson County had not called the evacuation.

The next morning, the morning before landfall, around 6am the local news reported that they would indeed now call a mandatory evacuation. Only when the MANDATORY evacuation is called will businesses actually close and let the employees take care of their families. My husband went into work. He works at a plant. He helped secure the plant and came home early. I went to work. The rental car agency was not expecting to close early. I rented more than 30 cars to folks evacuating. That was just me. There were 5 other people working just in my branch. We left at 5:30pm. 30 minutes before actual closing. Even if I had wanted to evacuate it was too late. Ike's expected landfall was 2am.

I got home and the saying "the calm before the storm" was evident. It was quite, not many people out on the road. Ike was said to be a category 2 storm at this time. But the news was saying the storm surge was that of a category 5. I was told that I live in the highest point of Jefferson county, 27 ft above sea level. The storm surge for area was expected to be 20ft. A neighboring city Port Arthur has a sea wall that is only 17ft. Would we see what happened in New Orleans after Katrina happen there. I hoped not. After the wind picked up, my family and I took the 20 min drive to Port Arthur to see the surge come in. The seawall borders the mouth of the Sabine River. The water there is usually calm. Not today though. The water looked like a beach with waves. The wind was so strong Leandra (12) had to plant her feet just to take a picture. When we left, I licked my lips to taste nothing but salt water. Gross!

At home, we turned on the news. There is a city that is quite small, just up the river about 5 minutes from Port Arthur named Bridge City. I don't think much of this city is not surrounded by water. They have no flood protection. No sea wall. No levy. The news caster was out on one of the fishermans roads with other residents. They were watching the water flow in. Really, they were watching the water flow in. The news caster asked one lady why she was out there. She said she was gauging if she should leave or not. WHAT? Their entire city is less than 20 feet. I would have been gone! Especially after watching the water flow in.

The night of the storm
I went to bed around 9pm. I am not sure about the time because the only thing on TV all evening was the news. So I don't know when the 10 o'clock news started. I know I was asleep. I believe I woke up around midnight because the TV had no signal and was all static. The cable had went out. OK I went back to sleep. Then around 2 I woke again, the electricity kept coming on and off. I could hear my ac kicking back on each time. The wind was loud at this time. The landfall was around 2am our side of Galveston (less than an hr to the southwest from us). We got the bad part of the dirty side. I tried to look out the window but could not see anything. Finally the electricity did not come back on. My adrenalin was rushing. I could hear the howl of the wind and the sound of something hitting my windows. It sounded like pebbles. I got up and checked on the kids. All were sound asleep. I laid in bed. trying to get back to sleep. It was a nogo. I could feel the walls shaking behind my bed. I was a bit scared. I have a friend in Illinois that is ALWAYS up so I started texting her. She never texted back. My hubby was sound asleep. As the night went on I heard all kinds of frightening sounds. I have sky lights in my living room. I was afraid something would hit them and they would come crashing down. I took a flash light to the window to try and catch a glimpse of that was going on outside. At my patio doors there were 2 birch trees about 6 feet out the door. I could see the trunks swaying about 6 to 10 inches each way. I went to look out the back of the house. I promise, the tops of the trees were touching the trunks! I got back into bed,, trying to go back to sleep. I heard noises like the roof was being ripped off, but I was unsure. So I laid there. My hubby got up to go to the rest room and gave me some earplugs so I could get some sleep. I laid there. After a bit I got up to go to the restroom. I stepped in something wet. First thought, my hubby missed. LOL But wait, it was too far from the toilet. Second thought, he dripped the water off his hands after he washed them. But wait, it was more like a puddle, not drips. I got the flashlight to trace the water up the door frame to the ceiling. We had water coming in. Oh, No! There was not much we could do about it but pray for the best. After the wind and rain died down about 5:30 in the morning we came opened the front door to see the world again.

After the storm
My door area must have been like a wind tunnel. There were about 2 feet of leaves there. My hubby and BIL went out to clear debris from the side of the road so water could drain out of yards. To my surprise, several neighbors came from their houses and helped. We drove around to see the devastation. There were peop;e driving around everywhere. We were not alone. Lots of people did not evacuate either. It was bad out there. The back wall of the local Market Basket had collapsed and all the front windows were blown out. There were trees and power lines everywhere. Even trampolines in the top of power lines. Thankfully, we had gotten rid of ours.

My area did not flood. The storm surge was only 16 feet. Port Arthur was spared too. But, we were not the only ones hit. Listening to the radio, there were people calling in begging for someone to come get them with a boat because they were on their roofs. The entire city of Bridge City was under water. Later we had found out that only 6 homes in Bridge City survived Hurricane Ike.

We could see from the ground that some of my shingles on my roof were ripped off by the wind. We also had a window in my sons room cracked from the force of wind. We decided to pack up and make it to the first hotel to the east we could find. I did not want to leave my damaged home. On the way to The Louisiana state line is about 20 min away, there were parts of I10 under water. Going over overpasses thru Orange you could see the flooding devastation. My heart sank. Coming over the bridge in Lake Charles the crosses the Lake I could see water as far as my eye could see. Except on the highway thank goodness.

  We found a motel in Crowley that we stayed at over night. They were price gouging, $80 bucks a night and it was nasty, but they did have AC. I found a local Lowes that had 5 small generators left. The next morning I bought one, tarps, 2x4's and more gas cans. I went to Wal-Mart and picked up more supplies. I got back to the motel and told my hubby to come on. We were going back home. After arriving back home we tarped 1/2 of our roof  and boarded the window. We were able to run the fridge, a TV, fan and a hot plate off the generator. I was happy to be back home.

I have more to tell but feel this is long enough, that is, if you are still with me.