Surviving Ike (Somewhat gun-related)

[gilraen]

We made it. Only a borderline Cat 3, and it turned our lives inside out for a while.

Son2 stayed at the apartment Thursday evening, with his Bersa 9mm and about 1500 rds. Son1 left his Beretta with Son2, since guns aren't allowed at hospitals, and he didn't know if his car would get flooded in the parking lot. Son2 had opted (without prompting) to spend the night before landfall at the apartment to guard it against BGs. And yes, of course, I thanked him. I left my Bug-Out Book with him, silly me. SSN cards, birth certs, apt lease, some cash, college transcripts, all collected. I don't have a BOBag yet, but will work on it now.

I took my Sig P239 and about 500 rds with me. With our Daughter, I spent the storm and aftermath at Ex-husband's house, since he's on slightly higher ground. Watched Galveston get flooded, and heard about -- but missed - Geraldo getting knocked on his bum. Too many hours of nothing but repeated info, staggering reporters, hunkering down, hyped up warnings. Couldn't relax, played mindless internet games while the TV droned on. Lost cable long before the storm hit.

While it was still light, Daughter and I stood outside, watching the bands of dark clouds come in, race across the sky, and disappear over the tree tops. Cloud lightening lit up portions of the sky in reds, greens, and blues. Daughter and I went out at 2:30 and 3:30 a.m. Fri. night to watch again. Lots of wind, sheets of rain going every which direction under the streetlamp (while it remained lit). No thunder. Tree tops circled, bent, straightened. Cloud-to-cloud lightning only, as far as we could tell. The power went off and back on at least 6 or 7 times; once while we were in the garage, watching. The rest of the time we dozed, waking with each loud crash or bang. We'd lost power about 4 a.m. Son1 spent the night at the hospital, locked in, on call.

Saturday was hot, muggy, and buggy, with nary a breeze to be had. I wandered from room to room, outside, and back in again. Sat down, got up, walked, sat back down. The heat made us all sleepy; naps were common, but uncomfortable. We nibbled on canned food, drank lukewarm water, talked to neighbors. Chided ourselves for not having generators; even one room with a fan would have been welcome. But otherwise we were fairly well prepared.

Son1 and I slept in his car Sat night -- or should I say Son1 slept, and I dealt with aching back, hips, and legs. Got out to walk about 11:20 and 12 a.m. Not a soul to be seen. Later, I watched Ex-H come out and head for his car. He was so intent on finding air conditioning that he didn't hear me call his name from 10 feet away -- twice.

He left the whole house open all night: windows, doors, garage door, to catch any breeze. If I had complained, or tried to shut up the house (as all our neighbors had done, I would have gotten my ears chewed off. We were completely open to any BG who wanted to do a little looting.

I sat in the car, trying to get comfortable, and staring into the blackness of the open garage door. The car windows were fogged up from the cold inside and the heat outside. I wouldn't have seen a BG if he came up and slapped me.

It bothered me (and the kids, I found out later) a lot that night, but finally I was too hot and tired and aching to care anymore. All of us except Daughter had our guns, but in the drowsy dark it would have been difficult to see anyone snooping. I closed my eyes and trusted to chance. Luckily, it held.

Daugher and Son2 got up a couple of times that night, after I did. They laid on the driveway, and walked around the outer circle street that surrounds our cul-de-sac. Other people were sleeping in their cars, too. I finally found some semblance of peace on Ex-H's heaterless waterbed. Cool water below, hot air on top - the exact opposite of how I normally sleep. Felt weird.

But it was the quiet that felt the most strange. Insects, sirens, nothing else.

The streets were hazardous - standing water, branches, and sometimes whole trees lying in the road. Fences down or gone, signs overturned. All intersections are 4-way stops. Some stop lights blink red, some constant yellow, most dark, a few missing entirely. Missiles in the night.

Water pressure low, but existent. Don't drink it, authorities said. One of the filtering plants went down; contamination possible. I patted myself on the back for going to the grocery early.

Sunday the water backed up in pipes beyond the house, and leaked from both bathrooms. No electricity to rent a water-vac, and no way to wash the towels that soaked it up.

Later Sunday morning our apartment electricity came on. Rumor has it they concentrated on giving power to the most people at a time -- hence our apartment. We helped Ex-H as best we could, and went back home. He came over later, and stayed Sunday night. Five people in a 1400 sq ft apartment. Monday evening his power came back on.

Spent most of yesterday (Monday) resting. Daughter and I went out for a short time. Found a Wendy's that had only about 5 cars in line, so we stopped. Got four meals, and four Frostys. Took them home to where they were eagerly awaited. I raised my burger in a toast. "To Civilization!" Hear, hear.

A couple of drug stores were open in our neighborhood, but closed early. The lines at gas stations and fast food places were a block long. Daughter waited an hour to get gas. I had filled up last Wednesday evening, and don't need any yet.

Last night, grandson and Son1's baby mama came back from San Antonio with her family, but they didn't have power yet, so she and grandson stayed with us at the apartment last night. First time! (I didn't hear a peep out of him the whole night.)

This morning I am back at work, sole occupant of the suite for now. Many homes still don't have electricity, and lines still stretch away at gas stations, even at 7 a.m. LEOs stand at the street entrance, or at the pumps. Most stop lights still don't work. Driving is a stop-and-go affair. HEB grocery stores are open, with heavy traffic at times when it is normally light. I have food. I have water. Milk and ice cream are what I crave.

It's still pretty quiet.

Gilraen

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[SIXTO]

Sounds like you made out OK, believe it or not, we had some of the same here in Ohio too, but no flooding and it was nice and cool.

Make sure its a learning experience, so next time you are even better prepared.

[BkCo1]

Sounds like quite an exprience. Glad you made it through OK.

Be safe.
Semper Fi

[Reborn]

You guys hang in there.........everyone up this way is praying for all of you......

[Paco]

It is great when you can come back and say you made it. Our Church up here in McKinney is a shelter site, approx 80 people, and it is humbling to see people outside of their element and have no control over what may be happening to their possessions, for all they know they could return to nothing more than a concrete slab.

Good news is there have been some people, through the care of our church, who have made decisions that will positively affect their eternity!

Hang in there, you and many others are being prayer over.

[goldshellback]

It really sounds like ya'll came through it pretty good.......considering.

I say that having weathered more than a few years worth of hurricanes being raised in south Louisiana.

Hang in there and stay safe!

[Nosce Te Ipsum]

Glad you and your family are safe. Like SIXTO said, SW ohio got 60-70 mph winds. I was at Kings Island (local amusement park) Sunday, and they evacuated about 3pm.

Duke claims that 90% of Cincinnati metro was without power Monday. We are truly blessed to have no damage or power loss.

Steve

[Ghostwarrior]

I am glad you made it through the storm O.K and did not have to deal with any bad guys. My rule of thumb----Be prepared always. Get that bug out bag in order before you really need it....

[mr.stuart]

My wife and rode Ike out,never again.We will leave.We are in another state now,until power and order are restored.We spent 9 hours watching winds like I have never seen.We lost 1 tree and our beloved palm we planted after Rita.We were lucky.We live in a nice neighborhood and Saturday we had all types of freaks cruising through.No cops were to be seen either.No insult to LEO.I know they had their hands full.

[sass20485]

When you live in a hurricane zone, you need to be prepared, should your number come up. I keep food, water, emergency cooking and lighting supplies and a generator with 20 gallons of gas, PLUS plenty of ammo & firearms at the ready. Having gone through a few myself in south and central fl, it is like going back to the stone age era, when a storm rips up civilization as you've known it. It draws out the best in folks helping each other, who might normally not even say hello. But it also brings out the creeps and cretins looking for victims. Glad you made it through, good luck with your clean up and restoration.

[Jimtl]

Glad you're okay! We went through Hurricane Charley and later Wilma a few years back ... Powerful Hurricanes are a scary thing. We were in shock for quite a while after Charley. I learned that you can't have enough water! Also ... quite a few people died from improper use of generators -- carbon monoxide poisoning. Seems like it would be common sense, but dozens died in just our area. Be careful ... glad your power is up.

[ilts]

Glad to hear things went well,have been through many floods mainly as a rescuer but I know what MOTHER NATURE can do in short order.GOD BLESS

[Fmr18z]

Happy to hear you made it through gilraen, my daughter and family are in the Houston area and survived it also, lot of downed trees, fortunately no damage to their house. She just txt'ed me and said the power has been down since 0200 again, but they're doing dutch oven roast tonight and the grandkids think it is a great big camp out...hope things go better for all of you soon.

[2AMomma]

God is good! Glad you and yours came through unscathed!!

[TorchMach1]

Sounds like you made out OK, believe it or not, we had some of the same here in Ohio too, but no flooding and it was nice and cool.

Make sure its a learning experience, so next time you are even better prepared.

I'm STILL dealing with the power outage here in Colerain Township! I don't understand it...I could throw a stone and hit a street light with power. Tomorrow will be day 5 without power. Fortunately, my office was powered today and I was able to grab my laptop with wireless broadband card. My patience has worn thin, but we're getting along okay. Certainly not anything like the original poster has endured.