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Hurricane Ike: I was blessed

Let me start by saying that I am a survivor of Hurricane Ike. Yes, I was there in the Galvestoon County area of Texas when Ike rushed ashore with its strong winds and unusually high tidal surge. Now I can reflect on what is my second hurricane in my home town of Dickinson, Texas.

For days I watched the newscasts, the weathercasts and little else awaiting the arrival of Ike. As I stared at the television screen in my living room, it was more than apparent that this was no usual hurricane. Radar pictures showed it to be unusually large covering the vast majority of the Gulf of Mexico.

At first, it actually frightened me. The thought of its resulting destructiveness was absolutely mind-blowing. That fear subsided only to be replaced by one nagging thought of concern. It involved the barometric pressure readings indicating an inevitable strengthening of the storm to a category four or higher.

Ike did not gain in intensity or fury. The lower winds lulled me into an almost complacent stupor. The more time that passed made me think that the storm would either change direction or begin to break apart before landfall. It did neither.

Friday night, before expected landfall, I watched the winds increase a bit accompanied by a little rain. The newscasts continued endlessly warning the local area that it was too late to evacuate and that we should stay put and "hunker down" for the duration.

My windows and doors were boarded up except the front door. My pickup truck was parked on the lawn in front of the door for easy access if there was a need to abandon the property. The area was secure of any objects that might become projectiles in the wind.

The winds did not appear strong but they howled a god awful sound with each increased gust. Areas in Houston had already lost power, some 230 thousand homes. I lost power sometime after 8:00 pm. Then it was just a wait and see game.

Candles were lit and placed in three major rooms and a bathroom. Rain began to pelt the patio area. It was time to sleep and pray for the morning to arrive.

When morning came it was still raining lightly. Houston was being pounded by the winds. Outside my door I viewed the damages. There were tree limbs scatterred up and down the block, but, no serious damage. We were blessed.

Two days passed without lights or water. After that things quickly began to return to normal. We enjoyed a couple of Red Cross meals and some ice. Again, we were blessed. The week that followed completely dumbfounded me as I watched newscasts of the devastation left behind in practically all the areas surrounding our little town.

Today as a survivor of Hurricane Ike, I still find it very hard to believe that we were smack-dab in the middle of a disaster area and yet were unharmed, unscathed and untouched. Again, we were simply blessed.

By: Joseph DPrince
Published: 10/07/08


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    4 Posted Comments:

    IKE

    @ 10:22 am 10/08/08 by carol g.
    thank goodness you are safe. i have family in the area also.
    Reply to this Comment

    @ 11:36 am 10/08/08 by Willow Sidhe
    Wow. You certainly were lucky. Even here in Arkansas, things were bad. We went six days with no power. I'm glad you made it through unharmed.
    Reply to this Comment

    reply to willow

    @ 7:39 pm 10/08/08 by Joseph DPrince
    Thanks willow. I still can't believe everything around me. Tried to use the reply line but nothing happened. So I used this. Again, thanks.
    Reply to this Comment

    @ 9:43 pm 10/08/08 by Ette_Rual
    you are blessed. someone up there must really like you.
    Reply to this Comment

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