Eek @ Ike!!

After months of waiting for a "real" hurricane experience, Mark and I got our wish. Not that we exactly wanted to have a hurricane hit our house, we just wanted to experience one to see what it was really like. September 11 was marked by clear sunny skies, and a warning of a hurricane approaching Galveston island, about 45 minutes from where we live. We were headed up to Dallas for the weekend to visit Mark's sister, and we got caught in the evacuation traffic. That was our first clue that maybe we didn't want to experience a hurricane after all.

On Friday night, Mark and I watched the news as Hurricane Ike swooped into Houston in all its fury. Pieces of asphalt from the road floated past the news reporter on the screen, and I thought, "I don't think our apartment stands a chance..." When the storm was over Saturday morning, most of Houston was out of power, and some were without water. We extended our stay in Dallas until Tuesday morning. Then, deciding we couldn't delay our return any longer, we struck out to see what the damage was.

Half-way to Houston, we stopped to fill up. The line was long, and the closer we got to Houston, the more gianormous the lines got, sometimes stretching for 2 miles at any open gas station. Everywhere we looked, there was debris: ripped up billboards, split trees, tree limbs, shingles, power lines...

We pulled up to our apartment complex, and thankfully saw that there was no damage to our apartment. However, we had no power (obviously) and no running water. We had plenty of drinking water stored up, but not much to flush our toilets with. I reverted back to my mission days in Armenia and hauled buckets of water up from our pool to flush the toilet with. Thank goodness for missions! It was an adventure at first, but then the outlook started to look grim as we heard that we probably would not get power or water for another week. Yikes!

I have a testimony, however that the Lord answers prayers and that he enhances our efforts. Mark and I had taken measures in the past few months to be prepared, stocking up on food storage, batteries, 72 hour kits, etc. However, there were some things that we were not prepared for, and that could not be helped (like the running water). The Lord is merciful and helped us find ways to deal with our spotty preparation. Our food was ample, we had a pool full of water, and the utility men were able to repair our power lines and restore our water ahead of schedule. Hooray!

So, we have survived our hurricane. Let's hope that another one doesn't come for a loooong time. We are healthy and happy, the Lord is in control, He hears and answers prayers, and life is good!

You can click the title of this post to see pictures of Ike's aftermath.