Hunker Down

Houston "hunkered down" as Hurricane Ike hit Galveston on Friday, September 12. 

Lockstep and I decided to stay in Houston and hunker down with the rest of the 5 million people in this city.  Lockstep set up a webcam from our apartment window for friends/family to view all day Friday leading up to the storm. Here's the rundown of events:

7:30 pm: Lights start to flicker.  Power goes on/off for the next 5 hours. 

Me - Fill up bathtub with water, gather other necessary supplies, enjoy television and tracking Ike on the wunderground.com radar

Lockstep - Tries to complete World of Warcraft battle (Vashj) before we lose power completely

The Storm - Beautiful sunset to the West (see photo above). Dark clouds and winds to the South/East. Winds begin to pick up speed.  Red bursts seen across city as transformers blow up. 

12:30 am:  Lose power and water completely (read: no lights, tv, internet, air conditioning; no water from faucet or flushing the toilet)

Me and Lockstep - Decide to go out to the apartment parking garage and roof. The winds are really picking up speed!  It was probably about 40 mph at this point. We got some photos of the city. From the roof we can feel the winds picking up strength and speed.  We see Downtown is now covered in pouring rain. The rain is coming our way! We stay on the roof until the rain hits and get some video footage. 

2:00 am:  Make Jello chocolate pudding to use up the milk 

2:30 am: Getting kind of bored and tired by candle light.  It's raining and windy.  We try to go to sleep. 

3:00 am:  Can't sleep.  Between the heat (it's a warm 85 degrees and we usually sleep in a cool 73 degrees) and the storm pelting our windows, it's gonna be an all-nighter.

3:30 am:  Keep hearing this banging sound.  We go out to the parking garage and see that the wind is slamming the door open and closed.  It is SO WINDY.  

3:30 - 5:30 am:  The strongest part of the storm has reached us. Winds are 110 mph. Catagory 2 Hurricane. Our windows flex as the pelting rain and howling, whistling wind slams against the glass. 

6:00 am:  The storm subsides. Lockstep and I are exhausted and crash into sleep. 

8:00 am:  We wake to light rain and dark clouds. The daytime is nice.  It's SO DARK at night because the lights are out across the city. 

12:00 pm:  BLTs for lunch. Cooked bacon at the gas grill by the pool.

1:00 pm:  Lockstep and I head out to assess the damage. Hermann Park and Rice University look like a warzone. Trees and branches down everywhere.

 

5:00 pm:  Bathtime out of the sink.  

6:00 pm:  We head out towards Downtown in search of some College Football (USC/Ohio State game).  We end up at the Hilton Downtown.  The game isn't showing because it's on ABC and local ABC decide to air local coverage of the hurricane.  We know there's a hurricane!  Show us some football!  So Lockstep and I wander back home to the darkness. 

We stayed in Houston through Sunday night. Our resources (water, food) diminished. The weather was back to hot and humid. We cleaned out the fridge/freezer, packed up the kitties, and evacuated to Austin.  Thank you Jordan and Patrick!