as told to (your name here)

The Storm

Friday, 9pm:
It's dark now, so I can't really see what's happening out there, apart from what's on TV. The rain started around 8-ish, but it's not raining hard yet. The wind has been intermittently gusting, but also not bad yet. I could put some shoes on and take an umbrella outside, but I'm not all that interested. I had my aunt, uncle, & cousin from down the road over for dinner, so in addition to my refugees there were six adults & one child here. I'm used to living alone, including rarely speaking on the telephone, so I was not terribly comfortable with all these people in my home, putting my silverware in their mouths & such. Ok, I'm Monk.

Saturday, 7am:
The wind finally died down and we were able to sleep. After 3 hours of sleep my aunt called to let us know their power went out. That's all. Thanks for waking us up. As long as I'm awake, let's see what it looks like outside: Hmm, same as yesterday- broken clouds & breezy. No downed trees or electric lines, traffic signals working. Ok, everyone out of my house.

Present:
Everyone's gone, for the second time. I had my aunt and cousin here today because they lost power AFTER the storm. After a full day without power, she decided to come over and put a few things into my freezer and avail herself of my air conditioning. My pleasure of course, but still odd to spend time with someone that I'm not paying to lecture about finance.

Some have said the storm was a non-event. Others said it was a waste of time to evacuate or a "dry-run for the big one." This was none of that. It was a real storm, and it was really coming to Houston. For the most part, Houstonians did exactly what they should have done- stock up, board up, and/or head out. Yes, we were very fortunate and yes, it revealed many things that need to be improved upon for next time, which could still come within the next 2 months.

My godmother and her mother live in southwest Lousiana and may not have faired as well. They're in the process of moving to northern LA, so I know they were out of harm's way at the time, but they still own property very near ground zero. On the other hand, Mother, Sister & her kids went to Grandmother's house in Central Louisiana where they also experienced a much worse storm than we did here. There is debris inside the house, but don't worry- it was all caused by my nephews.

posted by tinyhands @ 11:59 PM