Ike

It's 2PM on Sunday afternoon. Steven drove to College Station last night to get a generator from his father. It is now on and the refrigerators and the ceiling fans in the house are on, and yippee, the wireless router!! We have had a very interesting time of it.
In the 60's I lived in New Orleans when Hurricane Betsy came through. I know we were without power for some time there, and ice became the precious commodity. When Rita missed us a few years back we were fortunate and got our power back the evening of the storm. This time, I'm glad for a generator.
As you can tell this Norris is not in Italy, but in Houston Texas, home of the 'aftermath of Ike'. None of our extended family, 5 households was in an evacuation zone, and the mayor asked those citizens to 'shelter in place'. Liz and Danny did leave their apartment to stay with Mrs O. Mr O is in Venezuela on business. By Friday everyone was 'hunkered down'. Some people stayed up late, waiting to 'see' others went to bed hoping to get some sleep before the inevitable. I was at the in-laws and we were the last to lose power at 2:45 A M. We also appear to be the only household to experience the 'eye'. At 5:30 Saturday morning, the calm began and continued for an hour, a break appreciated by the dog. Then the other side of the storm, and a marathon game of backgammon to distract us. Weirdest thing is, we had cell service then, but spotty at best now.
The rest of Saturday was spent listening to the radio, packing coolers, picking up debris and seeing how many trees went down in your neighborhood. Lots of people were out checking on neighbors, or just visiting for lack of anything else to do. I found the U of Houston football game which had relocated to Dallas on the SMU campus as a diversion. I kind of wish they had relocated the Astros-Cubs series to neutral turf, for we Houstonites need something else on the radio at this point. Tricia took me to the Norris Sr.'s on Friday afternoon. We played a game of Mexican train and sent Tricia home before the 6PM curfew. So for me to get to Tricia's Saturday night I borrowed their car. All the roadways I needed were clear. I found 1 intersection with power. Not only was the light working but the 1 restaurant and 2 gas stations were open. Just past this n 1960 I found lots of trees in the road and lots f power lines down. But thanks to back-up power the Lowes and HEB were open!
So, we've survived the hurricane winds, but this morning Ike had 1 more Punch to deliver. A band of storms hit the area in the middle of the night and kept up with heavy rain until 10AM. It took T and I over an hour to make the 20 minute drive to the N's to to flooding in 2 locations, more cars on the road and downed trees on our chosen detour routes. Oh, and the line of cars waiting to get into Shipley donuts at that 1 intersection with power. The bright side is there is a cool front due in tonight which will make sleeping much easier. I'll be glad to be back in Italy on the 22nd. and am grateful we don't have a hoe to worry about here. All 5 properties were spared unlike the one Steven thought he was lucky to be able to garage his car in.