Hurricanes

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Are you prepared?  

I have lived through several hurricanes.

1979: Hurricane Frederick.  This category 4 hurricane made landfall at Dauphin Island, Alabama the early morning of Sept. 13, 1979.  I was in 11th grade and school had just started at Theodore High School a few weeks earlier.  I lived in Theodore, Al, about 20 miles north of Dauphin Island.  I learned how to drive a stickshift Pinto,(my best friend, Theresa Faulkner's car), in the middle of the night when we all stayed out late at the beach. 

The afternoon before landfall, my dad, loaded all of us up in the car to head west. We had never lived on the gulf coast before and thought that is what we needed to do. We drove to Jackson, MS and stay in a hotel on the highway. The next morning, of course us kids could care less what was going on, the hotel next to ours had the roof blown off. So we loaded up and went back to Theodore. 

When we got back to our area, it was like a war zone.  The 'ComPac' store, our local convenience store, what wide open, windows blown out, inventory all over the parking lot. We got to our house, a few blocks from the store, and there was our HUGE, and I mean HUGE AND OLD, Grand Oak Tree on top of our house. All the utilities were out except for the natural gas.  My dad never gets rid of anything and we had our old gas range on our back patio. I never knew why. And so we cooked out on the back patio and our friends would come by and eat. Everyone was wearing hats, because we couldn't bath and wash our hair. except for me.. I would boil water and take get cleaned up. 

So, we are in South Alabama, 20 miles from the Gulf of Mexico, in September, hot, humid, muggy and full of mosquitos.  No electricity, safe to drink water, The National Guard was called out to deter looters. No school for weeks. And we survived. 

Then my parents decided to move to Pasadena, TX in March of 1980. I'm still in 11 grade. So I remember a little hurricane that was suppose to come towards us in Pasadena, but stayed in the south. I never paid any attention to storms.  That was my parents job.

Aug 17-18, 1983: Hurricane Alicia, a Category 3 Hurricane: Mark and I get married July 23, 1983.  We were living on the second story of a local apartment complex. Sliding glass door in living room directly past the little dining room to our bedroom is another set of sliding glass doors.  We had an African Grey Parrot at that time.  We were hearing that a hurricane may hit land on the Texas coast.  Mark was working at the police dept at that time and when he got home, we were in for the night. 

The night of Aug 17 and into the morning of Aug 18, Hurricane Alicia came ashore near Galveston, TX, 42 miles from our apartment. The wind started howling, the building was shaking and we were huddled in the vanity area in our apartment so we were not in the line of sight from one sliding glass door to the other.  We had our parrot in his cage in the tub.  The water in the toilet bowl was like waves in the ocean.  It was pretty scary. 

Well, we survived that and Mark had to go to work the next morning.  The police departments high water vehicles had to come him and take him. We were without electricity for about 2 or 3 weeks. I can't remember.  I do remember walking around the complex (Mark and other cop worked security) and you could smell the weed all over the place.  Guess people cope in different ways. 

2005: Hurricane Rita, A category 5 hurricane that was heading right for our area in the Texas Gulf Coast. There was a major evacuation in effect. Many people got stuck on the freeways, north, from the Houston area. People were heading east to avoid the hurricane path.  Mark had to stay home and go to work (still at the police dept). I loaded up Sarge and Ginger (our English Bulldog and cat), got my sister-in-law and her daughter, other family and we headed to Waco to get Steven and go to Denton to stay with Melissa, who was in school at UNT. We left about 10pm the night of Sept 22 and traveled north until the freeway was stopped. We got off the freeway and headed thru backroads using paper maps to navigate and cell phones to communicate. We got to Baylor University the next morning and got Steve. He drove his own car. Usually, the trip to Waco is about 3 hours.  It took us about 12 hours. We stopped in Hearne, TX to gas up. We were so lucky.  After Waco, we headed north to Denton, TX we got there about 2pm on Sept 23rd. During the time that we were traveling, the hurricane took a turn to the northeast and was now heading to Sabine Pass. When Hurricane Rita hit land at 2:40am on Sept. 24, 2005, it downgraded to a Cat 3. Since we would be on the west side of the hurricane, there was no concern or immediate danger.  

So after everyone rested and spent the night, we all started heading back to Pasadena. The only damage we got at our house, was the whirlybird on the roof popped open like a PEZ dispenser.

2008, Hurricane IKE, Category 4, then downgraded to a Category 2 at landfall.  Mark and I have been Married for 25 years by this time. We had just sold our house a few months before and moved into an apartment in Deer Park, TX while we looked for another house. So, Mark, Me, Ginger and Sarge were in that little one story apartment, Steve, our son, was at his girlfriends house (his wife now) and we decided it was no big deal. So we moved a mattress in the hallway, just in case a tornado hit. We stayed up all night. The electricity went out. No gas to cook this time. The eye of the storm passed over us. When it did, we went outside to see what the damage was. Just lots of limbs and leaves everywhere. All the neighbors came out and that is when we met the nicest neighbors, AND we are still friends, 16 years later. Then the storm started again.

I think the other half of the storm is the scariest. We were all fine and everyone survived.  We didn't have electricity for a couple of weeks. So I had to cook all my stuff in the freezer.  I cooked on my propane bbq pit. And fed the neighbors in our courtyard. 

2021, Hurricane Nicolas, category 1. We were building a house at this time. This little hurricane made landfall around Sargent, TX, so we were on the east side of the storm, or the dirty side. We were not concerned and after leaving for Hurricane Rite and staying for Hurricane Ike, I have decided, I will not leave again. so Mark and I were spending the night in our camper, under our newly built porte cochere attached to our house.  The house had walls, roof and windows, but not built out.  Mark slept, and I kept going in the house with a flashlight to make sure everything was holding up.  It was. Our engineer, Wesley Buchhorn, engineered this house to withstand hurricanes. Extra straps, clips and great concrete. 

Anyway, the only casualty was the porta potty blew over and the original fence that was the back neighbors, blew down. 

Those are my Personal Hurricane Stories. 

So be prepared and be sure to have plenty of water and dry firewood.and non-perishable food on hand. And if you have frozen food, get ready to have a cookout and invite your neighbors. It is a great way to fellowship.