Hurricane Ike--September 2008

A neighbor's yard a few days later

Our clubhouse!
Our damage
A neighbor's yard

After the storm, the girls had a lot of naked time! It was SO hot!!


This past month has been a crazy month for our family. I started back to work on September 8th. Four days later we were preparing for the arrival of Hurricane Ike. What a terrifying experience for us! Being from the north, this whole hurricane thing was brand new and unknown!

On Thursday, September 11th we were sent home from work to prepare for the hurricane, expected to hit the next night. I came home and tried to get things together and prepared as much as I could. Matt boarded up the back sliding glass door, we made sure we had food and water, and then we waited. On Friday evening the wind started to pick up. Matt's dad came to stay with the girls and I, since Matt was put on mandatory overtime at the fire department for the duration of the storm. Friday evening the girls and I slept in our "clubhouse" AKA my closet. I was worried about tornadoes and wanted us to be in the safest place of the house. The storm really started to get strong between 11 and midnight. About 12:30 the power went out. I laid awake in our clubhouse for most of the night listening to the wind howl outside. Once in a while I would catch a few minutes of sleep here and there. During the eye of the storm, which passed right over us, I got up and looked out the windows. It was so calm, it was spooky. I saw that part of our back fence has been torn down and a bunch of shingles in our yard. Not sure of any other damage, I went back to the closet for the rest of the night! The girls woke up around 6:30 or so. I kept them content in the closet watching movies and reading books until the wind died down. We came out of our clubhouse around 8 to explore the damage. Thankfully, all we lost was part of our fence in the back. However, many of our neighbors were not so lucky...huge trees were uprooted, roofs were damaged, windows were broken, etc. I would have never believed the destruction had I not seen it with my own eyes. The next two nights we spent the night at Grandpa Barker's apartment. The girls were miserable in the heat, so we decided to go stay with him.

On Monday, the girls and I flew to Ohio thanks to my wonderful family. We spent the week enjoying the beautiful fall weather and visiting with friends and family. Poor Matt spent the week working...passing out food, water and ice to the community, running calls, and taking care of the citizens. The girls and I came home Sunday (the 21st) night to still no power. We have spent the last week without power in our home. It was finally turned on yesterday morning. I was so happy, I went out to the electricity guys and cried. 16 days is a LONG time to be without electricity. We were fortunate that our friend Tom let us borrow his generator for the last 5 days. At least we were able to run some fans and Madi could watch her Dora! The girls also spent a lot of time in their underwear/diapers. It's just been so hot!!

I hope that we never have to experience another hurricane!! We are now trying to re-establish our "normal"...I'm sure it'll take a while to get back into the routine. Thanks to everyone for their prayers and well wishes. They sure helped!