Hurricanes I Remember

The first hurricane that I remember was in July of 1943. That was before they started naming them. At the time we lived in Pasadena, Texas. What really makes this hurricane stand out in my memory was that my sister and I were staying with a neighbor because my mother had just had a breast removed due to cancer and my father was at the hospital with her. So we didn't have our parents with us. Still as I remember, it was an adventure. We went to the high school to spend the night. To me it was like a slumber party but there was a sense of danger. This was all a long time ago but I remember my father coming to the high school to get us and we waded home in water. I can still see him carrying my little sister and holding my hand as we went through the water.

There were some other hurricanes along the way but the next one that really stands out was Carla in 1961. I was about 3-1/2 months pregnant with Gary. Mae and Red were our best friends and Red was a manager in one of the plants. He had to stay put so Mae and her family came over to stay with us during the storm. Carla was a big storm....a category 4 when it made landfall in Matagorda with sustained winds of 115 mph. Thank goodness, in Galveston the sustained winds were 88 mph so in Houston it was even less than that but it was a huge storm covering most of the Texas Gulf Coast and it seemed like we were in the rain and tropical winds for about 48 hours.

In 1983, we lived about 75 miles from Galveston when Hurricane Alicia made a direct hit in Galveston and Houston. Downtown Houston had major damage because windows were shattered by loose gravel from the roofs of new skyscrapers. I remember standing at my kitchen window and watching the tree at the neighbor's house next door. The top of it was swirling...not just blowing in one direction. I turned to tell Ned he should come see the tree. When I looked back, the tree was uprooted and laying on the neighbor's roof. There was also major damage to the electrical distribution system. For some reason we didn't loose our electricity for more than a few hours but just across the street and in all the rest of our neighborhood most people were without power for a week or so.

And now, Hurricane Ike. We weren't there but I felt like I was. Between watching CNN, The Weather Channel and streaming video from the TV stations in Houston, we were virtually there. We were obsessed and the obsession started at the beginning of the week. We were scheduled to fly to Houston on Thursday morning for a surprise birthday party for Son #1. So we were watching the track of the storm before it ever entered the Gulf of Mexico. Wednesday night, with great angst, we cancelled our reservations. What if it turned and went South to Mexico, then we would miss out on a great time with family and friends. On the other hand, what if it didn't, then we would be stuck in Houston most probably without electricity and possibly with severe flooding. It was a hard decision to make. But by Thursday morning my daughter-in-law had to cancel the party because it was pretty clear that Houston and Galveston were not going to escape Ike.

We have talked with family and friends in Houston. Everyone is okay. Son #2 had some damage to the roof of his business and he has some concerns about inventory. Now the big issue is getting electricity back on. They need, really need, air conditioning in Houston in September. And us? we are still watching the Houston TV stations streaming video about the damages from the storm. We are really virtually there.