Hurricane

This might be a little hurricane overkill, but it was a significant event in my life. When we moved here, I was terrified of hurricanes, but after six years of false alarms, the threat seemed to diminish. I don't know that I ever thought I would live through a hurricane.

As I look through the pictures of what happened to Galveston I am just amazed at the destruction to the places we've gone to a couple of times of year. I see pictures, and think, I know where that is, I remember what it used to look like. It's humbling to see the forces and destruction of nature.

The aftermath of the hurricane is something I'd never considered while worrying about an approaching storm. I worried about our safety during the storm, but hadn't given much thought to life following the storm.

After the storm is where the real tests come, and the learning. It was so neat to see people helping people. To see neighbors coming out and sharing meals, and talking. The power wasn't on, there was no where to go, the stores were closed, the restaurants were closed, there were no shows to watch, and no Internet to catch up on.

We got to know some of neighbors better. One neighbor shared his generator with us, we made ice for other neighbors. Porter and Sophia and the neighbor boy rode bikes non stop while his mom and I sat out front and watched them and chatted day after day.

I made it through some projects that had been sitting around since we moved into our house, projects I never got to, because I was too busy blogging or checking emails... my mountain of recipes, organized... my mountain of photos/cards/scrapbook memorabilia, organized! What a good feeling. It's really made me think more about how I use, or more appropriately, waste my time, without even realizing it.

It's funny how we all survived without technology, and how our pace of living just slowed down. It was refreshing.

There were lots of opportunities to serve. Doug didn't even get around to fixing our roof until four days after the storm because he was out helping other people. It's been cute to see how concerned our children have been for their friends and acquaintances who had trees fall on their homes. Porter's baseball coach took two trees and Sophia's friend Sarah had one tree. Porter told me, "I just keep thinking about my coach, I hope he's okay." Sophia, all of her own accord, made plans to make a card and get a groovy girl for her friend.

I didn't get a lot of photos of around town. I borrowed some from Larissa and Mugglemom's blogs (I hope that's okay!) for my own memories.

flooding on 1314, the road we take to pick blueberries

piles of debris in people's yard... most people have a piles

trees and power lines down

lines for gasoline

the strip mall right by the church

winds during the storm in our neighborhood


a road in our neighborhood

above and below are photos from our neighborhood