Late Afternoon Report

Just to repeat, we are 75 miles north west in Cypres, watching the news like everyone else. It is heart breaking to see Galveston Island already under water just from the storm surge and Ike is still 100 miles away. AND IT'S NOT RAINING YET. Moody Garden is surrounded by water, I haven't heard what they did with the critters from the rainforest or acquarium. On the TV we can see the waves crashing over the seawall at 61st well over the height of the street lights. This is an area my husband and I like to walk when we go to the Island. Quilts by the Bay - my local quilt shop - is located just off 61st between the Seawall and I45. They show deep flooding at the intersection of 61st and I45, an area that I drive frequently. (61st is the main street that leads to the ocean). The news says 40% of residents decided not to evacuate. I know that sounds so unbelievable - but the horrors of Rita evacuation were so great that I really believed it crippled folks in their decission making process. They just said the Stand area has 4 feet.

Oh my, what a horrible thing I just heard as I'm trying to write this - I didn't catch where, but some official has told those residents that chose not to evacuate to write their social security number on their arm with a black marker so they can be identified later. I can't even respond to that - too much reality.

The news has reported all around us in Kemah, Seabook (both north of us and a little lower). We are seeing some familar sites with flood waters covering the streets - the Boardwalk where we love to dine....it's not fun to watch believe me. All the models show our area being flooded IF it's a Cat 2 or 3, they say this is acting like a Cat 4 or 5 as far is the storm serge is concerned.

I've come to grips in knowing that there may already be water in my home. (My husband thinks it's not there yet because we are 1/2 mile in and higher than Kemah, so I hope he's right - if it continues though, we will probably have water). That old Johnny Cash song comes to mind "how highs the water mamma, two fee high and rising". If it doesn't go to three feet then my space bags with my quilts are okay since they are on my cutting table (grin) I didn't evacuate the longarm or my sewing machines or fabric or books or other STUFF. Insurance may or may not cover it but when we left we knew that things might not be the same when we returned. We closed and locked the door and moved on. I have my family. Nothing else matters.

Emotions are still high, but I'm not near as apprehensive as I was when we evacuated for Rita in 2005 -- and I wasn't even a home owner then! That evacuation was stressful - Johnny wasn't released from the plant even though Galveston County was under manditory evacuation...Jake and I made the drive 250 miles north east on our own without much problem, but Johnny was stuck in that horrible experience you may have read about. Never again he said.

Then the wait. The not knowing what was happening - we were so far NE that they weren't covering the Houston area and we had no idea what was happening. I didn't handle that too well, I hope to think I've "grown up" since then (grin)

We came home from Rita praising God we had missed the worst of the storm only to find that our townhouse had been broken in to and looted prior to the storm. Not only were we dealing with theft, but the bad guys broke our windows and that let the storm in so we had to deal with water damage too. We didn't own the townhouse, so we didn't have to deal with repairs -- but I can tell you I was so thankful we were moving in two weeks to the house we now live in mainly because of the helpless feeling of invasion. It's horrible to know that someone blundered through your nightstand and your underwear drawer. Once things settled down we again said "thank you Lord, it could have been worse"

Funny, I just remembered that I have a quilt on display at Moody Methodist in Galveston. It's hanging high in their foyer so it might not get wet (grin) The funny thing about this is it is the same quilt I had on my bed that was almost ruined by the theives breaking my bedroom window - this quilt was on the bed and stayed saturated for several days before our return. Hum..if it's still there I guess I'll be able to relable it to say "Simply Texas (name of quilt) survived Rita 2005 and Ike 2008" If you want to see what this quilt looks like I think it's in the personal quilts 2004 album on my webshots . Just goes to prove that even Texas quilts are tough!

I'm trying not to be impatient - I just want this to be over. On one hand I just want to turn off the TV, but on the other hand I'm glued to it. Me who listens to the radio all the time! Hum...maybe I should take one final walk around the neighborhood before the rains come - that would be a nice diversion...oh, speaking of which, I forgot to mention that we went to Arby's for lunch just because we could - my idea was to get out while we could and to try to keep cabin fever from setting in (grin). I remember blizzards in Tennesse with small children and cabin fever - never experienced hurricane cabin fever - guess I will!

By the way, Pixxie is doing fine. She's really such a good puppy. She's a little restless and has missed most of her numerous daily naps. I'm sure she'll curl up and sleep well tonight! As I think we all will because we have been on high alert so long.

okay. I know this is getting old - I know I'm not the only woman in the world to go through a storm, but I bet I'm one of the most talkative (grin)

I smell a roast! My brother-in-law is a great cook and already brought me a sample. Umm Umm Good! He surprised me to say it was Buffalo! So we are eating heathly my friends!!

The Quilt Rambler taking a break...