A friend of ours, I’ll call her “TB,” looked over my Miscellaneous writing and found that I have been rather inconsistent in my observations.  Following Hurricane Ike I waxed eloquent about our twelve days without electricity.  However, looking a bit farther back in my ramblings, she found my sanguine thoughts on camping unplugged and how peaceful it is.  What can I say?  Sitting beside a beautiful mountain stream with nothing more important to do than start the campfire for the evening is more fun than sitting in the garage hoping for a whisper of a breeze on a hot September Texas Gulf Coast day!

Still, I get the point.  A lot of things just depend on our perspective.

Jackie and I drove to Galveston today, just to look around and see what things look like there 6 months after Hurricane Ike.

Galveston, itself, looks pretty good. There is a lot of damage evident, but, mostly, it looks like it is coming together again. We took the ferry over to Port Bolivar and back. It was windy, but in the 70’s.

Then we drove west down to the San Luis pass. This is the area with all the beach front homes up on stilts. Some of them are high dollar homes. There’s reconstruction going on everywhere. Some places have already been torn down and rebuilt. There are many areas under repair, but lots of new paint and roofs.

The farther one gets from Galveston, the more unrepaired damage there is. Once we crossed over the toll bridge at San Luis pass, the road is called the Blue Water Highway. At that point, there are areas where every structure is still damaged, and it looks doubtful that some will ever be fixed.

This area is not as developed as it is nearer Galveston, and there are long stretches where on can drive on the beach. Well, these days, you have no choice. The road is being repaired, but there are areas where it was pretty much washed away. At that point, the sign points to the beach and you drive along on the sand for up to a mile to where the road is usable again.

All in all it made for an interesting day. In all our driving, by the way, we were never more than 40 miles or so from home.

The mighty Casey hadn’t struck out after all! The trucks all left, but in an hour or so they were back with some friends. I counted five big rigs in all. By the way, they were all from Florida. They took down fences and backed their trucks through back yards so they could replace the broken power poles. It took them all day, but around 6:30 the digital clocks around the house began flashing! We were without electricity from Friday evening, September 12 to Wednesday evening, September 24. Once the power was back on, the Florida power and light guys walked through the area checking for any problems. At every house people came out to thank them. We made it okay without power, but we sure like it better with it!

There’s no joy in Mudville today, although we had a momentary thrill. Around 10:00 we spotted the first power company trucks yet seen on our street. As you can guess, the whole neighborhood stirred. There were three trucks in all and the guys with hard hats went yard to yard up and down both sides of the street. One of them told me that they had to get trucks into at least two back yards to replace snapped off power poles, which means the fences to those yards have to be taken down. I saw them head into one yard with a chain saw. Then, they all gathered for a conference.

Then, they all drove off.

Again, there’s no joy in Mudville today.

I write this on Tuesday morning - day 10 and counting without electricity at our house. We are thankful for the loan of a 5kw generator which we are using to power our camper with a/c. I’m having to buy around $20 in gas a day just to run it in the evenings and overnight. It’s not to high a price to be able to sleep, something that would be hard to do otherwise. Our overnight lows have been in the mid 70’s the past few nights with high humidity. I think we have a minor cool front coming in tomorrow. It will drop the temps a few degrees and is supposed to bring us some very welcome drier air.

Another complication is mosquitoes. They have exploded in number since the storm and being outside means constantly brushing them off or donating blood to their cause. Happily, the county has started aerial spraying. The sound of the “buzz bombers” was welcome this morning and I was actually able to sit on the back patio to read my Bible at the start of my day.

One of the biggest problems for Jackie is that she has to go through several intersections where the stop and go lights are either not working or not there at all. In morning rush hour traffic that turns into a nightmare with traffic backing up at some spots as far as you can see. Also, people tend to get a little nutso about stuff like that.

Our Sunday morning worship service was considerably different this week than it was last week. Last Sunday we were just starting recovery from the storm. Many of our folks were still out of town and of those who attended, none had electrical power at their homes and just about all had tree limbs down, had lost entire trees, had fences down, and other damage at their homes. This morning we had around 80% of our regular crowd. The church has power, so aside from the damage to the building, it felt like a regular service. The music focused on praise and thanksgiving and I spoke on prayer and hurricanes, of God’s grace in the storm, and the wonderful gift of his peace in our lives. We concluded the service by making a large circle of prayer. Many offered prayers of thanksgiving and we concluded the service by singing “Always Remember Jesus” - a chorus we sing at the conclusion of most services.

Each Sunday we have a “meet and greet” time as part of the worship service. I often give humorous directions, like “shake hands with someone taller and someone shorter than you and tell them you’re glad they came to church today.” This morning I gave everyone a choice. They could either say, “Rejoice with me, we have electricity at our house” or they could say, “Woe is me, we have no electricity.” That caused some good natured laughter.

I’m still on the “woe is me” side of things.

With temps rising to the mid to upper 80’s and no power company repair crews in sight I decided to see if I could track down a bigger generator. My idea is to fully power the camper so we can have a/c for sleeping. Otherwise, we are in for some warm, humid, and noisy sleeping conditions. I don’t know if this is a future strategy or not, but many people we know already have power restored so their generators are once again unused. I made two phone calls and ended up with offers of two generators! The one I ended up with is a beautiful 5kw Huffy power plant. This one would actually power our entire house, but I’m going for the easy approach for now and am just powering the camper plus whatever we want plugged in inside. It should take less than five gallons of fuel for a night, which is the capacity of the generator. Hopefully, we’ll get a good night’s sleep tonight.

We’re still waiting on electricity. I think we have some power lines down on our branch of the blessed electrical tree and that means we have to wait till they get the easier ones up and running before they look our way. The storm was overnight Friday and we are now at the following Thursday morning. There may have been a truck from the electric company here, but if there was I missed it. I’m not complaining but I’m looking forward to seeing the power back on. Meanwhile, a lot of people in the community are getting power and some gas stations are opening up. The result, for us, is more noise than ever. Apparently, as folks get power they loan their generators to the less fortunate in our neighborhood. People know they can get fuel, so there is no effort to spare the gas. One neighbor was given a big and old welding machine for power. She already had a couple of small and quiet generators, but now she’s running this workhorse. You can’t carry on a conversation in the front yard without practically shouting. These are nice people but it’s frustrating to have all the windows open so the nice cool air can come in and having the racket of at least four generators, one of which dominates all the others. I’ve probably spent too much time in state park campgrounds where people value quietness and being outdoors.

Several years ago Jackie and I were invited to the home of some friends with a strong Oriental connection. When we arrived our host invited us to the table where we visited while he made us some hot tea. He commented that the making and drinking of tea was a part of the Oriental culture. That ritual came to mind these past few days as I’ve offered folks a cup of coffee. Normally I put some coffee and water into the coffee maker, press the “go” button and within a few minutes I have some good hot coffee. Living in these non-electric conditions makes the “cup of coffee” experience a bit more complicated. I have to pump up the camp stove and light it. I have to put water and coffee in our old fashioned coffee pot, and then wait for the water to start boiling and then percolating. Whenever I decide the color of the coffee in the little glass top is dark enough I can pour the coffee, but it is way too hot to drink having just come off of a rolling boil. Through all of this, there is time to chat. In this case the conversation is about the storm and the clean up and what stores are open. Anyway, it’s a bit of a throwback to simpler, slower-paced times.

I wouldn’t have been surprised had I looked out on Saturday morning and seen my little Casita camper on its side. However, it was still there. One rivet has leaked – I’ll have to fix it with a dab of silicone. With the survival of the little camper, my survival plan has worked out. I fired up the propane refrigerator and we moved everything we could into it. I then filled our trusty old Coleman camp stove with fuel and set it up in the garage. We also have the propane BBQ grill next to the camper. We have the Coleman with two burners, the camper with a two burner stove and the grill for cooking. Dish washing still takes place in the house, but otherwise the garage has become our kitchen. We’re very thankful that our community water supply has not been compromised and we have had no “boil water” orders.

Even as people clean their yards and dream of electricity normalcy edges in. I was surprised on Monday to find that the US mail ran. Then, this morning, Tuesday, regular trash collection took place. We were told to keep the regular pickup items separate from the storm debris. Sure enough, the big truck came down the street right on schedule. I had a phone call from the pest control people reminding me of their scheduled visit tomorrow. They just wanted to know if they could get around the outside of the house. I said, “yes” and they said they’d see me tomorrow afternoon. Also, I heard a familiar truck this afternoon. It was UPS making a delivery. The driver asked, “You folks okay? Get any damage?” We said we were fine and off she went. Jackie’s library had power restored today and they plan to be open in a few days. She’s going to work tomorrow. The storm was still winding down on Saturday. On Tuesday, we have UPS and the mailman and garbage pickup.

I was raised way out in the country and our rural Indiana area was one of the last to get telephones. We kids couldn’t wait to have telephones! We didn’t mind being on party lines at all. Every day we third graders updated each other on who had gotten their phone installed. Of course, we had nothing to do with it, but there was a bit of a competition to get a phone before others. Today my son called to happily inform us that his power had just come on. Then a bit later some of our church folks called to say that they had lights out in their more rural neighborhood. While ago our automated phone call from the city came in and we were told that great progress has been made in restoring power. Well, we’re still without electric service. However, I’m an optimistic person so I’m running the generator and watching the Astros game tonight believing that we’ll catch up with everyone else tomorrow, or at least we’ll be able to buy more gas for the generator!

We were already well aware that we have good neighbors but this storm has really underscored that. Folks from up and down the block have come by to see if there is anything we need. The old greeting is “How are you?” The new greeting is, “Are you folks okay?” We’ve been asked that question again and again. One lady has repeatedly invited us over to eat. She made breakfast tacos one morning and another good meal on Sunday evening. Each time she comes by and says he made too much and wants us to come and eat. As I have already mentioned, we were still seeing a little wind and rain from the storm and a couple of guys showed up to cut the huge fallen tree that was blocking our street. Another neighbor borrowed my pruning saw and we borrowed his ladder. A group of us got up this morning and cleared the yard for another neighbor who evacuated for the storm. We didn’t want them to come home to such a mess.

My lawn clean up was pretty basic. A few hours of work and sweat and we were good to go. My sister’s place was a different story. It took a great deal of work to even see her front lawn. The next day we worked a several more hours to clear her back hard. There are big stumps of blown over trees yet to clear and you can’t see over the pile of debris, but we managed to get her yard in fair shape. Then, we headed for our son’s house. Jackie helped with the inside and I worked outside with him. Once again, we created an impressive pile of limbs. He’ll have a lot more to do once he works through insurance issues. This morning we went next door and worked for awhile on their yard. Frankly, I am sore and tired. Hurricane clean up is hard work for everyone.

On Sunday there was a whisper of cooler air as our area’s first legitimate cool front of the year pushed through. By late Sunday afternoon the air was drying out and one could sit outside without sweating. Someone said the timing was just right but I personally think that had it arrived on Wednesday or Thursday that I wouldn’t be writing about Hurricane Ike right now. Still, the cooler air had settled in so much that by Monday night we could close the bedroom window and blinds and sleep in relative quiet. Also, we have been able to work outside without feeling we are working in a sauna. That is very welcome.

I had heard from several of our church folks, many of whom rode out the storm. Since we were all here, we decided to have a Sunday morning service. Fifteen of us gathered on Sunday morning. Since it was so hot and humid we opened the double doors to the foyer, brought in chairs, and sat in the foyer for a short service. We sang songs of praise, and then added “’Till the Storm Passes By.” The second verse was especially appropriate and some wiped tears as they sang. I then invited people to share words of praise, and asked that people avoid listing damage, etc, but just share their testimonies of praise and thanksgiving. Their response was fantastic. At that point, I asked people to share any information that others might like to know. Someone told us about a gas station that was open in nearby Santa Fe. Another gave us a more official estimate as to when electricity will be restored. I read from Isaiah 43 But now, this is what the LORD says— he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.” We prayed together and closed with the Doxology. Some folks, who had plenty to do at home stayed to clean up a bit, but the majority of the work will be done another day.

We lost power here at 8:00 Friday evening. Many people already had generators running. Even after the wind died down on Saturday morning there was no quiet. The sound of the “rushing mighty wind” has been replaced by the groan of generators. Jackie and I love camping, so we are not strangers to the sound of generators, but what we have here are not RV generators. My next door neighbor has an old mobile welding machine sitting outside his garage (and therefore, outside one of the windows of our house). It is very loud. Across the street a worksite generator is running just about all the time. Across the back fence another construction type of generator is running. Sitting outside is not a peaceful experience! I’m not opposed to this, and I’m not complaining, but the noise is somewhat unexpected. I have a generator of my own. However it’s a very small Honda job that will run, at most two appliances at a time. Basically, it’s designed to keep the batteries on our camper charged. It’s made for RVing and therefore is campground friendly. The noise is so loud here that I can’t prove it, but I don’t think it can be heard beyond my front yard. I only run it an hour or so a day anyway. One more comment…sometime in the early morning many of the generators run out of fuel. One by one they shut down and by 5:00 or so it becomes amazingly still. Of course, having slept all night with all the racket, the silence wakes us up!

My sister, who lives just a few doors down, lost two large trees and many limbs. Once I could get out I drove a mile over to the church and found extensive damage there. Still, aside from the loss our large patio cover and many shingles, the structure looked okay. A quick drive around town revealed damage everywhere. Honestly, my gut feeling was that our neighborhood had been hit by a series of small tornadoes and that other areas wouldn’t be so bad. I was wrong. Trees are down everywhere. Signs are blown away. Our Sonic drive in was demolished. Streets are impassable and trees and power lines down everywhere. Electric polls are snapped off or leaning along every road. Returning home, we picked up what debris we had and helped around the neighborhood. Some guys we don’t even know showed up with power saws and cleared the tree that was blocking the street.

When we woke up early Saturday morning we still had tropical force winds. However, we could now see outside. There were trees down and debris everywhere. Even though the rain was still coming down (at least not sideways now) we couldn’t resist opening the door and going outside. A quick survey of our property revealed very little damage. Our backyard neighbors had a tree down, apparently twisted off about 10 feet up. On the street side of the house a large pine tree was completely down, blocking the street and narrowly missing a car in a driveway. Limbs were down, garage doors blown in, and a tree leaned against a neighbor’s house. We checked in with everyone we could find and found there were no injuries. By the way, that remains true – no injuries in our whole area. When the winds were down low enough I started taking down plywood so we could open up the house. Here on the gulf coast we know all about humidity but what we had was off the scale. The wind helped but the feeling was oppressive. We made some coffee, sat up some lawn chairs and tried to take it all in.

Friday night was a noisy night. Winds steadily increased from breezy to windy to powerful to indescribable. Through most of the storm the sound of the wind reminded me of heavy surf crashing against the shore. That sound was constant. In spite of the fact that it was holding steady at 60 mph and higher, it almost had a soothing sound to it, like walking on the beach. Then, around 1:30 AM the intensity ramped up. We had actually gone to sleep, but as the eye of Hurricane Ike moved on shore the volume got so loud that we got up to see what was happening. The “loud surf” continued, but along with it was the sound of being in a subway station as the trains come rushing in through the subway tubes: a rumbling that rapidly gains intensity and then suddenly bursts over you. The “subways” came in one after another for about two hours. We were hearing the wind off of the eye wall. At that time our sustained winds were 80-90 mph and those gusts were up to 110 mph. Our community never saw the calm eye as we were in the southern eye wall the whole time. Apparently, we had some tornadoes also, however, we never heard the “freight train” we have heard about. Frankly, we went back to bed around 2:30. At that time we prayed a short prayer and drifted back to sleep.

As you can see, I can talk a lot about what we heard, but I can’t describe much else. I left myself two openings so we could look outside, but in the midst of the storm there was nothing to see. The rain was very heavy and it was being driven sideways. Had there been no wind, it would have looked like pea-soup fog. Because of that, even with a flashlight, we could only see a few feet out into the back yard. And, again, we actually went back to bed and more or less slept through the varying stages of the storm.