Businesses and stores started closing on Thursday. Schools closed Friday with an assesment to be done on Sunday about school on Monday. Jocie's surgery has been postponed for 2 weeks!
The officials asked those not in low lying areas to Shelter-in-Place aka "hunker down" and that's what we did.
We knew we had plenty of food and water should we need it. My husband was most concerned about losing power. I hoped we wouldn't but we prepared for it.
The forecasters kept saying we'd start getting winds, etc by noon on Friday. Tropical Storm force winds were supposed to last unil 6 pm and then Catagory 1 winds shortly after. We didn't get much for winds until 8:00. All of our neighbors went outside to check things out. Everyone was getting stir crazy, I think. We'd been waiting all day for the winds to start with nothing. Even at 8:00, there were only gusts up to 15mph but it was a start.
The full force of the storm hit us around 3a.m. I had gone to bed but was awaken by the sound, the windows rattling, our covered patio roof was threatening to blow off. I tried to watch the weather but the power kept shutting off so I used our battery powered tv Don bought a couple of years ago for just this type of thing. Our trellis had fallen already.
The news was announcing some people lost power as early as 5:00 on Friday. I was encouraged that we'd be spared that fate. Down town Houston was getting pounded and building lost lots of windows. Don got up around 3:30 and we stood in our alcove out front to watch the trees and wind. He didn't stay up long though. I was up until 5:00and slept on the couch after that. I woke again at 6:30, this time the power was out. Paul called to check on us and we were still amid the storm.
By the end of it all - we had no damage to the house. We thought we'd lose the roof to the covered patio but we didn't. One palm tree didn't make it and the crepe tree probably won't either as it was uprooted. Other neighbors lost fences and 1 lost a large tree. Our power was out until 8pm. We spent the time cleaning up the yard, talking with neighbors, sleeping a little, reading, and playing games. It wasn't too bad though.
Hope anyone reading this was is in this path "misses the bullet" which is what we felt happened. Prayers go out to Galveston Island, Bolivar, and other areas hard hit. Here's a few pictures I took after the storm.
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