Finally Home
September 23rd, 2008 7 Comments»Wordcount: 624
The drive back into Houston was kind of long because there were so many people headed home on Sunday. About 60 miles out, to the north, is where I started seeing some of the damage caused by Hurricane Ike. A billboard had fallen into the roof of an apartment complex, trees were down, roofs caved in, windows shattered. The worse though, was when we drove through down-town. I had seen it on the news, but to see it close up was totally different. There is so much damage there, it almost seems like a movie or something. When we got off the highway and headed towards home, none of the traffic lights were working. Some were flashing, but for the most part there was hardly any power. Our apartments had power, but no phone or cable service on Sunday. When we first pulled up, I didn’t really notice too much damage to the apartment complex, but as we drove through I noticed that one building lost a wall, and then the building right next to ours.. one side of the patio on the first and second floors collapsed, their windows were broken and their storage closets were just gone. I got kind of worried about how my apartment held up at that point, but when we got inside everything looked the exact same, thankfully.
I was glad that the power had come back on prior to that because the meat and stuff that was in the freezer got the chance to re-freeze. It would have been so disgusting to have to deal with it had it not been frozen. Overall I ended up tossing roughly $400 worth of meat and spoiled food. That’s pretty annoying, and I just had to keep reminding myself that I’m lucky to even have a home to come back to, so I can’t complain too much. Sunday night we ventured out to find a place to grab a burger, having forgotten that most places were without electricity. There were a total of three fast food places open in my area where normally there are close to ten. Wendy’s, McDonald’s, and Jack In The Box were all that were open and the lines were so long that it was almost unreal. We ended up going to Wendy’s because that line was shortest. The entire restaurant was packed so we opted to sit through the long drive-thru line. After about an hour we finally got something to eat. They were running out of food by that time, so we are lucky we went when we did. I almost got into a wreck on the way home because it was so dark out due to no street or stop lights. In case anyone’s wondering why we chose to eat fast food, we really had no food since everything in the refrigerator and both freezer’s were ruined. The cable was out and so was the internet, so after watching A Night At The Museum, which Eric has on DVD, I went to bed. I was incredibly exhausted anyway.
The next morning we went to the grocery store, which was incredibly packed as it seems everyone else in the city had the same idea. Our grocery was one of the only ones even open and stocked, so of course that made it even worse. The shelves were being emptied faster than they could restock, and we were lucky that we were able to get some stuff. I was certain there would be no milk left, but there were just a few gallons in the dairy case. When we came home, the cable tv was working and I promptly put it on HGTV and relaxed for a little while. It’s good to be home…
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Thanks :)
Glad to hear you’re home, Angela! That really sucks that the Hurricane hit there so hard.
I’m glad your apartment is ok.
Thanks Amy. I’m glad too.
Welcome home! It’s just so scary to see all the damage and see how many people are still without power and still having to look for food. Just wow.
Thank you! It’s wonderful to be back.
It is scary, but hopefully it’s going to get better.
Thank God hurricanes aren’t really often here in our country coz if it was, i’d be terribly traumatized. Glad to know you’re safe though.
I’m actually considering moving as soon as I can, to be honest. I am tired of these hurricanes and evacuations. They’re only supposed to get worse.
I’m glad you and your family are back home and safe!