Ike Passes & Aftermath

Riding Out the Storm
Power went out shortly after my last post. At about 4:30 a.m. I was officially in the full force of the storm.

Located on the 14th floor of Hotel Dietrich, I rode out the storm. Initially I wasn't to worried. The wind was howling and rattling the windows. The rain was swirling and coming down in sheets. I really wasn't rattled until the building shook. A gust of wind hit hard and I wasn't sure if I felt the building move or if it was my over active imagination. A few more gusts shook the windows and the building definitely shook. That rattled my nerves. From there on out it was trying to sleep while hoping for the best.

The hotel bistro was closed so they had buffets set up for guests. I slept through breakfast but made the lunch buffet. I should taken the clue when after I asked about dinner buffet I was told that lunch was the only meal they could prepare. Sure enough about an hour later the hotel announced that there was no water or power. The generator was running on low so all guests had to leave by 5:00 p.m.

I had a couple of places to go. Or so I thought. I first called a friend but he didn't answer. I called another friend be she didn't answer. I left my room at 4:00 p.m. thinking that someone would call me back soon. Nothing. I finally got a hold of the first friend. He was stuck at work and couldn't come get me. He told me to call his nephew to come and pick me up. No luck. I ended up having to call his sister. She and her husband picked me up a little bit after 6:00 p.m.

There was no power at their house. No surprise since 96% or more of the area was without power. I ended up staying two nights before I returned home. We had moved my car there Friday night to get it away from the flood zone that is my parking lot. It almost got taken out by a tree.

Before I came home we stopped at Kroger to get some canned goods and ice. There was an ambulance passing out some MREs so I picked up five and my friend's nephew picked up four for me.

There was no power when I got home. We had opened up the freezer to put the bags of ice in there. Bad idea. Everything had started to rot and stank to high heaven. After my friend's left I took a nice cold show, lit up the oil lamps and found my battery powered lantern. I started cleaning out the fridge by lantern light. Right as I took the last load out of the fridge the lights powered on. I was relieved but worried that they might not stay on. Thank God they are still functioning.

So aside from losing about two to three weeks of food and a tree almost smashing my car up, I came out of the storm unscathed. To top it off my supervisor just called and said I don't have to report to work this week. I go back in Monday morning.

Aaah, time to tackle some of the those projects I had time to do during my sabbatical.

Hope everything turns out well for all those affected by the storm.

Have a good one,
Unkle Monkee