Tuesday, September 16, 2008
When I called home tonight to give an update on our hurricane happenings Mom asked me what they need to know or what I have learned about what we really need in order to be prepared in an emergency. I wasn't quite sure how to answer because there is a big difference between having "advanced notice" of an emergency situation, like a 10 day on going prediction & tracking of a hurricane or an "out of the blue emergency" like an earthquake. So here is my list of "advanced notice emergency" preparedness items (not in any particular order):
1. Batteries - all sizes for everything that can be run on batteries.
2. Portable Electronics - radio, laptop, DVD player, cell phone, gameboy, Leapster, etc. Just about anything you can think of to occupy your kids and that will keep you connected to what is happening in the world.
3. Charged Batteries - make sure all chargeable batteries are fully charged.
4. Water - both drinkable and non. Just in case you lose water you can wash hands and such.
5. Ice - fill empty soda bottles and other containers and freeze them. Put ice from your ice maker or ice trays in baggies to be able to use in drinks. If you lose power the soda bottles will keep the fridge cool for a while.
6. Paper Goods - plates, bowls, cups, napkins and utensils. These are especially handy if you not only lose power, but the sewer plant also loses power.
7. Turn the freezer down - Turn the temperature on your freezer as low as you can. This will "super" freeze your food, but also get the freezer "super" cold so it will take it longer to warm up.
8. Food Storage - Make sure you have plenty of food storage items that do not require refrigeration and if possible don't have to be heated up. Also make sure you have items your family will eat. Raisins, crackers, MRE's, bread, peanut butter, nuts, dried fruits, etc. Store items you know how to use. What good is a can of wheat if you don't know how to use it?
9. Cash - have cash on hand. When the stores started re-opening some where only partially functioning because they were using generators so they were only accepting cash.
10. Toys, Games - have items to entertain and occupy little minds and hands. Crayons, books, paper, board games, whatever your kids like.
11. Comfort items - For me these include chocolate and Dr. Pepper. Other than food they are my pillow and "rain blanket". Know what items will comfort your kids as well. Do what you can to make things as "normal" as possible for them.
12. Wash clothes and dishes - Not knowing whether we would or would not lose power we decided to go ahead and wash a few loads of laundry and run the dishwasher. Also make sure you run the disposal in the sink. We thought ours ran the night before, but it started to back up a little.
13. Clean - Do as much cleaning as you can. We cleaned the bathrooms, especially the tubs in case we needed to fill them with water, vacuumed everywhere and make sure toys and such were picked up off the floor.
14. Flashlights - That's obvious, but sometimes we just overlook the obvious. Lots of batteries!
15. 72 hour kits - of course we don't have ours put together. Lucky for us we didn't have an earthquake or some other major disaster. Even though it may get costly it really is necessary.
16. Generator - the ultimate in emergency preparedness. Lucky for us a family member that got their power restored in a couple of days had one they loaned to us. In the perfect world we could all get a huge generator to power our entire house, but a smaller one that could run the refrigerator is really quite nice.
17. Know someone with really close connections to the man upstairs! Kristie's neighbor, that is also the only other member of the church in the area, came over and thanked her. Kristie had no idea what she was thanking her for. The neighbor told her she knows that they were blessed by not losing their power because Brent's sacrifice of being away from his family at this time to protect the freedoms of our country.
So this has been my unprofessional compilation of ideas that I have had over the last 4 days sitting in a hot, dark house in Houston, Texas after surviving my first hurricane healthy and unharmed.!
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Glenn went back to work today. Sharon went to check on her Dad and help him with his fence the blew down. After she came home I borrowed her car to take the girl's and go pay my cell phone bill. When we got there the store had not reopened yet so I took the girl's to lunch at Cici's Pizza where Maggie could watch cartoons and we could eat yummy cinnamon rolls. Our neighbor came over to have dinner with us tonight. She is a single lady that lives across the street from us and we have been checking in with each other nearly every day. Maggie convinced her to stay and watch a movie with us. We had an encore presentation of Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium that we had watched last night. Sharon walked Jean home and they called about the sewer problem to see what they could find out. Apparently there are lift stations that don't work if the power is out so the sewer starts backing up. YUCK!!
Thursday, September 18, 2008
DAY SIX WITH OUT POWER
Shortly after waking up there was voice mail on my phone. It was Kristie telling me that she had seen online that Centerpoint Energy was predicting that our zip code was projected to be restored by the end of the day on Monday. Glenn was working again today and I needed an AC break so I took the girl's over to Kristie's so we could all get bathed and cleaned up. When we got to her house her sister and her kids were there so I took the girl's upstairs and got them bathed. They went down to play while I showered and by the time I was done Maggie, Zoe and Kristie were the only ones there. Kristie said she was going to meet them at 12:15 at Taco Cabana and we could go if we wanted. I checked email and then we were off to lunch. Our group pretty much took over the restaurant. We had Sondra (Kristie's Mom), Lisa (Sister), Brian (Brother-in-law), Alex, Emily, Bethany, Kaylee, Kristie, Devon, Riley, Jake, Hannah, Me, Maggie and Zoe. While I was at Kristie's Aunt Brenda called offering to let us stay with them over the weekend. She also saw the Centerpoint Energy prediction and knew that the temperatures were going to be rising everyday. We'll have to discuss once we get together this evening. I am hoping that the decision will be to go stay with them. Jean came over again to visit and then we all decided to go to Wal-Mart on the way we stopped to have dinner at Whataburger and basked in the loveliness that we call AIR CONDITIONING! We were there long enough that we actually started to get chilly. I never thought that I would be saying I was chilly in September...in Houston! It has seemed like a far off dream for the last six days. I just can't even begin to explain how grateful I am for the genius that invented AC. I am also grateful for the inventors of electricity, the light bulb, cell phones, indoor plumbing and so many more of our modern conveniences that we take for granted everyday.
We decided not to go to the William's house. :(
Friday, September 19, 2008
After we had all eaten breakfast and were starting to get involved in various activities Jean knocked on the door. Sharon answered and we could hear them talking, but couldn't hear what was being said. A minute later she came into the living room where Glenn and I were sitting and handed Glenn and envelope. She said "that was Jean and she wants us to share this. She said her Dad called and told her that he had made a deposit in her bank account and she was to use some and share some". Jean is an awesome lady and we are definitely blessed to know her. Someday I'll have to share a little bit of her story.
Even though I've seen news reports in the past about hurricanes and the recovery process I never really got it. I always felt sorry for the people that lost their houses and had their lives turned upside down, but I didn't fully understand what those left without power, water and sewer were going through. I guess in my mind it just seemed like once the hurricane passed it was done and over and you got on with life. I suppose that's true for those who are lucky enough to be on the outskirts of the storm, but those in the direct path live a different reality. Although we've only been 7 days without power it seems like it's been several weeks. Our lives have been greatly interrupted and we are all feeling tired, stressed and just run down. The disruption seems to be affecting Maggie more and more each day. She gets more cranky and whiny as the days drag on. The school still doesn't have power, but they are scheduled to go back to class on Monday. I hope for all the kids sakes it gets power gets restored before then and they can get back to learning and playing with their friends. Our thoughts and prayers continue to go out to all of those who were more adversely affected than us and we pray life can get back to normal for everyone.
We took Jean and went to the church to play volleyball. Kristie and her kids came for a little while before they went to the airport to pick up Brent. He gets to be home for a few days before he has to go to Austin for more military stuff. I keep trying to get some pictures of Zoe and Hannah, but they just don't cooperate.
Jean and Kristie watching the girls and a little bit of the game.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
This morning was the primary activity. Sharon took Maggie to the church where they were practicing for their primary program tomorrow. After they returned we packed up all our stuff and headed out to Aunt Brenda's.
A very full van for just one night!
As soon as we got there Maggie and Zoe headed for the play room. It is awesome and they love it.
What was I hearing? Oh, the old familiar sound of the air conditioner running. Oh Joy!! We decided to swim for a few minutes which the kids loved of course.
When we all got cleaned up from our swimming adventure we decided to watch "Enchanted" in their theater.
The beanbag was Maggie's favorite seat. She loved our whole adventure and sleepover at Aunt Brenda's house.
Brenda and Sharon went to get pizza and then we started "Night at the Museum". At some point Jean called to let us know that the power had been restored. Yeah!! We were beginning to wonder if that was ever going to happen.
These are pictures of the room Glenn and I stayed in. Maggie ended up sleeping in Sharon's room with her. I don't know how she got so lucky to be able to have so many sleepover's this week. She may be hoping for another hurricane sometime so she can have more fun.
This is the entry from the garage. I love this whole cubby-bench-locker area. Much better than our messy shoe basket at home.
Here is the recreation area just outside the theater. We had lots of fun playing checkers, ping pong and table hockey.
This kitchen is upstairs by the rec room. We enjoyed several drinks while we were there. It was very nice to go to the fridge and find a cold drink.
They didn't even know I was coming and they were fully stocked with Dr. Pepper! I love this place!!
Who wouldn't want to stay at Hotel William's? It was fabulous! Thank you Brenda and Alan for being so generous and kind.Sunday, September 21, 2008
We got up and finished a couple of loads of laundry, ate breakfast, played a while and then we were off to church. Maggie did a great job on her part. She spoke loudly and clearly so everyone could understand her. We left after sacrament meeting so we could get the girl's some lunch and hopefully take a nap in a nice cool house.
Monday, September 22, 2008
I woke Maggie up this morning to get ready for school and once she was fed and dressed she went to turn on her TV. We have not plugged it back in so of course it didn't work. She came in and told me it wasn't working so I said that I would look at it while she was at school. I did look at it, but I did not plug it back in. When she got home she asked if it was working and I told her no so she just played with other things. WOW! Was it really that easy?
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