{"id":1612,"date":"2017-08-27T22:19:14","date_gmt":"2017-08-28T02:19:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myhusbandandkids.com\/?p=1612"},"modified":"2017-08-27T23:21:02","modified_gmt":"2017-08-28T03:21:02","slug":"rock-you-like-a-hurricane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myhusbandandkids.com\/?p=1612","title":{"rendered":"Rock You Like A Hurricane"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bad weather happens everywhere. \u00a0No place is immune to weather related destruction. \u00a0I never experienced tornados as a kid, and I felt so badly for places that were struck with devastating tornados and hurricanes. \u00a0One of the advantages of living in the hills of Kentucky, a long way from the coast and open flat land, was protection from such horrifying disasters. \u00a0 \u00a0The most weather-related danger was flooding. \u00a0 This might sound silly, and it’s possible that my memory isn’t correct, but floods on Rockhouse Creek began and ended quickly. \u00a0Another characteristic is how fast the currents were – the creek would turn into category 5 white-water with trailer debris whizzing along with the currents. \u00a0I never took a flooding event seriously until trailers were zooming down the creek. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Fast-forward several years and I am living in an open flat-land coastal region. \u00a0Basically Houston and the surrounding area is a swampy wet-land that has been developed into the 4th largest city in the nation. \u00a0Because Houston is so spectacular (sincerely, it is a great place, ya’ll), there has been a huge boom in population and development. \u00a0It seems these factors intensify flooding. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When we moved here in 2009, I was traveling home from work and almost didn’t make it to our house, because a portion of the neighborhood street was flooded. \u00a0I didn’t realize how deep the water was – I thought it was just some minor street flooding. \u00a0A huge Humvee-style vehicle stopped in front of me, and I barely managed to get around it. \u00a0Luckily, I made it home and vowed to never be in that predicament again! There were a handful of similar events, one involving the entire family trying to make it to a Family Concert at the Houston Symphony and another trying to get back from the airport on the night of the “Memorial Day 2015” flood. \u00a0Rachel still describes that as “the day our whole family almost died”! \u00a0She is a little overdramatic on that one. \u00a0That flood did test the levee system in our neighborhood. \u00a0The very pretty baseball\/soccer fields near the levees flooded, which is the intended purpose of such areas. \u00a0Parks and ponds are designed to serve as collection points for overflow.<\/span><\/p>\n

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flooded area near our soccer\/baseball fields – Memorial Day flood 2015.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Rachel standing on the edge of the flooded fields – Memorial Day flood 2015<\/p><\/div>\n

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When Hurricane Harvey developed, I didn’t give much thought about flooding, etc. \u00a0I thought we would deal with some leaky points in our attic (if you are interested, ask me about the time I rigged a series of buckets on a tarp to collect water during the “Tax Day flood” when Bryan was on-call) and possible school closures. \u00a0Boy was I wrong. <\/span><\/p>\n

I try not to panic about weather. \u00a0Bryan is the total opposite of me, because he is “Mr. Prepared” regarding all things weather. \u00a0Bryan and Rachel are the family meteorologists. \u00a0On the way home from practice last Thursday, Rachel wanted to travel to Galveston to meet Jim Cantore – crazy kid! \u00a0We stopped at the grocery store, and it was wiped clean of water, bread, and produce. \u00a0I couldn’t believe that people had reacted so dramatically. The public schools cancelled school on Friday (before it even started raining). \u00a0Geez! \u00a0As Harvey began to make landfall somewhere near Corpus Christi, we started to get lots of rain. Then all heck broke loose!<\/span><\/p>\n

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empty bread aisle<\/p><\/div>\n

The rain became very heavy and then we lost power, which is typical. \u00a0It doesn’t take much for the power to blink or go out. \u00a0I consider it a fairly low-grade inconvenience. \u00a0Unfortunately, the power went out at just the time we were finally getting the older girls to bed. \u00a0“AHHHHHH!!!! NOOOOOO!!!!! \u00a0DADDY WHERE ARE YOU!!!” cries were followed by screaming that rivaled any scream queen. \u00a0After hours of fighting over flash lights and where to sleep, the girls finally settled down. \u00a0Bryan went upstairs to sleep on the futon to calm them down. \u00a0Somehow Miriam slept through the storms AND her sister’s wailing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Just as I was getting to sleep, our weather band radio (thanks Mom, the handiest Christmas present ever) started blaring along with all three cell phones. \u00a0First it was tornado watches, which quickly changed to warnings. \u00a0I checked our neighborhood Facebook page and neighbors were advising to shelter in place because tornados were “all over” the neighborhood. \u00a0Bryan and I debated about dragging the girls to a closet. \u00a0We left them in their beds while we stood alert waiting to snatch them downstairs. \u00a0It was a long night.<\/span><\/p>\n

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tornado damage – trees uprooted and snapped like twigs<\/p><\/div>\n

Saturday was much calmer, although the destruction from the tornados was apparent. \u00a0My running route was littered with huge trees and many homes were damaged. \u00a0Our neighborhood was all over the local news! \u00a0We hoped the worst was behind us, but no. \u00a0Later that evening, intense storms returned. \u00a0Again, I don’t know how, but Miriam slept through them! \u00a0Rachel and Sarah were calmer but still excitable. \u00a0About 10 pm, Bryan saw firetrucks go past our house. \u00a0We found out that a lighting strike caused a small fire in the attic of a home across the street! \u00a0Fortunately, the inhabitants were not injured and the home sustained mild damage. \u00a0Another home, about 1 mile from our house, was also struck by lighting and caught on fire. \u00a0From what I gather, no one was injured, and the home was saved. \u00a0As all this was happening, our streets started to flood and the park across from our house filled with water. \u00a0Fortunately, the water receded quickly and all was well.<\/span><\/p>\n

I thought today was the day that we were turning the corner. NOPE! \u00a0After a tense 48 hours, the rain had calmed, but Houston was underwater. \u00a0We began to learn of friends from church and work that were dealing with flooding in their homes and possible loss of almost everything! \u00a0All of the major road ways were completely underwater. \u00a0The medical center where Bryan and I work was also underwater and is closed until at least Tuesday. \u00a0On a selfish note, I am so thankful that Bryan is not on call. \u00a0I might be pulling out my hair if he was part of an “essential staff” crew right now. \u00a0On Friday, they began closing the flood gates at the medical center. \u00a0These were put in place after Hurricane Allison (2001) caused incredible damage to the medical center. \u00a0I had never seen the flood gates before, so of course I took pictures of them before I left work Friday evening.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Partially closed flood gates on Friday before the storm<\/p><\/div>\n

I also would like to thank you all for your concern, thoughts, and prayers. \u00a0We are really touched that our family and friends have reached out to check on us. \u00a0I hadn’t posted a lot on Facebook, because I didn’t want to worry folks. \u00a0I will say that the images on the national news and the weather channel are very bad and reflect so much devastation. \u00a0For the moment, we have avoided such horrific circumstances. \u00a0I think we will continue to deal with flooded streets and roads, but we are doing well. Everyone has been told to stay put, because it’s too dangerous to drive on flooded roads. \u00a0After a not too steep learning curve regarding driving in Houston flood waters, I trust our officials on that advice. \u00a0 We are concerned about the levees and if the Brazos river will exceed the levee capacity of our neighborhood. All reports indicate that all will be ok. \u00a0We are stressed and worried, as there have been rumors of the potential need to evacuate our neighborhood. \u00a0If that happens, we will face it, deal with it, and will be fine. \u00a0My issues seem very minimal compared to so many others (many of them are good friends) in the Houston metro area. \u00a0 If things take a turn, I promise to let immediate family know what’s happening and will subsequently post status updates on Facebook. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Bad weather happens everywhere. \u00a0No place is immune to weather related destruction. \u00a0I never experienced tornados as a kid, and I felt so badly for places that were struck with devastating tornados and hurricanes. \u00a0One of the advantages of living in the hills of Kentucky, a long way from the coast and open flat land,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1608,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myhusbandandkids.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1612"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myhusbandandkids.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myhusbandandkids.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myhusbandandkids.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myhusbandandkids.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1612"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.myhusbandandkids.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1612\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1639,"href":"https:\/\/www.myhusbandandkids.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1612\/revisions\/1639"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myhusbandandkids.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myhusbandandkids.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myhusbandandkids.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myhusbandandkids.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}