Hurricane Ike

Sunday, September 14, 2008
The day after Hurricane Ike, I found myself driving towards Houston. It is early in the morning and I saw the sun rise when we left our home, but as I approached Houston, the sky was getting darker and darker and the rain started to hit the Odyssey. My husband, Dan, was sleeping soundly as I joined in the convoys of coach buses being led by State Troopers and pickup trucks with generators in their beds. The only traffic coming out of Houston on I-10 was clusters of ambulances and other state vehicles. I was starting to doubt why I was going to Houston on such a day, but knew that Guy and Thelma Mauldin would be doing the same if I needed help.
As we drove up the driveway, I quickly realized, we would not make it very far as fallen trees and limbs were occupying all of the concrete. I spotted the Mauldin’s and Thelma’s brother using a hand saw to try to remove a downed tree that was the blocking the Mauldin’s vehicle in their driveway. The place looked like a disaster zone and was not in the manicured state I was accustomed to seeing. It was a good thing we had packed our work gloves and that Dan loves to play with a chainsaw.
There were some great moments during the day. More help arrived and just like on the T.V. commercials, the Mauldin’s insurance agent came to the house to take photos. When I mentioned it would be nice to have a gas blower to clean the leaves of the driveway, he jumped in his truck and returned minutes later with a blower and spent the next hour blowing the mess we had created from raking the branches into little piles. It made a huge difference and if you need insurance and service, I would recommend Chris Mims from Farmer’s Insurance. Like I said, it was just like a commercial!
At the end of the day, the front yard looked much better, the driveway was passable and I decided that it was a good thing my parents forced higher education on me as manual labor and I are not a great team. We packed the van and headed home after a hard day’s work. One very special sheltie named “Pajero” came home with us. I’ll let “Pajero” tell his story….

Pajero’s Blog
Sunday, September 14, 2008
I really can’t believe I was into the second day of no air conditioning! Thank goodness dad said that Auntie Allana and Uncle Dan were taking me to Camp Hemenway where there is power. I was sure I was going to start shedding soon if I didn’t get some cool air on me. I was still a little confused as to why we were evacuating after the hurricane instead of prior to a hurricane, but all I kept hearing was that 2.1 million people were without power and that it would be 3-5 weeks before power would be restored. I was very happy to jump into the van as I could feel the cool air coming my way. The trip to Camp Hemenway was fine and when I arrived, I found myself in the backyard with lots of trees to sniff. The only problem I encountered was this hairy sable dog that felt he owned the place. I had a little chat with him and Auntie Allana removed the sable hair mop from the yard. I think she calls him “Ardon”. After a nice supper, I retired to the air conditioning again for a little nap. I really thought I should be in the family room on the couch, but I saw the shaggy sable mop in there, so I decided a crate would be just fine for tonight as I was tired and ready for bed. Thank goodness for water and electricity for air conditioning.