Me and Ike – Part III

This is taking me so long that it's old news by now!

Part III - The Morning after the Storm

As the day grew lighter, we were eager to get outside and check on “things.” I haven’t quite decided if it is better to be in a storm during the night when you can’t see what’s happening or during the day when you can see what’s happening. I think I would have been terrified had I known how many trees where falling down around us. Thankfully, none, absolutely none of the huge trees in our yard or around our yard fell into our house, our cars, our fence, or even our yard. We had plenty of branches and debris, as these pictures will show, but we were indeed blessed not to have to deal with the headache of a big tree or two on our house or lawn. That became more and more apparent as we got out of the house, out into the neighborhood, out into our community, and eventually out towards the northern part of the city, where my daughter lives.

The first two pictures are views from outside our back and front doors. As you can see, just minor debris. The third picture was the only damage to our house. The next few picture are trees that were down within a few houses of us, starting with next door.

After breakfast on the grill and hanging around the house awhile, I asked my friend if she would like to go check out her house. I also wanted to get out and see how things looked elsewhere. The radio information focused mainly where there was the most damage, Galveston and the Bolivar Peninsula area. There was also some news of downtown flooding and power outages all over the place. So we joined the adventure seekers (although the emergency responders and electric companies would probably call us something else) and traveled across the lake to her neighborhood. Downed trees blocking roads and laying across power lines were common sights everywhere. Back yards that were normally hidden by 6 ft. privacy fences were now exposed because many of those fences were blown down. Darkened traffic lights bobbed carelessly around, many facing different directions than their intended positions. Likewise, many traffic signs and bill boards were twisted into uselessness. All was well at my friend's house. Her neighborhood is new and their trees were small (not great for much desired shade but wonderful for hurricanes). This is one of the trees in our neighborhood that forced us into taking a detour to get home.

While we were gone, the grandchildren and their friends played in the drizzling rain. The girls had changed into dry clothes before we even arrived back to the house but my grandson was enjoying this rare experience to its fullest.

I joined him outside and asked him if he wanted to venture out to the greenbelt. Of course, he did. On hindsight, it probably wasn't a good idea (especially since we were barefoot) but the destruction of trees drew us deeper and deeper into the wooded area behind our row of houses. The once lovely walking and biking path was barely visible under the debris.

We gingerly dodged our way though stumps, branches, and limbs. I wanted to get to the area directly behind our house but when I saw these poor, dead baby opossums, I quickly realized I no longer wanted to be anywhere near there without shoes on my feet (duh!).

Before turning back, however, I snapped a couple of distant pictures of the bench that is directly behind our house.

The opossums were not the only animal casualties we witnessed. Before we even ventured outside after the storm, I saw this poor little creature as I opened the living room window for air. We think it was a newborn kitten. It was still alive and shivering. The children begged me to try to save it but the other sensible adults in the house talked me out of it. We told the kids the mama cat may come back for it so we needed to leave it there. Later, one of those sensible adults went out to remove it from under the window only to discover several more underneath a shrub. They were already dead. That explains the cat screeching in the middle of the hurricane, although it is hard for me to believe this was a feline. If it was, it must have been an early delivery, I think. But, then, what do I know about cats? All said and done, it broke my heart, no matter what it was.