Throw Back Thursdays: Hurricanes

by Jen | Oct 2, 2014 | Life Reflections, Popular

Hurricane Bret and Stephanie

Way way back many centuries ago, well, 1998, there was a hurricane coming straight towards Corpus Christi, Texas.  Naturally, I was there.  I was living on a Navy base, off of the Gulf of Mexico, with my husband.  And, naturally, when a hurricane is expected all of the active duty service members are suppose to leave the women and children behind and evacuate with the aircraft.

So it’s midnight and there is a tank like truck with a mega phone and flashing lights driving around a pitch black base announcing a mandatory evacuation of all people.  I knew like 3 people and my husband, who was one of them, was leaving at o-dark-thirty to fly to Dallas (where he would later eat steak while I stood in pouring rain in said hurricane boarding up a house with cedar.)  (I so do NOT hold grudges and I have totally forgave him for his so called stomach flu in 1993 that required me to drive 500 miles while he puked out a window in a stick shift that I did not know how to drive up hill in a blinding blizzard for 8 hours that resulted in the closing of the Pennsylvania Turnpike and us being stranded for days.)

Back to the story.

It’s midnight and I’m in some sort of apocalypse of pre-hurricane hell with no where to go.

Ring, ring!  Hi, you just met me.  Can I come over?  It’s Jennifer.  J-E-N-N-I-F-E-R.

Thus, began my relationship with hurricanes and my friendship with Stephanie.  Later, the following day, Stephanie and I would stand in horror in a Home Depot like store where hundreds of people were CLIMBING the 20 foot shelves as a short cut to get to the plywood.  (They ran out of plywood so we bought cedar for $500 to board up her house.)  We would then stand in line forever while, no kidding, cash registers were over heating from the long, long lines.  This was followed by trying to affix said cedar to her brick house in the pouring rain with mud up to our calves.  Husband would later call from steak house to ask how things were going.

Real cedar boarding up these windows!

I experienced a “hurricane” while closing on a house.  I experienced a “hurricane” while moving into a house (awesome and so romantic to unpack by candlelight in 100 degree heat).

Which brings me to Chesapeake.  Oh sweet Chesapeake.  Every single Fall a “hurricane” would arrive and my husband would be gone.  Gone, gone, gone.  Kids, cats, pools, swamps, flooding, power outages, and Stephanie.  Because 10 years later we were living a mile a part and going through this whole thing, again, only with 4 kids and 2 pets.  It really was comical.

Ring, Ring!  Hi, I’m going outside now to drain the pool a few inches while there is a break in the storm.  I’ll call you when I come back inside so you know I didn’t get struck by lightening, drown, or slip and hit my head, ok?

Ring, Ring!  Hi, yup, it’s time to go into the laundry room again, just wanted to make sure you heard the sirens.  Oh, ok.  Great.  I didn’t hear them because I was vacuuming in case we lost power. Thanks.

One such “hurricane”, and I put it into quotes because unless the eye is going over your house we won’t call it a full-fledged hurricane, was predicted to be bad.  Really bad. The prep was more serious.  More involved.  And I remember this because I found an old FB post:

Here is some of what I have done this week: Tuesday-bought 2 cases of water, C and D batteries, and food. Thursday-bought 3 bags of ice and then another bag of ice. Got gas. Took cat to vet. For $350 cat is perfectly healthy. Bought more water. Moved lots of outdoor furniture inside. Threw out back. Bought more ice. Bought more flashlights. Went to pool store to buy chemicals to keep pool NOT green. Put chemicals into pool and then drained water out of pool. Filled up tub. Got more ice. Made a list of what to take if there is a tree in my house. Put water in car. Put water and bucket with garbage bags in laundry room aka the safe house. Maybe ice will fit in washer? Should buy more ice. Hope we have enough food. No one eat the food! Save the food! Washed all my clothes in case no electricity. Washed all of the clothes with a diaper. Now need to wash all the clothes AGAIN about 4 more times since washed with diaper. Need to buy more clothes. Need to buy more ice for my head.

• didn’t even mention all the runs i made to get cash and then more cash. should i spend the cash keep the cash where is the cash do i need all this cash….?
• my neighbors boarded up their house and just left.  oh dear.
• the ice is melting.  i still have power.  the eye of the storm is suppose to hit between 6 and 10 am.  i should wash the boys again.

  After the storm:
•  Does anyone need 6 bags of ice?
  

  The Safe House aka the laundry room.

   

I’ve got nothing to close with…so I’ll just see you later.

Jen