"Hunkerin' Down"

That's what the Mayor told us to do...so that's what we're doing! As Hurricane Ike approaches, this city, including the northern lying suburb in which we live, is in complete panic mode. There was a press conference this morning held by the Mayor of Houston instructing certain zip codes to evacuate their homes and head to safer ground. There are three evacuation zones: 1, 2, and 3. They only mandated that the first two evacuate...zone 3 was encouraged to evacuate, but is not being forced to do so, at least not yet. Ike is expected to hit the Texas coast sometime late tomorrow evening/early Saturday morning, causing damaging winds of up to 100mph and up to 10 inches of rain, even in the inland areas. So it is understandable that people are a little nervous. But anyone who doesn't live in an evac zone was instructed to stay put...they literally said "hunker down" (thought that was pretty funny) and ride out the storm at home. Fortunately we have plenty of water, flashlights, batteries, etc. and the pantry is well stocked so I didn't have to go out today to get anything. But I did try to go to lunch with some friends...BIG mistake! I-45 is gridlocked already, gas stations have lines down the streets and most are sold out of regular and premium unleaded gasoline. A friend of mine had to go get storm essentials and she called to say the grocery stores have some bottled water, but the shelves are bare...no bread, canned goods, etc. So obviously, people are panicking.

Nick is working in Austin today and will be trying to make his way back IN to Houston this evening. As long as he gets home tonight, I'll be fine and I won't panic. We plan to stay put for now. After the storm hits, if we have power outages we may head to Dallas for a day or two until it is restored, but unless that happens we plan to ride it out.

It's a little scary being almost 35 weeks pregnant with all of this going on. Not to mention the 2 year old I will have to keep occupied indoors all weekend, possibly without power. But I'm sure we'll all be fine. I'll update the blog as things unfold to keep everyone posted...at least as long as we have power!

1 comment:

Jammi said...

craziness! hurricanes are so scary..we will be thinking about you guys and checking on you often.

xoxo,
team palmer