"Hello Beastie" .....

Ike’cane Log 9/14/08 ~ Sunday

Hurricane Ike slams Galveston and Houston Saturday Night…Total destruction and desolation everywhere….

Louisville, Kentucky ~ Southern Indiana Forecast for Sunday, September 14th, 2008.….Winds 30 - 35 mph with gusts expected up to 45 mph through 8 p.m. ESTas remnants of Ike and Cold Front merge …..

10:30 a.m.

Winds reeling in at a sustained 35 - 40 mph…..

12:00 p.m.

Winds pick up considerably.  Items on porch begin to shuffle and dance around a bit…. Grab beer…

12:10 p.m…… “Hello Beastie”…..

Winds at least 50 mph and sustained… I yell up at dh to go to the store and get 2 ~22 lb. bags of ice.  
I fill up 4 large pitchers of water, take candle count and check kerosene levels in Oil Lamps…Check.  Where’d my beer go ?

12:11 p.m.

Porch begins looking like a popcorn machine, items shuffling, dancing, bouncing and some begin to take flight. Keeping eye out for beer…

12:13 p.m.

Power Out ….
Get another beer, ice down beer that’s in the frig…

12:14 p.m.

Wind Warning Issued on Weather Radio…. Oh really! I never would have known…

Dh ventures outside, we hear a ‘crack’ and look slightly to our right to watch a 40 ft. maple tree topple towards the house knocking everything off the porch that was hanging … I belt out a major expletive…. Ok, a couple of ‘em …. Dh goes to barn and closes barn doors, I go back to barn and reopen barn doors, I yell at him to move the vehicles into the center of the field and I run to garden shack for a large cooler.  Bad Idea…was trapped for 10 mins… garden shack took a pounding.  I made it out during a short lull, cooler and self in tact… anybody seen my beer ???  I go upstairs to check on dogs, East Side Window blown in… I run dogs out of room and close door only to be blown open again before I got down steps.  Wind Gusts hitting 90 - 100 mph on this hill…..



12:35 p.m.

Dh brings back ice, puts on work clothes, fixes upstairs window and leaves … (he’s employed with the County Highway Dept.)…then all hell breaks lose here for another hour and a half…..

I open refrigerator freezer, move a couple things and shove 22 lbs. of ice inside, upright, and beat with wood cutting board until I can shove the door shut not to be opened again for 2 ½ days.

12:45 p.m.

DH leaves for work and CRACK! there goes the other 50 ft. front Maple taking out the utility pole, the transformer and ripping the wiring out of the meter on the side of the house leaving the wiring a foot from my front door porch gate…. Can no longer see front yard from debri.  Welp, can’t do anything about this cept offer up a couple more expletives which flowed naturally, I run back inside to check on condition… and grab another beer…..

As I go through living room towards kitchen, I glance into the bedroom and notice West Side window laying on the bed, AC headed towards floor.

I push window back into frame and AC into window then slide to the left and wait…POW! Catch window in hands this time…knock AC onto floor, put window back in frame and latch window closed.  Pull blinds and curtains closed….where the hell’s my beer ?

Dogs hiding in upstairs closet, cats hiding under stairwell with the exception of fearless, clueless Josey J  Porch looks like a popcorn maker. Picking up antique wooden boxes for the 3rd time and reanchor, catching 50 lb. lard cans in mid air.  Sat a thermometer on corn shucker and never saw it again for a week.

Ventured to cellar to find hand cranked weather radio…cranked it for 2 days before I realized it had batteries in it :\

Moved all house plants inside….Found 1st beer I had lost …

Cob webs and leaves are floating in balls through the rooms in clumps as they collected along the way…
Winds so loud that’s all you could hear…house rumbling, shuddering, shaking, everything blowing in blurry circle outside… Grab beer, sit at living room table and wait it out…

3:30 p.m.

Winds subside….

I pick up porch for the 8th time… grab another beer….

4:00 p.m.

Neighbor comes over to check on me, I was in shock, still trembling, he said he couldn’t see the trees anymore but he couldn’t see our house either…everything was piled up a foot from the house 15 - 20 foot high in some areas… yes folks, we were the house on the street that everyone slowed down to look at L

He asks if I’d like anything from the store…I told him all I needed was 2 large bags of Charcoal and a can of lighter fluid.  He came back with the charcoal but said Walmart’s roof had been blown off where the lighter fluid was.  Well at least I got charcoal and we still had water and I had beer ~ cold  beer !  Little did I know it would be a full week before we got power back…


Access Damage…

2 40 - 50 ft. maple trees down in front yard, one through fence, remaining 2 50 ft. Maple trees in front need to be brought down, 70 ft. maple laying through fence in middle of pasture, garden shack covered in limbs, leaves and limbs scattered everywhere, couldn‘t see grass in many areas.  5 large trees down in back pasture, 10 huge trees down in spring area on opposite side of house across the road.  No damage to self, critters, house or outbuildings J  Beer still cold J J J

Rest of the Week Highlights…

Began days with lighting grill, heating water and pouring through coffee maker, then putting back into enamel coffee pot and keeping on grill…cooking whatever needed to be cooked.  Had cheeseburgers at 8 a.m. on Monday with my coffee. Then debri cleanup, cook thawed meat in evenings, heat water for spitz baths and  listen to battery radio for storm update info…

Report:  500,000 out of electric in Louisville, KY area, another 200,000 in Southern Indiana…Biggest storm damage on record…

Tuesday Morning, 12 yo cat Taz has blood and goo oozing from mouth and he’s ‘fishing’ all over the place, I’m now looking for a vet…after 3 places, finally found one open…they asked if I wanted to keep his tooth (eye roll). Picked up 100 lbs. of grain, 50 lbs. of dog food, 20 lbs. of ice and more beer…

Yes, Rush Limbaugh, I get it! ..you can’t stand Obama…alright already….

REMC shows up 10:30 p.m. Tuesday night not to be seen again until Sunday morning.

Wednesday night, I notice glowing balls of light in the distance …hmmm

Hauled out roughly 15 - 20 large trailor loads of debri and countless wheel barrow loads.

Thursday Night, go to other home in New Albany, it’s in the same damn condition.  Can’t see the house for the trees …. Pop the top on another beer…. Go back home… neighbor drops by, says they hooked his electric up Wednesday by 11 a.m. …wtf ????  Blood pressure shoots through the roof.

Friday, draw face on chunk of wood oddly resembling Wilson…. Notice myself beginning to talk to ‘Chuck’ ….

Saturday Afternoon…I’m about to snap… body looks like it went through combine… watching Duke Energy everywhere, set up like a compound in Walmart’s parking lot …. Everyone around me hooked up with electric accept us and 2 other houses that received the worst damage between 64 and Crandall…. Come to find out REMC hooked up everybody with the exception of me, my neighbor and one other house.  They took us off the grid!!!  “YOU BASTURDS”!!!!!  We get THE WORST damage and you heartless basturds take US OFF the grid !!!!  Where’s my beer and my gun  ???!

Call REMC, lady tries to give me the rigmarole….. Ends up hanging up on me, I assume because she was backed into a corner with questions from me that she obviously couldn’t answer with her generic babble …

I seek out old REMC newletter, find Board Director name for Corydon area, look his name up in the phonebook and give him a little call at home…..

I told him how I couldn’t understand that they could hook everyone else up around us and leave the 3 homes with the worst damage without fricken electric ????  That I saw that as a heartless act in and of itself…..  That we’ve worked hard and could use just a little bit of help ….

Sunday morning, here came the troops !!! I grill up some smoke sausages for the crew along with our coffee, that guarantees good service ….Electric back on by 1:00 p.m. Sunday, a full 8 days from impact…

What I’ve learned…..

If you’re out of water AND electric….get the hell out.  Electric is one thing, going without water is another….

Hot water in a water heater will stay warm for a day and a half.  Don’t use it, you’ll want a shower after clean up.

22 # bag of ice will keep in a freezer that’s unopened for 3 days.

When you put ice in a cooler, don’t break it up, leave it in the bag, solid at the bottom of the cooler, put items on top…keep the coolers inside out of the elements, one large bag can last 3 days.

Sausage, pizzas, bacon, frozen vegetables and ice cream thaw first.  Dairy and egg based products go bad first (mayonnaise, salad dressings, tartar sauce, milk).

When grilling pizza on the grill put pizza and pan on at the same time and close lid, 10 - 12 mins. Should do the trick!

The sun is a fabulous sanitizer for towels and blankets.

One large jar candle will burn for 5 ½ days straight if not blown out, so a lot of mileage from one if you conserve them and trim your wicks before each use.

Charcoal lasts longer if you close up the grill after each use and add a little more on top, don’t throw out the bricks that are left each time, they’ll relight.

When you hearany storm is headed your way that YOU feel could be a threat, don’t worry about milk and fricken bread, fill up your gas tank, pumps don’t pump without electricity and pick up the following…..




Emergency Items Needed:


Alternative Heat Source if in a Region where needed.
Candles
Oil Lamps & Oil
Batteries
Battery operated radio and flash light
Charcoal
Lighter Fluid
Cast Iron Cook Ware including big pot for heating water
Chain Saw…I don’t care if you rent or own, if you have a large tree around you, you’ll eventually need a chainsaw.
2 Large Coolers
Aluminum Foil
Paper Plates, Cups, Utensils, Paper Towels
Ice
Beer……

Blessings…… the weather was perfect, no rain with the storm, full moon that night and the following night, temps in 70’s high and low 50’s at night, humidity low, no bugs, we had water, no damage to our homes, outbuildings, self or critters…..

I’m sure hatty and wiseoz can add a lot to this.  But this was my first hurricane rodeo and it’s what I picked up rather quickly !  Welp, that was my week in nutshell, so how you guys been doin???

    ~Blessings, hutchess~