We slept pretty good, although I woke up rather scared at times because the wind was picking up steam and blowing things against the windows. Power was lost at our place around 3 am.
In the morning, we looked out the window and it was dark and very windy. This was the beginning; this was Hurricane Katrina.
Around 7:00, my husband called his mother. We still had phone. She was getting worried, as trees had already started to sway. We watched as siding from the apartments in back of us started lifting up on the walls. I figured, this isn't soooo bad.
Around 9:00, I was on the phone to my husbands mom. CLUUNK CLUUNK CLUUNK CLUUNK CHHH! "There goes my roof!" I yelled and hug up the phone. I was scared to death. The room where we were all at was very dark due to the panels, so I went to the living room (where we also had panels on the front, but not in the back) I could see above the front panels it was very light. I went to my daughters room where there was no panels and the front porch had blown off. I went to the back and it had crashed (that was the CHHH!) into the back fence to the apartments. However, now there was water coming in the living room, soaking through the cieling tiles. The house was somewhat compromised.
Throughout the following hours, it was slow going, for what seemed like an eternity. I know I had to close the front door once because it literally blew open, and my daughters bedroom door blew open a few times. Her window busted out( there was enough wind blowing through the house to push it out from the inside; patching it up with one of my hardboard canvases saved us as it blocked a lot of wind. The house was somewhat breezy as the wind was pushing through all the vents and coming out closets and doorframes.
Water was literally blowing under the door, and by now I had pots and pans everywhere to catch the dripping water.More and more cieling tiles were turning brown, absorbing water and falling. The carpet was soaked and water was running down the mini blinds. Things were hitting the window panels every few seconds, some sounding like cinderblocks or baseballs. The winds would blow and then subside, like they were inhaling to exhale another powerful gust. It was creepy; you could almost hear the storm breathe.
At this point, I was starting to worry. The porch was gone, the roof was leaking, the window was broke. I looked out the back window and it was still blowing stuff around.
This was truly the longest day of my life, and we had it WAY easier than most.
Some people had rushing water flood their homes, and some people were still IN their homes. My boss, Mr Jimmy and his family, were in their home and had to swim to safety. I couldn't imagine that, but I suppose you will deal with what life hands you at the moment.
Later that afternoon, about 2 pm or so, the storm had died down considerably.(Appearantly the water 'peaked' at around 11:30 am, as this is what the clocks that went under water at the shop read.) We were hoping it would subside sooner, to no avail. I kept looking at the clock, hoping it would just stop. About 4 pm the storm was dying down very good, and by 6 pm people, including myself, were venturing outdoors for the first time all day. There were some drivers out, all of them looking pale faced and open jawed, and driving slowly to avoid the trees and power lines everywhere.
My mailbox was in the middle of the lawn. My neighbors mailbox, on the same post, was never to be found. The windows were blown out of both my neighbors houses (they didn't board up before they left.) We were the only family that stayed in our little group.
When we ventured out later that day to check on family, it was like some weird, twisted, surreal world. Even now, almost a year later, it is still very vivid in my mind, those first few times seeing the untouched destruction of everything. Things that were there were gone, and things that you weren't really familiar with in the first place you don't even remember.
We had the stakebed truck from work- one of the few work trucks that were not at work- any that were on the lot went under water and were ruined! (We even thought about taking our truck to work! Glad we didn't do that!!!) The next day we ventured to our workshop. We had no idea at the time that anything had gone underwater over there. We were in for a rude awakening. Click here to see what happened. Pg 1 2 home