Hurricane Ike

It's 3 PM and we just heard the wind outside for the first time, and I am expecting the rain to start at any minute. It was super nice this morning...sunshine with a nice breeze, around the low 70's. Bo and I went for a walk around the neighborhood. He was enjoying pushing one of his ride-on toys for a little while, but soon was more excited about looking for stop signs and fire hydrants. So I had the pleasure of carrying the thing back home.

There were only a few houses with boards on the windows, but there may be a few more by nightfall. I heard an electric saw up the street when I went out for the mail.

I took a trip to the bank this morning and saw that most of the stores and restaurants were closed...except for Denny's. Robert made a trip to Home Depot, to find that it had closed at 8 AM, so he made his way over to Lowe's for some plastic sheeting. We've gathered some supplies - water, canned goods, flashlights/batteries, a radio, etc., just to be on the safe side. We are expecting to lose power, but I'm not sure for how long. Our biggest concern is flying debris that could damage windows and trees falling on the roof. The wind is expected to be at max 100 mph. It's a category 2 hurricane, as far as I know, right now, and may get up to a category 3. But it's also a very large storm, taking up 80% of the Gulf of Mexico.

This will be my last post until the storm passes. It's expected to make landfall early tomorrow morning (Saturday) between 1 and 3 AM and be gone by Sunday. Pray for the Houston/Sugar Land area. Also pray for those that decided to stay on the coast...I'm afraid they aren't going to make it through this one.

I will update the blog as soon as possible after the storm passes - depending on our power and internet situation. Thanks for your prayers.