Wednesday, September 17, 2008

I'm Back!

For all of you who have sent me emails wondering where I was...thanks for the concern! I am alive and all is well.

But, as my husbands post earlier today explained, Hurricane Ike came roaring thru Ohio on Sunday and stopped almost all Cincinnati residents in their tracks!! Click here to read a brief article on the storm.

Thanks to Ryan for logging in from work today...for me...even though he was busy getting caught up!

First of all, we headed to church, had a wonderful morning and I had even read the Sunday paper ( which, by the way, did not mention Hurricane Force winds ), went to fly kites...since it was a nice breezy day at first....WHEN....

Well, let's just say....the wind went out of control. We went inside and I literally watched neighbors shingles off roofs, siding from their house and trim work go flying by. And, it lasted for HOURS! It wasn't something that just lasted mere minutes or half an hour...it went on and on and on.

They told us that this would be a storm we would ( hopefully ) never see again in our lifetime. The winds were categorized ( from the rumors I have heard ) as a Category 1 Hurricane....in OHIO!

Needless to say, power was knocked out to EVERYONE. I have heard differing reports. From 800,00 to 900,000 households...which they equate to Millions of residents. And, with wind from 50 to 85 miles per hour. Either way....the reports were saying from 2 to 7 days for power to return. Thank goodness mine did not take that long!

First, I am blessed that my power came on today. So, I only had to go Sun/Mon/Tues without power. My phone is still off....but I take what I can get. At least my internet is back up!

Second, I am even more blessed to have wonderful neighbors who all pitched in to help each other. Our neighbor behind us manages many different construction sites, so he was able to go to many of his job sites and bring back generators for a few of us neighbors...which we shared and hooked our refrigerators up to. So, we were able to eat.

We pulled out our camping pots and pans, and cooked spaghetti, pork roast...made mashed potatoes....vegetables, and many other of our frozen food ( we wanted to use it up in case we ran out of gas for the generator ) via those pots and a grill. And, again, the neighbors came together to make dinner...each using their grill to make something.

Trying to find gas or an open grocery store or restaurants was CRAZY! There were nearly none open, because none had power!! The few stores that were open on generators were out of ice, generators and necessity items almost immediately.

And, I couldn't just go to Dayton or Columbus, because all of my family were without power, too. My in-laws were helping their neighbors clean out their house, as a tree fell thru the roof...along with many others, as you can imagine.

As soon as a pocket of power would come up and that gas station opened, the line was, as you an imagine, VERY long. Monday and Tuesday were spent with me in lines at gas stations with my kids waiting to fill up my gas can so we could continue to run our generator. It took me over 1 hour,, the first day. I wish I had my camera so I could have taken a picture for you.

But, all in all....we were very blessed. It did not rain, otherwise the Tri State would have had a flooding disaster within homes. With no electricity, we have no sump pumps. Our finished basement would have been long gone after 3 days of rain...so I say a prayer of thanks that it was just wind and not rain, too!

The kids have not had school all week, so they have had a riot playing outside ALL day with all the neighbor kids. In fact, it was almost more enjoyable than summer, because it wasn't so hot out.

Anyway, I did just want to explain what happened to me. I didn't forget about any of you. And, I know I have MANY emails to respond to...PLEASE be patient! It may take me up to a week to get back to all of you, as I still have to now catch up on laundry, cleaning the refrigerator out ( I still want to get rid of some products, since we were without the generator for the 1st day ), clean the house ( wasn't able to vacuum, etc yet ), make sure all my bills, product cancellations from my online offers, etc are updated, and, well, the list goes on.

BUT, I will be working thru my emails and my blog a bit each day as I get my household up and running to full capacity again!!

And, before I go, I would like to ask my readers to say prayers for all those affected by Hurricane Ike in the heart of the storm in Texas! They are still down their suffering!

I was feeling desperate by the 3rd day ( believe me...those 3 days felt like a week ), and I had a house in one piece and food in a cold refrigerator. I cannot imagine what it must be like to have your home COMPLETELY destroyed and your life's memories blown away.



3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I just found out an hour ago from a friend about Ohio getting hit. Her family is there.

My grandparents live in Houston and say things are still such a mess. I'm glad you are ok.

OnlyOnSale said...

oh thank goodness you guys are ok! we have tons of family in texas (we're from there) but luckily all of them made it safe. tons of their homes have been damaged, but its better than lives being lost! let me know if you need any help catching up with anything here or if you need someone to guest post or anything (being relatively new to blogging i don't know the rules about guest posting or blogging, just trying to be nice sorry if that's considered rude!) well, hope you guys get back to normal very soon! :)

angie said...

wow! i'm so glad everyone is ok! i'm in iowa and we had the 500 year flood this summer, so i understand how fast your whole life can get ground to a halt. prayers for all.

 
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