So, everyone wants to know.

I'm alive. My family is alive. We're all fine. The reason you haven't heard from me since my last post is, well, let me tell the whole story.

I made that post, then went to watch more live tv coverage. I was upstairs in my cousin's room and after five fakeouts (where the power goes out and comes immediately back on), the power ACTUALLY went out, at 3:27 a.m. Well at that point was when the storm was getting horrific where we were. The worst part of it passed over where we were at around 6:15 a.m. I was awake for the whole thing, because its terrifying and you just can't sleep through it. Loud, heavy winds. A tree limb fell on my cousin's car (thankfully not harming it in any way). Hard rains. And when the power is out it is even scarier. Now the thing is, the power went out in like, 25 counties or something? And we were in a major metropolitan area, so that didn't help.

Thankfully for the sick and wounded, the Houston Med Center (where there's like tons of hospitals) never lost power, but that was pretty much the only place.

Anyway, so the whole time after that that we were at my aunt's house? No power. We kept calling our house, and at about 7:00 p.m. yesterday, our answering machine picked up, meaning, hey! We got power back at home! And we'd already heard that the damage in our immediate area was very minimal, and so this morning we came home.

We had brought our ice chests, and at some point there was no more room in them, so some of the food started to spoil 'cause of the power outage. So my aunt's family is going to need to get food soon.

I'm scared of the dark, btw. Cell phones and battery operated fake candles didn't help much.

They still don't have power at my aunt's house. Which is why I couldn't get online and let you guys know I was alright until now.

My stepdad's school that he teaches at is "closed until further notice". Because of damage, so he will probably be teaching well into the summer. He's under contract, so he still gets paid, so luckily my mom's single week of no pay is all we've lost that way. I go back to school Thursday and my sister goes back Friday.

To tell you about all the damage I know about would take a year. Galveston is a wreck, an island that is a home to about 60,000 individuals, and it may be months before they can return. My dad called to tell me my uncle's home is destroyed. Pasadena, Dickenson, Clear Lake, League City, Anahuac, and some eastern parts of Houston are going to be in Ike recovery mode for weeks, maybe months.

FEMA is nothing like the FEMA from Katrina. They are doing whatever they can, along with the cities and counties officials. There are places to get food and to sleep until you can go home.

There is very little electrical power in the greater Houston area and over towards Louisiana. People are lining up for miles outside of places the radio tells you have ice or gas. Less than two hours after the storm had passed, there were no generators left in the state of Texas.

Our little beach only 25 minutes from my house is in really bad condition, most people probably won't be able to move back to the houses they had there, and forget about going to the beach for fun.

So far there have been nine deaths attributed to Ike. 3 of which are from people putting their generators inside their garage, and getting carbon monoxide poisoning. 1 was that boy from my last blog. 1 was all the way down in Corpus Christi (OMG, I had no idea the winds would be this rough down there) where a teenager hanging on some jetties was swept away to sea and drowned. The 40% of Galvestonians who didn't evacuate, however? The word is still out on them. There is a lot of search and rescue going on, and we won't know for a long time if those people are alive.

Our house, however, aside from needing to pick up sticks and small tree branches from the yard (and my mom is sad about her little hibiscus bush which is blown about), is fine. And I am so psyched to have power and a tv to sleep to. AND AIR CONDITIONING, OMG HOW COULD I FORGET HOW GREAT THAT IS???

There is a curfew, people aren't supposed to be out after dark or before daylight, to keep us safe, I guess. But there's really nothing to do aside from inside-the-house things, so I will be bored for probably weeks.

Ooh, interesting part, before the power went out, they were showing footage of Galveston. (Gosh, to be a weather reporter in that kind of weather, I'd probably have a heart attack!) It was horrendous wind and rain and ridiculous-ness. And then the eye passed through, and just a light breeze was blowing. And then about an hour later, it was back to the horrendous-ness again. Eye's of storms are funny things. (Only, not, when the storm is this destructive. You know what I mean, though...right?)

Oh! Last night I was listening to news coverage on the radio (battery operated, of course), and Houston mayor Bill White was talking about how they were working with the citizens and FEMA and everything, and said "We're all in this together". And all I could think about was how funny it was and how it made me want to bust into song, and Steph's blog from last week. Its like, HSM is everywhere! Even the destruction of Ike! 

I am so glad that for me and my immediate family, at least, the stress is over and we have power and food and water and air conditioner, all of the essentials. (And yes, air conditioning is very essential in south Texas during September.)

Hey everyone! Still here at our outpost! I don't know how much news coverage you've seen or if you're watching it anyway, but OH WOW.

Galveston Island and Bolivar Peninsula? WOW. They're flooded. And Surfside Beach ( beach being part of the cities' name which is about 25 minutes from my house) is about to be wiped off the map completely!

I've been watching live, up to the minute news coverage all day long. Destruction. Flooding. We're expecting to get heavy rains, heavy winds, probably flooding here, and I'm guessing we'll lose power soon because the lights just flickered. Already a casualty. A man was cutting down a tree he thought might break roofs or windows on his house, so he figured he would get it cut down so it would no longer be a threat. And his son got trapped under it when it fell, and he died.

The area where my stepdad works is flooded.

Right now the news is on a weatherman in another town about 25 minutes from my house, where my college is. No flooding there yet, but the wind is blowing so hard he's about to blow away! (Remember the D&J episode "The Storm"? With Walter? anyway.)

Our house has lost electricity because we called and the answering machine did not pick up.

But here where I am we've had some tropical storm force wind and no rain yet.

The storm itself is only a category 2, almost 3, but the storm surges (strong winds bringing water from the gulf flooding into the land, which is why Galveston, etc is flooded) are category 4 strength. They are saying this storm is comparable to Carla, Alicia, and the Galveston storm of 1900 which killed thousands.

The city of Galveston was under mandatory evacuation, but 45% of the city, some 22,000 have not left! They're out power and are not supposed to be there! They are being told to write their social security numbers on their arms because no one expects them to make it out alive. About 20 people on Bolivar Peninsula (right next to Galveston) had swam/climbed to the top of a church roof looking to be rescued, who knows how many will have already drowned? The Coast Guard was rescuing people off the peninsula earlier today, but now they won't start rescuing again until the storm has passed because they aren't allowed to put themselves at risk and the winds are too hard for their helicopters.

Really, I can't take my eyes off the news. Its a morbid fascination. I wish you all could experience the tv coverage. It's almost fun except the 'this is here!" aspect.

The new Life With Derek? WIN. WIN. WIN.

Hey guys!

So we're all safe at my Aunt's house. Of course, the storm won't hit until late tomorrow night. Not sure if I'll be able to watch Gym Teacher or the new Life With Derek. It depends on if we have cable or power. Which depends on when the storm hits and how hard. Cause its still hitting here, but its far enough away to not damage anything. Just high winds and possibly loss of power, etc.

Right now its kind of a 'hurry up and wait' thing. And nothing is open even though tomorrow daytime the storm won't have hit yet. So there will be nothing to do even though we went all the way up here. Visit relatives and play monopoly, though, you know?

Basically I'm very bored. And dealing with those strange emotions from the last blog.

So that's my update for right now.

OH! Also! Remember how I mentioned our Rita evacuation and said it took us sixteen hours to make a four hour drive?

The tollway was free because of the storm, so we got to take the tollway, and it took us LESS time than it normally does to get here! Smooth sailing all the way. (Though it could be because we didn't leave home until after 3:00. Yesterday I went to Wal-Mart and traffic in our one-horse town was very very slow!) So we got here in an hour and a half.

More later!

So, seeing as we have yet to leave (readying your house is time consuming!), I'm taking a minute to talk, because its a STRANGE feeling.

For those of you whose weather problems are more likely to include snow you have probably never needed to evacuate. What you probably don't know, is there is a lot of WIERD emotions that come up. Last time we evacuated, in 2005 for Rita, it felt exactly the same. And it lasted the entire time until I saw my house again.

There is excitement. I know that is bizarro, but there is. You get to take a break from work or school. And go stay in a hotel or with relatives.

Frustration. Last time we evacuated it took us 16 hours to make a 4 hour drive. Now, we weren't prepared, it was just 3 weeks after Katrina, and Houston had housed a crapload of New Orleanders who now needed to be re-evacuated, so there were all these extra people trying to leave. And there was no evacuation specifics involved. Right now, traffic on 45 is crap for all the Galvestonians, because 45 is the ONLY way to get off of Galveston island. But from where my family is coming to where we are going, traffic actually looks good because there is a plan in place.

There is also apathy, especially this time. Last time they evacuated all these areas, and then the storm turned literally at the very last minute, and hit a place that wasn't expecting it. So after that hellacious 16 hour drive, for it not to even be a threat to our area, well...yeah. I'm kind of like "Well its not going to hit anyway, we'll have left for nothing." Even though that doesn't necessarily work. But it only takes and hour and a half to get where we are going this time, so even with traffic, it shouldn't be quite as bad as before.

And of course, there is fear. The chance that you could come home to find your house blown away and all your belongings gone or damaged is scary.

The thing about it, is some of these emotions are conflicting. The excitement directly conflicts with the fear and frustration. And the apathy conflicts with both. And all the emotions want top billing. And there's a constant struggle, because you have to feel SOMETHING. But you can't decide which emotion to give into. And everyone is feeling this same struggle, its really palpable.

Anyway, I just needed to talk about the emotional turmoil involved in a foreseeable natural disaster. Because I think people are like "well it's not like an earthquake, you can see it coming, it should be easy!" But like I mentioned before, it can hit an area that wasn't even advised to leave because it wasn't expected to turn. And its not like we shouldn't leave, four of the six predicted paths put it at our back door. But knowing its coming can actually be harder. It's like, when the storm is over, will I be grieving that my stuff is gone, or frustrated that I left for nothing, or celebrating that even though it did hit here my stuff is fine.

So that's what I'm feeling right now.

Hurricane evacuation, for the couple of you I texted, has now moved up from voluntary to mandatory for my county. So my family is going to my aunt's for a few days. Either it will hit way far away and we'll have wasted it for no reason, (like when we evacuated for Hurricane Rita) or our house will be gone and the insurance company will hate us. Evacuation is just frustration city.

So, to make it a little better: The answers to the secret meme from the other day! ( Shh! Don't tell! )