Riding Out the Storm

We thought we were prepared to ride out Hurricane Ike on Friday night and Saturday. We made sure we had plenty of food, water, ice, and batteries. We didn't have school on Friday, but Cody worked until about 5:00. They had quite a few golfers considering the weather forecast. We first lost power early in the evening (6:00ish). We were surprised to lose power so early since it was not really storming yet. The wind was beginning to get stronger, but otherwise nothing was happening. It turned out that the loss of power was temporary and not weather-related. Apparently a fatal car accident in Pinehurst caused the electricity to go off.

Here we are hanging out with our neighborhood friends

in our driveway during our first power outage.

We put the kids to bed downstairs thinking that the electricity was gone for good, but it came back on about 10:30 and stayed on until a little after midnight. The sound of the wind was the scariest part of the night. Thankfully the kids slept through the night. We "camped out" in the living room all morning, playing with blocks and coloring.

As it became light, we were able to tell that our yard and fence seemed fine. Our neighbors two doors down had a small tree laid over, but otherwise, our street seemed to fare fine. We found out later that someone a little farther down the street had their fence blow down and then their trampoline flew on top of the next neighbor's house. It wasn't until later in the day that we went out to assess the damage beyond our street. Then we realized how fortunate we were.