FYI: Not a Good Idea To Taunt a Hurricane

Okay so in my last blog I told Gustav to "Bring It". I know now that is he a very good listener and taunting hurricanes is a really foolish idea.

We were housing two missionaries during the storm and as we were cooking breakfast on our electric griddle Monday morning Elder Romero mentioned that he was really disappointed in Gustav. He was hoping to see some real storm action and we had not even post power. We promised him it was on the way. I think he was finally satisfied when we lost power at about noon and then I saw our little storage shed outside try to fly away while we were playing Phase Ten. A couple of minutes later we had to send the men out to sand bag the side of the house where water was beginning to creep in. Elder Romero was more than willing to go outside and secure our electrical box that was flapping around. Eric and I began to get nervous when we saw our fence break into pieces. I started to feel the window bulging in and out and thought maybe I should get away from those, as well as keep the kids away. We saw a tree fall on the shed of a church behind our house. That was a little gut wrenching to see.

We really wanted it all to be over when we saw the attic vents from our roof fly off. We went in the attic and saw the gaping holes in our roof and the driving rain pouring in. I jumped on our neighborhood walkie-talkie system and within minutes there were three additional men who had weathered the storm to help cut and fit plywood into the holes. Eric stood on a slippery ladder that was precariously place on 2x6s that had been laid across the trusses. Everything was wet and tricky. Not to mention the fact that we were just stressed about the water getting in the house! He did an awesome job under the circumstances! I just tried to keep the kids out of the way and the floors dry so as not to add an injury to the whole ordeal! I was so grateful for the foresight I had to charge the battery powered drill and saw. We had those two items and a bunch of extra screws handy. Later that evening we found out that another band of the storm was on the way. Once again Eric braved the weather but this time climbed to the top of our VERY steep roof. He was straddling the top of the roof ridge and trying to miss the screws that were sticking up from aforementioned repair attempt. Mind you this was also all with only a head lamp and a few waning flashlights from us down below and a few on looking neighbors who happened to catch a glimpse of him dangling dangerously up there. He nailed down a tarp over the holes in 75 mph winds and made it back down alive. Thanks to my brother Josh and Elder Colvin for their help and supplies on that one. So to sum up total damage:

1. Broken Fence
2. Small amount of water in the house
3. Gaping holes in roof where attic vents came off
4. Ripped off gutters
5. Power outage
6. No functioning sewer system

We lost power at about noon on Monday and found out the next day that our sewer was ending up in the house down the street because the station also lost power and was not pumping for the neighborhood. During Monday evening we had used a line off of our neighbor's generator to keep our fridge cold. The generator eventually blew up and we decided we were out. We gave up and went to my parents house.

We are very fortunate however. This is the worst Hurricane damage this area has ever seen. Apparently because nothing major happen in NOLA the national news has skipped over it almost completely. This storm was devastating! Many people ended up with tress on their home including my Uncle Pat and the Stake President where a tree took off half of a room in his home.

We were without power for 5 days and spent that time at my parents house helping them clean up the mess Gustav left at their house. They were safe, just alot of tree limbs in their yard. We were there along with two of my brothers families. We made out well, as my father has a very large generator that ran his entire house including the A/C with the PTO on his tractor. We were beginning to get nervous as the predictions for power restoration for our house were another ten to fourteen days out. However our neighbor called us last night to say it was on. The kids were almost in bed so we stayed one more night and came back this morning. We lost about half of the freezer contents but that was okay. We were blessed in so many other ways. I feel so fortunate to have been able to make it out with all of my family, my home and somewhere comfortable to stay for the time. We were truly being watched over!

I have been cooking what was not able to be frozen back this afternoon and was able to feed a crew from the church that came to put a FEMA tarp on our roof. Yup, I have officially been FEMA tarpped. Now our little family is recovering physically (just tired from the work involved in outting our lives back together and all the damage to our house), emotionally and mentally. The stores are still closing at 6 pm and some very unfortunate people are still without power, food and supplies. There is a family in our ward who going to need someone to bring supplies to them on a boat tomorrow. They cannot get out because the water is four feet high on there road and they are running out of food, propane to cook it on the grill, and gas to run the generator. Oh yeah, Hurricane Ike about to enter the Gulf and looks like it is headed this way! Am I recovering or preparing for more of the same? Ike, please don't "Bring It!"

(Pics to follow soon)