According to wikipedia.org and the Weather Center Greens Bayou reported almost 10 inches of rain. Galveston received almost 8 and Liberty 9-1/2 inches.
Crosby is 20 miles from the Greens Bayou area. At the time my future husband, Steven C., sister and brother-in-law, Mike and Kathy C. all lived in that area.
It was estimated that 750 thousand homes were without power and we were all included in that number.
Kathy and Mike tried to prepare for the storm. They were able to find food but not water so they filled every empty jug they could find. They also filled the bathtubs so they could wash dishes. “About midnight, the winds were so high that it made our house creek, we thought the house was going to separate, right down the middle. We lost power and did not get it back for about ten days.” Mike’s job in Midtown had power and supplied the family with ice.
Steven lived a few miles from Kathy and Mike. “I was living with my Aunts in their house in Woodforest Subdivision in Eastern Harris County. We chose to ride out the storm because we didn't think it would be that bad. This was a mistake. I stood outside during the height of the storm and it was awesome. Although the house escaped damage other than a few lost shingles. A tree in the front yard was ripped out of the ground and landed on one of my Aunt's car which was parked in the driveway. There was no flooding in our neighborhood but we were without Electric Power for a period of 10 days.”
We all thought Alicia was a major storm but was told it was a baby compared to Katrina and Ike. The weather casters have a tendency to say every storm is the worst and the last one was a baby.
It reminds me of that song where the news people get that dirty little gleam while telling us how we all going die because Mother Nature is more powerful than any person on the planet. Sad (and in some way sickening)………….
A first hand account of what’s it’s like to deal with weather on the Gulf Coast. I live in the Houston Metro area and have family living in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Florida.
Showing posts with label Hurricane Alicia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hurricane Alicia. Show all posts
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Hurricane Alicia, 1983
Alicia was the second hurricane I experienced. I was 15 years old in August of 1983. I was about to start my junior year in High School. I had many friends and a boyfriend. I was just your typical teenager.
We lived in Crosby, Texas at the time. Crosby at the time had less than 11 thousand people and was still very much suburbia. We learned that Hurricane Alicia had become a Cat 3 storm right after my dad’s birthday.
I remember preparing for the storm. As a teenager any task is a chore and there are always better things to do than helping your parents. Again we filled all the tubs with water. For those who are not familiar with hurricanes the water lines are not always drinkable after a storm. Also if the power goes out you can fill the tank and still be able to flush the toilet. With a family of 4 you don’t want to NOT be able to flush toilets without power. It’d be easier to bulldoze the house than to fumigate that mess!
We also started getting every plastic container and filling them with ice and putting them in the freezer. Times had changed and we had an ice maker by that time. During a storm if the power goes out it can be ages before ice is available so you make your own to last until then.
At the time we had a detached garage and we put everything that went outside inside the garage. We had to move a lot of stuff around since my family accumulated tons of stuff as all families do.
I begged my dad to let me bring my German Shepard dog inside. He refused but said she could stay in the garage during the storm. He tried to reassure me by saying most dogs cower under cars during storms. I fought with him about it but finally relented in the end.
We cooked what we could and packed ice on what we couldn’t in the freezer in the garage.
We then got out all of the flashlights and checking all of them and changing the dead batteries out for good ones. We had canned goods for 10 days. Everyone who has been through a storm before knows that supplies (flashlights, batteries, canned goods, water, etc) are gone the minute they announce a hurricane or tropical storm warning. My dad made sure we kept these supplies on hand year round. When hurricane season ends late November my dad would restock all the supplies then.
I remember the storm coming in slowly and lasting for what seemed forever. I also remember watching my dad watching the sway of the pine trees in our backyard and hoping that none of them would come crashing down on our house. Pine trees are resilient to Mother Nature as long as they are green. The sap allows the trees to bend with the wind.
My allergies got bad so I took some allergy medicine around midnight and got sleepy. I curled up with a favorite blanket and slept through the screaming wind and rain. I woke up the next morning and was disappointed when my dad told me I missed the whole thing. I was teased for years as being able to sleep through a major hurricane.
I couldn’t believe what I saw when I woke up. There were branches everywhere and it was raining very hard. There was no power. The branches started to clog the storm drains and the streets began to flood. My dad and I swam out to start unclogging the drain before it got high enough to flood our house (we lived on a small hill). When I saw large piles of ants clinging to each other my dad sent me back in the house. I’m allergic to ant bites and a trip to the hospital 25 miles away would have been impossible.
Our phone was not cordless and still worked. My family in Louisiana called all day to see how we fared during the storm. My dad tried to pull the BBQ pit out of the garage and was mad when he found that my dog had tried to chew through the door to escape the garage. So much for his plans of her cowering!
My dad started calling his friends and learned that a friend in Baytown had his house flooded. He was going to leave the motel his family was staying with as soon as it was safe and return to his family in Louisiana. From another friend he learned that Downtown had lots of broken windows. There was also an article in the paper about it and Galveston area having flooding issues. Even if we didn’t have power the paper was still being delivered!
I remember not having power for 10 days. My best friend and boyfriend living further out and did not have power for 14 days. As soon as the power came on they both came to my house for showers and hot food. Boy did my dad get mad having to feed kids that weren’t his!
I’ll never forget Hurricane Alicia. I never got to experience another hurricane like it until Ike came along!
We lived in Crosby, Texas at the time. Crosby at the time had less than 11 thousand people and was still very much suburbia. We learned that Hurricane Alicia had become a Cat 3 storm right after my dad’s birthday.
I remember preparing for the storm. As a teenager any task is a chore and there are always better things to do than helping your parents. Again we filled all the tubs with water. For those who are not familiar with hurricanes the water lines are not always drinkable after a storm. Also if the power goes out you can fill the tank and still be able to flush the toilet. With a family of 4 you don’t want to NOT be able to flush toilets without power. It’d be easier to bulldoze the house than to fumigate that mess!
We also started getting every plastic container and filling them with ice and putting them in the freezer. Times had changed and we had an ice maker by that time. During a storm if the power goes out it can be ages before ice is available so you make your own to last until then.
At the time we had a detached garage and we put everything that went outside inside the garage. We had to move a lot of stuff around since my family accumulated tons of stuff as all families do.
I begged my dad to let me bring my German Shepard dog inside. He refused but said she could stay in the garage during the storm. He tried to reassure me by saying most dogs cower under cars during storms. I fought with him about it but finally relented in the end.
We cooked what we could and packed ice on what we couldn’t in the freezer in the garage.
We then got out all of the flashlights and checking all of them and changing the dead batteries out for good ones. We had canned goods for 10 days. Everyone who has been through a storm before knows that supplies (flashlights, batteries, canned goods, water, etc) are gone the minute they announce a hurricane or tropical storm warning. My dad made sure we kept these supplies on hand year round. When hurricane season ends late November my dad would restock all the supplies then.
I remember the storm coming in slowly and lasting for what seemed forever. I also remember watching my dad watching the sway of the pine trees in our backyard and hoping that none of them would come crashing down on our house. Pine trees are resilient to Mother Nature as long as they are green. The sap allows the trees to bend with the wind.
My allergies got bad so I took some allergy medicine around midnight and got sleepy. I curled up with a favorite blanket and slept through the screaming wind and rain. I woke up the next morning and was disappointed when my dad told me I missed the whole thing. I was teased for years as being able to sleep through a major hurricane.
I couldn’t believe what I saw when I woke up. There were branches everywhere and it was raining very hard. There was no power. The branches started to clog the storm drains and the streets began to flood. My dad and I swam out to start unclogging the drain before it got high enough to flood our house (we lived on a small hill). When I saw large piles of ants clinging to each other my dad sent me back in the house. I’m allergic to ant bites and a trip to the hospital 25 miles away would have been impossible.
Our phone was not cordless and still worked. My family in Louisiana called all day to see how we fared during the storm. My dad tried to pull the BBQ pit out of the garage and was mad when he found that my dog had tried to chew through the door to escape the garage. So much for his plans of her cowering!
My dad started calling his friends and learned that a friend in Baytown had his house flooded. He was going to leave the motel his family was staying with as soon as it was safe and return to his family in Louisiana. From another friend he learned that Downtown had lots of broken windows. There was also an article in the paper about it and Galveston area having flooding issues. Even if we didn’t have power the paper was still being delivered!
I remember not having power for 10 days. My best friend and boyfriend living further out and did not have power for 14 days. As soon as the power came on they both came to my house for showers and hot food. Boy did my dad get mad having to feed kids that weren’t his!
I’ll never forget Hurricane Alicia. I never got to experience another hurricane like it until Ike came along!
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