Ike is Looming

Ike has been looming in the gulf for the past few days. He hit Cuba as a cat 4, hit the gulf as a cat 1 and has strengthened back into a cat 2. He will be hitting our area head- on around 2 a.m. Saturday morning as a strong cat 2 or week cat 3. These categories are based on wind strength, but the storm surge is expected to be cat 4 or 5.

Schools were closed at 11:00 a.m. Thursday and have been canceled for Friday and Monday so far. There has been a mandatory evacuation for one zip code in our town (not ours).

Chad worked hard yesterday to get our house boarded up along with the rest of our neighborhood.

It's very strange inside the house since the windows have been boarded. It's VERY dark and it feels like midnight all day long. We've been heading outside every chance we get while the weather is still holding up. Our only shred of daylight is through our back door off the kitchen.

Last night, several of our neighbors ended up congregating in someone's driveway for some cold drinks and some good laughs. It was nice to relax a little after all of the stress of getting prepared.


We decided to head out this morning to hit Chad's fridge up at the school to grab the water and diet coke he left up there...just in case. The water is already beginning to rise is several areas in spite of the fact that Ike is still more than 200 miles off shore.


We couldn't help but take a picture of the empty Walmart parking lot. You know things are serious when Walmart shuts down! There were a couple of (PACKED) grocery stores and gas stations still open today. I decided I'd better get the "before" shot of the gas prices since they will likely go up after the storm. Apparently, prices have already sky rocketed across the nation due to our refineries being shut down for several days.














We feel pretty prepared. We have our flashlights and candles ready for when the power inevitably goes out. We have lots of nonperishable foods. We gassed up the vehicles in case we need to hop in to cool off after the storm passes. I did all of the laundry and cleaned the house since we'll be cooped up for awhile. I took pictures of all of our rooms/furniture...just in case there's any damage. Even scraps in hunkered down and ready for what Ike may bring!


We're expecting the wind to start picking up around 6:00 p.m. tonight. We're going to take naps so we can stay up late to await Ike's arrival. I'll be unplugging the computer later this evening. I don't know how long we'll be without power, but we'll definitely be posting some "after" pictures once we can. As my dad would say, "we'll catch ya on the flip side!"