It's a Small World...

...after all!! (Though it could have very easily been ruined.)

Around June of 2008 my mom invited John and I to go to Disney World with her, my two aunts, and my two uncles. Having wanted to go to Disney World since I was a kid I was on the band wagon before anyone could say, "Load up!" Of course I had to make sure that I could get the time off from work and so did John. After getting the technicalities out of the way, we were booked on a Disney World vacation for September 10th through the 16th! It was going to be fantastic! We could enjoy ourselves by ourselves if we wanted to or hang out with my family if we wanted to. There were not going to be any children along on the trip. It would be great!

Enter Tropical Storm Ike on September 1st 2008. The storm organized into a tropical storm west of the Cape Verde islands on September 1st and started barreling for the Gulf of Mexico. In the early days of the storm it looked like Ike was going to hit Florida dead on, effectively putting an end to our Disney World vacation. I prayed that it would miss Florida and not ruin Disney World for me. By early morning September 5th the storm had formed into a Category 4 hurricane with max winds of 145MPH. Whoa...

Something I did not know about hurricanes is the IKE measurement (oh, the irony!). IKE stands for Integrated Kinetic Energy and is a measure of storm surge destructive potential, similar to the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale. On a scale that ranges from 1-6 with 6 being the strongest, Hurricane Ike scored a 5.6, a higher rating than that of Hurricane Katrina and Wilma.

Hurricane Ike went through several periods of weakening and intensifying over it's 12 day life (tropical storm to hurricane). It also changed directions and trundled along at times, making me crazy with worry that our trip would be canceled. By September 10th the hurricane had swung under Florida and was heading for land somewhere inside the Gulf. No one could really tell exactly where the hurricane would hit. Some said extreme south Texas, others said Louisiana, and others said Galveston. I think there were a few that were even hoping Ike would just turn around and take a hike out of the Gulf. Heh-heh. I remember the signs that were being shown on the news...

We boarded our plane destined for Orlando on the morning of the 10th and I wasn't really worried anymore about the hurricane because it wasn't ravaging Florida. I tried to convince John that we should board the windows on our new house before leaving for Florida but he was not having it. He said he wasn't going to board the windows for a hurricane that might or might not make landfall here. I wasn't in the mood to argue.

We land in Orlando and go meet my family at the Disney Expressway to hitch a ride on their buses to the Magical Kingdom!! Our Disney vacation was underway!! It was fantastic the first two days we were there. I got to see princesses and everything!

It became increasingly crystal clear by the night of the 12th that Hurricane Ike was headed straight for Houston, TX via Galveston, TX. John and I looked at each other as we sat on the bed in the hotel room that night watching the massive eye of Ike get closer to the Texas coast and said, "Well, we'll deal with it when we get home." We enjoyed the rest of our vacation because, really, what were we going to do? Rush home and board up the windows? That's what insurance is for. Hurricane Ike made official land fall on September 13th in Galveston, TX at 2:10am as a strong Category 2 with storm surges along the coast ranging from 5ft to 20ft above sea level. It was catastrophic.

We were supposed to fly back to Houston on September 16th, but the airports were shut down from Ike. The airlines put us on a next day flight so we stayed at a hotel right by the airport. We flew back into Houston and headed back to our new house to see what kind of damage we faced. We had to pick up our dog from the boarder so we did that first. The damage in and around our area was unbelievable. Fences, house shingles, and trees were everywhere, electric poles and lines were down, none of the street lights worked, almost everything was closed due to no power or storm damage. It was a disaster.

We picked up our dog and then headed home. Thankfully we did not have any damage to our house! I was so relieved to pull up the driveway and not see any broken windows. The only thing amiss at our house was the neighbor's fence on the north side was completely down.

The worst thing was seeing the pictures from down south in Galveston, Port Boliver, Gilcrest, and yes, Crystal Beach. Our fun in the sun hangout was now completely demolished. My heart was breaking for all those families who lost their homes down there. For many of them it was their permanent home. I was deeply saddened to hear about the missing people down there and all of the damage the island and Galveston took on. It's completely changed down there. I'm hoping that everyone can rebuild down there and we can get our beaches and island back to what they once were before Hurricane Ike barreled into our lives. The historic loss is massive as is the more emotional loss of home.