Hurricane Alley

Hurricane Ike. That's who this is, or was, very recently. Headed our way.
So yeah, let's talk about hurricanes. I don't know why it took me so long to write this.

We first had a hurricane scare about a month ago with someone whose name I can't even remember because there have been so many since then. We went out and did our first bit of "hurricane shopping" which consisted of 2 gallons of water, some canned tuna (there was a run on tuna, hardly any cans left!), canned peas, and canned green beans. Oh yeah, and some cereal bars. I just couldn't think of anything else to get. Our Fiesta was out of batteries so we didn't get those. We hunkered down and prepared for the worst even though the predictions were for the storm to maybe turn into a Category 1 right before hitting land but probably not. At that point I had no real idea what "Category 1" meant, but if the word "Category" was in it then I knew it would be more than the worst storm I'd ever seen. I was secretly excited to see what was going to happen. Guess what happened? Nothing. All the schools were closed, businesses were closed, everything, and yet for weather all we had was a light rain. I mean, for cryin' out loud, we went swimming that night!

Enter Hurricane Gustav. And of course Gustav came the weekend Nora was visiting so that sucked. While at the flea market her sister in L.A. called to say that the L.A. fire department was on it's way down here to help out with the predicted possible hurricane and then her dad called maybe a half hour later. I was freaked out to say the least. All of the Houstonians around us were just kind of like either not aware or not caring, I wasn't sure which. So we went out and did our second bit of hurricane shopping and this time we got more stuff. We were shopping for 3 people and we were more scared. We got more water. We got more tuna (another run on the tuna!), canned ravioli, some canned soup we hope will be tolerable cold, Pop-Tarts, a couple gallons of juice, chick peas, canned corn, peanut butter, and a cat of soft cat food. We got another flashlight, batteries, and Nora considered the entertainment aspect and bought 2 bottles of wine and a couple of magazines. (BTW--there are hurricane parties in which people all get together and party). We were prepared. But much more scared than we were the first time around. Nothing happened. Gustav took out a part of Louisiana (what an unfortunate state!) but Nora's flight wasn't canceled, school wasn't canceled, I can't even recall if it rained.

Now Ike's on his way. And this time it looks like Texas is going to get hit although the chances of it hitting Houston are slight. But we might get the "dirty side" of the storm. What in the world is that? One of my students told me and I looked up a definition just in case you're interested so here it is: "The "dirty" side of a hurricane is the eastern side of the storm. Here, winds from the south, full of moisture, wrap into the storm causing heavy rain, storm surge, and tornadoes. The western side of the storm is referred to as the "clean" side. Following the counterclockwise rotation around a hurricane, the western side receives winds from the north, which pulls dry air into the storm and doesn't allow heavy rain or thunderstorms to develop." Interesting. Am I worried this time? Not really.

Since Gustav so many people have told me not to worry about it that I'm just taking their advice. They're the Houstonians after all. I'm just the Hoosier. Ask me about tornadoes and I can tell you something, ask me about hurricanes and well, you get a blog entry like this. Anyway, they've all said that you just get your food and water, fill up your gas tank, find out where the flood zones are, and then wait. You only evacuate if they tell you to. So that's what we're doing. If something happens, I'll update.


Quote from My Victoria Online
Photo from Telegraph.co.uk