Four Month Anniversary

I've lived in this small town of approximately 8,500 people all my life....46 years! In this time we have had several hurricane evacuations called but up until Hurricane Rita hit in 2005 my family had never evacuated. We always stayed put and decided to just ride out the storm. But things are different now that I have two daughter that depend on me. While I do not jump at the first sign that a hurricane might be headed our way, I do take them seriously now that I am a mom.This past hurricane season is one that will forever be a part of Bridge City's history. Hurricane Ike had formed in the Gulf and everyone was watching it form into a very powerful storm. Although all models were showing it hitting landfall much farther west than our area, it was such a huge storm that we knew our area would experience some of the effect of such a storm. Little did we know that Ike would make a more northernly turn and head straight for our town.

I can still remember DH getting off work on Thursday morning, my work had already called saying the district was closed, and we were trying to decide if we were going to evacuate and if so where. Since we are currently owned by 4 pekingese, 1 African grey parrot, and 2 guinea pigs, packing up and heading to a hotel is out of the question. We are very fortunate that DH's parents live in Oklahoma and they are our safe haven. Although it is a very long drive with that many furbabies, it's one worth taking since his parents are so accepting of our pets and allow them to have free roam over the house.

It's really unnerving to go through your house trying to decide what to save and what you are going to leave behind. It was almost noon when we were packed and ready to leave. My parents were heading out in their truck the next day so they had plenty of room for the two huge rubbermaid storage containers of scrapbooks and adoption paperwork I just couldn't leave behind. As we left with the van packed with suitcases, animals, and of course children we headed out on our long trek to OK. Although I knew that they were predicting a massive storm surge with Ike I honestly did not think it would hit our area. I have lived here 46 years and have never had anything even close to flooding from a hurricane. I was expecting wind damage like we had recieved from Rita....downed trees, limbs torn out of our 100+ year old oak trees, roof damage...all things that are fixed without causing much of a disruption to our quality of life. After hours on the road from detours, traffic, and potty breaks for the dogs, we finally headed north on I45. We were just south of Dallas when we traveled through an area where the overpasses over I45 were occupied by fire trucks, firefighters and their families. They had huge spot lights shining into the sky, the lights on their trucks were flashing, and they were standing next to the rails holding huge American flags. It was really an awesome sight to see. I wished I had the forethought to stop and take a picture, but we were finally going 70 mph and we still had a long way to go. At first we thought they were there for moral support for all of us that were evacuating but later on we realized it was 9-11. Either way, it was a very patriot moment that I will never forget.....I tend to get sentimental with anything remotely patriotic.

Once in Stillwater, the news seemed to be giving our little area a glimmer of hope. Ike was still headed west and we were praying that only strong winds and some rain would visit our area. Saturday night we stayed up until after midnight watching Ike make its way towards the Texas coast. We had a couple of hilarious moments watching poor Geraldo being blown over, knocked down, and battered by the weather preceeding Ike. Still the news was acting as if BC was going to be spared any real damage. So we went to bed thinking things were not going to be as destructive as we had originally thought.

Saturday morning I was awoken by my cell phone beeping that I had a message. Cell phone service was average at best during this time so voice mail was the way to go. My message was from my aunt who asked me to call her saying "things were not good." Hearing this I could not dial her number fast enough. What I found out was devistating. Ike had hit very close to BC and unlike Rita we were on the east side, or wet side, of the storm. Bridge City had received the brunt of the storm surge since the coastal towns around us had seawalls and we did not. The storm surge was channeled right into our town. The storm surge was 14 feet and in a town that is only a few feet above sea level, it was total devistation for Bridge City. Only a few homes did not received water damage.

My parents were unfortunate to have almost 6 feet of water in their home. And being the lowest area for their part of town, the water stayed for a couple of days. They lost everything. Car, furniture, appliances, pictures....you name it, it was lost. Right now their home is stripped down to the studs and they are waiting for contractors to start to rebuild. This is basically the story of most of the residents of BC....waiting, waiting, waiting.

The front yard of my parent's home. Like everyone else in Bridge City, all that they owned was now ruined and in a big pile in the front yard.

The walls, flooring, and furniture are gone. They are now waiting to see if they will be able to rebuild. Notice the waterline still on the front door.

Even if your home was still standing after the storm surge, many residents still had a thick blanket of dead marsh grass covering their yards.

This home lost everything. There were no walls to tear down and pile in the front yard. It was all washed out when the waters went down.

Another home with devistating effect from Hurricane Ike.