Stormy Weather

Whew! What a weekend!

Hurricane Ike blew through Texas then up through the middle of the country. We tried to call our sister in Houston, but no answer yet. Lots of rain fell north of here, in Indiana and Ohio. Louisville only got wind, and lots of it. Our kids, in two different neighborhoods, are both without power. Even houses at the other end of our street are without power, so we are very lucky. No cable, but there is power. (This picture is not of our car, thank goodness!)

In the cool evening, we started the cleanup of the yard and saw more neighbors outside than we've seen in ages. One house down the street lost a big tree or limb off the tree. We were lucky that nothing landed on the roof, since the wedding is in just two weeks now. What a variety of leaves traveled to our yard! At least half a dozen different kinds of oak, plus maple, ash, and even some sycamores, which don't live in our neighborhood at all. It's not so bad raking up the leaves, but those sticks really get caught in the tines!

The Courier-Journal says wind gusts exceeded 70 mph at times. Dick was out in the yard, trying to pick up debris, when I saw some big limbs fall across the street and made him come inside until it died down. One boy was outside mowing, got hit by a flying tree limb and died. Roughly 279,000 people are without power. This is about 75% of all LG&E customers, more than during the 1974 tornado.

Walking to the bus, we heard the hum of generators in people's yards. Omigosh! I had a terrible thought - what if there is no power downtown? I work on the 27th floor in the IT Department. Darned if I'm going to walk up 27 flights of stairs to sit in the dark with no air conditioning! They closed all the schools. Boy, will those kids be bored at home with no power.

We, at least, can be thankful that the damage was no worse than it is, and pray for others who suffered more losses.

Addendum: We heard on the news that many people are being hospitalized with carbon monoxide poisoning. At least one person died. Generators are put inside the house and not ventilated. Also, at least one house caught fire when something was sitting on the stove burner when the power came back on. As if being in the dark for a week isn't bad enough....