Dearest FlowerLady,

Keep safe! My thoughts are with you and all our Southern US friends.

Modern technology lets us know what might happen, but is still imperfect.

Good on 'ya for being prepared with generator. Even if gas to run it costs a fortune this year.

Fingers and toes crossed for good luck, Ana

Keeping you and others in my thoughts, please stay safe.

(((HUGS)))

Annette

Stay safe, Flowerlady.

I thought it was awful the other weekend when we were without electricity for 24 hours and the big tree fell down, and Fay was just a tropical depression. Usually by the time a hurricane reaches us, it's more of an inconvenience than anything else, but sometimes those outer bands cause a lot of damage.

It would have been more of an adventure if DH hadn't been two days post-op after his surgery. He was still crazed from medication and it was kind of warm without air conditioning. We have generators, but not one that a one-armed man can start, nor an old woman. We were about to try anyway, together, when the power came back on.

We'll be prepared for the next one, and there's always another one.

Nell

I'm sorry you are having such an extended period of worry, Flower. I remember hurricanes from my childhood in Massachusetts. The calm before the storm is similar to what happens before big earthquakes in California.

One time an older friend commented to me that there was an eerie quality that day which was putting her on edge, things seemed strangely quiet and still. I replied that it reminded me of hurricane weather. She was puzzled, saying, but we don't get hurricanes in California. Intuition hit me, and I responded that we were probably going to have an earthquake. Indeed, there was a big one that evening.

I should look into generators. My well won't work without electricity for the pump.

Lorna

I do know exactly how you feel.

We lost power for 11 days during the bad ice storm and we had DH's parents with us....city folks, who refused to change their eating schedule so we ate without light in the kitchen, fumbling around for things...

You couldn't see the ground in the yard for all the downed trees and limbs.

We have tornado season here and it seems the last year every storm carried a tornado warning with it. We stayed glued to the weather radio. We feel very vulnerable since one wiped out our pole barn and felled trees into the front yard. Those trees just brushed the house as they dropped. I still am finding holes in the screens from limbs poking through.

After the ice storm, we decided were were too old to be running out in bad weather to fool with the very sensitive generator so had one of the automatic ones installed. It comes on once a week to test itself and will come on automatically if the power goes off for a few minutes. I love it. It is powered directly from our propane gas tank.

Lorna, the "no water" issue is the worst.

Stay safe and I will be thinking of you and all on the East coast.

Sending good thoughts and prayers your way, dear Flowerlady.
Hope that you, and others in its path, will be spared this time!

Patti

My thoughts are with you all in the east coast. I saw Ike on a satalite image and my jaw dropped. Let's hope is wanders off to no-where-land.

We had an earthquake last night. Although it was a meer 4.2 it was the worst I've ever felt. I was in the big 1989 quake but this one really shook me to the point of tears.

Hanna brought us 5" of rain and no damage at our house.

Ike looks like bad news for wherever it goes! It looks like it's tracking further south over Cuba. Maybe it will go around Florida. That said, it looks like it will regain strength after Cuba on a track as a Cat 3-4 toward New Orleans!

A-men!!!!!

Keep safe all of you in their paths.

georgeanne

Thank you all for your kind words, thoughts and prayers. As of this morning, it looks like Ike will stay to the south west of us. We have seen storms turn sharply or turn around though so we are still watching, but not as anxiously as we were.

Solana ~ DH did go out and fill up our huge gas can, just in case. I read of someone in another forum spending $100 a day in gas to run their generator. They weren't just using it for necessities, they were using their washer and dryer also and other things, trying to live normally. Sheesh! Doing without once in awhile, makes you appreciate what you have all the more.

Annette ~ Thanks for the hugs, they are always welcome.

Nell ~ I thought it was awful what happened to you, especially when your DH was recuperating from surgery. Having to do with out a.c. when you are hurting only makes you feel more miserable and uncomfortable. I do hope he is feeling much better. You are right about the outer bands doing damages also, not just the hurricane.

Lorna ~ I would be freaked out by earthquakes too, not to mention tornadoes. A generator is worth having.

Gldno ~ We think of moving elsewhere, and where we don't want to move to are places that have lots of tornado activity. Do you have a cellar that you go to when one is coming? Did you get your polebarn restored? Having damages from these storms does make you feel vulnerable that's for sure. You don't realize how bad the storms are until you go through them. One of those generators that you now have sounds great!

Patti ~ Thank you and nice to hear from you. Have missed you.

Edna ~ Going through an earthquake would freak me out. Going through Wilma I was crying and truly afraid. Those winds are really something else and we live in our little 50's cottage. I didn't know if we were going to blow away or not. Alas, here we are, thankful for our many blessings.

Cameron ~ Glad you had no damages at your lovely place from Hanna, just lots of rain to water your gardens.

Georgeanne ~ Here's hoping all of our friends in Ike's path will be safe and spared.

It looks like Ike is headed toward TX. Are any of our gardening friends living in the coastal areas there? Whoever is in it's path, know you are in our thoughts and prayers, and please keep us posted.

FlowerLady

Flower, you are probably safer in your 50s cottage than in a newer building. Things were built better in the "olden days", weren't they?! Glad you are safe and sound!!

Lorna

FlowerLady, when you mentioned being in your 50's cottage during a storm, I was reminded of a story my brother tells about being in Okinawa in the 1960's when a typhoon came.

The maid begged to take my little nephew, 4 years old, to her grass hut. My brother's family lived in new gov't. housing, reinforced concrete. She argued, "This is new house, has not been through typhoon. My house weathered many, many storms."

I hope we'll all weather whatever storms come our way. I'm glad to not be going on a cruise, as did my friend Miz Lillian and her twin, Miz Linnie, who were on an Elvis Cruise as Gustav approached NO. They had to be diverted to a different port to disembark.

Stay safe, be prepared.

Nell

Flowerlady,

This certainly has been a nerve wracking few weeks!

This past weekend, dh and I took a little weekend trip to East Texas. I felt such a twinge as we passed so many buses and individual cars headed back to Louisiana after the Gustav evacuation. How sad that those same people may be headed back to Dallas this weekend if Hurricane Ike hits the Louisiana/Texas coastline!

Marilyn