Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Between A Rock and A Hard Place...



So basically, our two homes (one house, one apartment) are equal distances on opposites sides of projected landfall. Waiting, watching and preparing. Luckily, we are heavily insured. The difficult task is managing our family which in the past few years has become a scattered family of young adults, (with their own ideas of independence) and getting them all on the same page as far as evacuation goes.


My sis, Cathy, lives in our house in Ingleside with her two teenagers, Mikle and Britnee - and her older son JC. As Terry is in Corpus working right now (20 miles from Ingleside), tomorrow afternoon they will all begin preps to batten down the hatches at the Ingleside house. Casey will help until mid-day, then he and Traci will take Bryan to Terry's parents' ranch in the Texas Hill Country to get him all settled in before the evacuation routes get bogged down with traffic. Terry's brother Gary and his family and his sister Patti will head that way as well. Look out Grannie and Grandad Hill because it looks like you guys will need to stock up on groceries!


I will make a decision tomorrow whether or not to leave Houston with our daughter Shelby and her boyfriend, Robby - and either go to Ingleside to wait out the storm or head to the ranch as well if it looks really bad. Hopefully things will not get too bad at either location and this will simply be a lot of rain.
Of course, if we go to the ranch my sister and her family will come as well. Thank goodness Terry's parents have plenty of beds and motel very close by the house in town.
Brandy is staying in Ingleside with friends, but her Mom and sisters will be leaving tomorrow to get out of town before the crowd hits the evacuation routes. I have not spoke with her yet but will talk to her tomorrow to make sure she has a backup plan to leave if the storm looks very bad.
As adults, Terry and I have never left but simply buttoned downed and planned to shelter in place. However we always sent our kids to the ranch with Terry's parents when they left. The only real reason I'm even considering leaving this time is 1. Houston is a crazy place without a storm going on, 2. I can spend time with Bryan if I go to the Hill Country, and 3. as we get older and wiser we tend to be a little more cautious.

The last major Hurricane in Ingleside occured when I was 2 years old, it was Hurricane Celia and although I don't remember it, it had a huge impact on people's lives and the "old timers" still talk about it to this day. So, although I have lived on the coast my entire life, and spent many childhood birthdays (late August) on the road evacuating, I have never been through a hurricane other than Celia when I was two.

As an interesting note, after my Mother passed away I found a clipping from a local newspaper on the week I was born about Tropical Storm Candi - which was in the Gulf of Mexico that week! Although if you ask me, it was my little sister Cathy who should have been named after a storm!

4 comments:

Kim said...

My decision would be made on the fact that if you leave you can spend time with Bryan! I am just biased because that cutie needs so many kisses.
I am hoping that the storm turns out not to be as bad as predicted! Check in so we know you guys are all ok.

Tonya said...

Just checking in, wishing you the best!Give Bryan hugs and kisses from us! We will be thinking about you!!

Jennifer said...

We've also been worrying about our daughter Ann and her family on the Gulf Coast in FL but so far all storms have passed them by! Enjoy your time with Bryan if you decide to go. I'll pray for your safety!

BRYAN'S YAYA said...
This comment has been removed by the author.