Gee Thanks Ike

I never thought for a second that when Hurricane Ike hit Texas Saturday morning that by Sunday afternoon we would not only be feeling the effects of the storm, but that the effects would be anything more than a rainy, breezy day. Boy, was I wrong! Sunday started out normal enough, partly cloudy and very humid (over 70% relative humidity on Saturday!), but nothing out of the ordinary for Ohio in mid September. During church, I noticed the wind had started to pick up, so by the time I got home around 1 PM it was pretty windy, though again, nothing we haven't seen before here. Even though this area is pretty heavily wooded in parts, we are prone to periods of high winds. I remember in high school experiencing wind gusts of over 70 mph (which is near hurricane force). Anyway, the wind just kept picking up and stayed pretty steady all during the day Sunday. I found out that evening we had sustained winds of around 40 mph with gusts over 60 mph. Hardly even close to as strong as when it made landfall in Texas (110 mph sustained winds), but still more than a simple breeze. It lasted into Sunday night, but surprisingly we really didn't get much of any rain. A little bit came through Sunday evening, but not nearly as much as we had gotten the previous days from another storm system. I took a nap around 2:30 after lunch and around 4:30 (4:38 to be exact) I woke up to notice that the power had just gone out. I figured it might be out a little while, but nothing more. Well, 59 hours and 29 minutes later, it WAS a LONG while not having power and there are pockets in Kent and around the state that are still without power. It started out as a widespread outage, but now is in very small, isolated areas. Even Tuesday night before our power came on, it was only our block that was out. The businesses along SR 59 and the houses adjacent to our neighborhood south on Powder Mill Road all had power long before we did. To be exact, we got power back at 4:07 Wednesday morning. One of the problems we had here with getting power restored was the fact that many of our regular workers had been sent to Texas to help get power back on line after Ike made landfall at Galveston. Maybe next time they can send workers from areas that nothing ever happens in like Utah and Idaho, or at least an area that had no chance of being affected by a storm for the next week or so. While the damage was a bit unexpected, the path of the storm was not.

Not having power for any period of time is annoying, but after almost 3 days I was getting a little frustrated, though we made do. I can only imagine how awful it is for people who lose power for weeks because of much worse disasters, like Hurricane Katrina or even Ike in Texas. Late Monday morning Mom and I loaded up all our frozen goods and took them over to my Derby grandparents' house in Kent since they have a large second freezer. Our fridge basically functioned as an oversized cooler as we got bags of ice and those freezer blocks used in coolers. Everything seemed to manage OK. The biggest problem when we lose power here is that we also lose water. Because we do not live inside the city limits, our water comes from our own well via a pump-- which requires electricity. So, as long as the power was out, we couldn't do ANYTHING that required water or electricity: the dishes, laundry, bathroom, cleaning, cooking, showers. We do have a good amount of water stored for events like this, but manually using water to wash hands or flush the toilet isn't a whole lot of fun. We ended up using 30 gallons of our stored water and considering it takes three gallons just to flush the toilet, I think we managed pretty well among the three of us. Because Katie is working and I'm in class, we really weren't home all that much during the day. We had a few extra times eating out for lunch and we ate dinner Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday evenings at my Derby grandparents' house where we also were able to get showers. I can't imagine how we would've dealt with this without family so close by.

There wasn't much of any damage here other than a large amount of downed limbs, leaves, and branches. Our back yard looks like it does during Fall when the leaves have started to accumulate, even though Fall doesn't start for another week. We lost one major limb of a tree in the back yard that was already dead. The tree is on the boundary between the grassy area of the back yard and the part of the yard that is just woods. The largest part of it fell right on the edge of the woods (destroying a smaller tree nearby), while some good sized limbs and branches fell on the grass. There were several large limbs that fell along Powder Mill Road, which prompted the township to close the road Sunday night and into Monday afternoon. One of the places was right near the northern end of the road adjacent to the KSU golf course. I nearly ran into it as we drove to Derbys because of the lack of light and the cones aound it were red. As we went around it, there was a small white truck amongst the pile; not sure why it was there though.

All in all, not a pleasant experience, though I told several friends and family members that if this is as close as we get to a hurricane, I'm OK with that, though it makes me wonder how bad it would be if we ever got a storm as destructive as a hurricane here. I am definitely a lot more appreciative of electricity and the benefits we enjoy as well as the habits we form because of it. I laugh when people talk about maybe the 1800's or early 20th century and say "times were simpler them." Simpler how? Having to go manually pump your water to do ANYTHING requiring water (cooking, laundry, cleaning, bathing)? Going to either harvest the food or kill it? Having to get a fire going to cook or make hot water for washing? Having to communicate with anyone by going to them in person? Doesn't sound simpler to me...sounds a lot busier and even more time consuming! I am sure grateful for all the benefits of technology and electricity. It isn't perfect, but I like it better than the alternative. Seriously, it was like living in a glorified tent here with no power or water. As far as the weather, honestly, here in Ohio we have pretty tame weather. Our biggest threats are lightning and flooding and the occasional tornado (the last tornado to directly hit Kent was 1973). Yeah, we can get some pretty harsh winter weather, but once you're here long enough, "harsh" becomes a pretty relative term. I'm really not bothered by the snow and cold, even after living in the southwest for two years.

Notes on pictures: 1. View of the sky as the remnants of Hurricane Ike passed over...it moved pretty quickly; 2. The trees in the back yard swaying to the strong westerly winds coming in constantly...40 mph sustained with gusts near 60 mph; 3. Katie reading at the kitchen table by candlelight Sunday night; 4. Some of the fallen limbs in the back yard. Much of the branches on the far right underneath the large section that fell from the tree are the branches removed from the sides of the garage in an ongoing project. Note all the leaves in the yard...that's how it normally looks during fall, but fall hasn't started yet; 5. looking up into the tree that lost a huge section, which included the trunk and several large limbs seen in the previous picture. The part that fell was dead anyway, so no big loss, just clean-up!
I am posting all the pictures from the back yard on my flickr page at www.flickr.com/jonridinger.