It rained and it rained and it rained. Wind blew, it thundered, it lightninged, and it rained and the wind blew.
That was Hurricane Alicia, named after our grand daughter, which came in Wednesday night.
We had been watching and listening to reports of the storm for two days as it lay off the coast of Galveston and tried to make up its mind which way to go.
We have watched them so many times here in Houston and most of them go on off to South Texas or Mexico or go back East to Louisiana.
But this one decided to pop right on in over Galveston and on in to Houston Proper. It was blowing pretty steadily and raining lightly on Wednesday night about bed time. No one was home except Jerre and Robert. Becky had gone to Aggie Fish Camp up at Palestine, for Aggie freshmen.
Robert went for a walk before bed time and it was nice and fresh. Very comfortable. Jerre stayed up till 1 o'clock washing clothes in case the water went off during the hurricane.
During the night it really got to popping. You could hear the limbs snapping and falling. We had a steady rain of pine cones on our roof. Rufus barked at the thunder.
The electricity went off about four and actually we got very little sleep all night.
We got up about six and checked things out. We had a good flashlight and lit some candles. The water pressure was low so we took a shower in case the water went off completely and so we would be clean during the storm.
The wind and rain were really coming on. The trees were bending from one side to the other and looked like they would all snap. The yards and streets were waist deep in tree limbs and branches, and it just kept raining and blowing.
Jerre got out some food warmers with candles and cooking alcohol. She cooked us up a good breakfast of eggs, sausage, rolls, jelly and coffee. We ate out on the patio and watched things blow and fall.
About eight thirty the wind quit blowing and everything got pretty still. We were right in the eye of the hurricane. Robert went outside and took some pictures of the litter.
Then in about an hour the wind started blowing again from the Southwest. The eye had passed on and was headed out toward Katy.
Wade called from Possum Kingdom and said it was bright sunshine, hot and dry and one hundred degrees.
Hope they get some of this rain.
We spent most of the day after it quit raining cleaning up fallen trees and limbs. Many big trees fell in the neighborhood. One huge oak tree two houses down fell on the electric line. It'll probably be several days before we get the lights back on.
It's night now and raining again. We're cooking some meat out on the gas cooker on the patio.
All we got is candles. No TV, no air conditioning, woe is us -- alas -- alas ...
Oh well, tomorrow we'll get it started again.
***
The Aftermath, by Robert Darnell
"Oh well, tomorrow we'll get it started again."
When I wrote that, little did I know what it's like to clean up after a hurricane.
The electricity was off two days and the weather got sticky hot. It was just too hot to move and no place to go to get cool.
Jerre and Bob both went to work Friday morning. Everything was on at Jerre's office and she worked all day. Nothing was on at Bob's office, so it was mostly shut down.
He went down to the health club to try to get started and it was all shut down until Monday. Bob took an iron out to the repair shop to get it fixed for Becky to use at College Station. On the way he stopped at twelve stores looking for ice to go in the cooler where we have all our food.
He finally found two bags at a small remote corner grocery.
Most of the neighbors were out raking, cutting, and stacking lumber. The whole neighborhood looked and sounded like a lumber camp. Bob worked for a while and got so hot he thought he would bust.
When Jerre got home they decided to go down to Clear Lake to check on the boat and to ride in the car to stay cool.
The Clear Lake, Kemah area was a battleground of trash and rubble. The water had been up in the whole area about eight feet.
The boat made it out okay and was still tethered in its stall with no damage.
That night they went to bed and thought it would cool off, but it just got hotter and stickier. They spent a miserable night and got up exhausted.
All day Saturday they tried to get things going. they washed some clothes at the washeteria to keep cool. They ate at a restaurant to keep cool, they went shopping to keep cool.
Finally, at five o'clock the electricity came back on and they got the air conditioner and refrigerator to running.
They were feeling quite good about things. The house started cooling down. They washed dishes, and ate supper. Becky came home. She had a great time and was in good spirits from the Fish Camp. She was excited about the hurricane damage.
Then at ten o'clock -- POW -- the lights out again; a transformer had blown. Remembering how hot it was the night before they decided not to stay home and found a room over at the Westchase Hilton. Checked in there about mid-night and got a good night's sleep.
Sunday morning about eleven o'clock the electricity came back on and the house started cooling down again.
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