Ike!

I was checking some of my favorite blogs and I saw Lisa's post about Hurricane Ike and I couldn't stop thinking about how lucky we are to be here safe and sound. On Sunday we got a small taste of Ike here in Kentucky. It was amazing to see this wind storm that we got. I saw reports of winds 75mph and I think where we were at must have been close to that. Now, I saw the damage that these winds did and I can't imagine being down in Texas experiencing over 100mph winds. At the time when the wind storm began Mike and I were heading into Louisville to watch our nephew Ethan play flag football. Now don't think we were stupid for being out as no one expected us to get this kind of wind. We had left early to do some home shopping (still no luck) when trees and debris started coming from everywhere. Every street we would drive down had trees falling. Now at this time they said the game was still on (can you imagine little 1st graders being blown away on the football field). In the next 15 minutes the winds hit their strongest level and for the 1st time I saw Mike getting really nervous that we were out. Huge trees were snapping and power lines were exploding. We were still the crazy ones out in this until I made Mike go to Target so we could get someone safe. The winds went on for quite soom time. When it was all over everything was completely calm, no wind, no rain, nothing. Now as of today it has been 5 days since the storm and over 100,000 people are still without power. As I have drove around the last few days I have experienced something that we don't see very often. I seeing people helping everyone all over the place. Neighbors taking in neighbors without power, helping clean their yards, cooking for one another. I am not hearing lots of stories of people yelling at the electric company but commending them for working so hard to get the power on. It amazing to see how a community rallies together when a crisis occurs. I see what our community is going through and I can't imagine how the great people of Texas are coping and staying strong.

We were very lucky to have no damage. My sister Tommi and her family live across the bridge in Indiana and they have some damage to their house and as of today they still are without power but their spirits are still strong. They know how much worse it could have been.

Yesterday I drove through the neighborhood that I grew up in and it was hit really hard. I posted 2 pictures below of 2 of our neighbors houses. I don't think the pictures are that good but you can just what the wind has done up here after slowing down over 40mph from Texas.