Life Can Change Quickly on the Texas Gulf Coast!

Personal observances of hurricanes and tropical storms.

When I first moved to the Houston area from Dallas in 1979, I was amazed at how people react to any prediction of bad weather.  The grocery stores always get swamped by panicked people who want to stock up on water, batteries, non-perishable food and anything else that makes sense to them. 

I was up early yesterday morning and waited in line for gas at 7:30am.  There were high emotions as people wanted to make sure they had a full tank of gas before the impending storm.  Those emotional reactions did not make sense to me for several years - until I experienced my own first hurricane.

It was August 1983 and my daughter was 6 months old.  For two days, people were behaving weird and anxious because Alicia was on her way to the Houston area.  Since I grew up in "tornado alley" in Oklahoma, I thought I knew a thing or two about storms.

But when I turned on the TV early that morning and saw windows crashing to the street from downtown windows, it was apparent that things are different here.  I wasn't in Oklahoma any more.

Contrary to the totally unpredictable and fast moving tornadic storms, hurricanes take time warning you of their approach.  For days, you know that the potential for severe weather is on its way.  For days, you don't know whether you will have a beautiful sunshine filled day or risk having downed trees and no power for a week.  It is a strong feeling of being threatened.  Yet, most of the time it is little more than a day of rain.

In 1983, I learned about the devastation that is possible.  We lived more than 90 miles inland from the Gulf of Mexico north of The Woodlands, so I did not expect much of a problem.  The damage happening in Houston (about 45 miles inland), I began to question my comfort level.  When mid-morning arrived and the windy rains got serious, I knew that this day was going to be memorable.  We lost power pretty early in the day.  A little after noon, the eye opened the sky to a golden haze in the sky and no rain.  When the storm started again, trees that had weathered the first half began leaning and by the end of the day we had lost 4 large oak trees.  It took 14 days for us to get our power restored.  We had a well and no generator, so we lived without running water in the sweltering 95+ degree heat and with an infant.  The experience made a permanent impression on my respect for storms.

If you have recently relocated to the Montgomery County area, I highly encourage you to follow the advice in this Hurricane Preparedness Checklist.

Don't be one of the panicked masses trying to get prepared for the storm during the last minute.  Don't be standing in lines wrapped around the grocery store to get your supplies.  Just like people from the north know to prepare for a snow storm - you should know what things to have around just in case a storm approaches.

Right now, it looks like this storm will not be too devastating.  People on the coast have lost power, but that kind of damage is not being reported very far inland.  We can sigh a collective sigh of relief about this storm.  However, we need to keep our supplies on hand because hurricane season has a few more months before it ends.

Be safe!  Have a plan for connecting with family if the power goes out!  Do not drive into water when you cannot tell how deep it is!  Give and Take Care!