Hurricane Ike felt in West Virginia

It is about 10:30 a. m. Monday morning, Sept. 15, as I begin to write this. Just got off the telephone with my Houston based son Dave. We spent about 30 minutes on the phone discussing the hurricane aftermath facing those of you in the Houston-Galveston area, compliments of Ike. Our thoughts and prayers go out to each and every one of you impacted by the water and wind.

The remnants of Ike passed through here last evening with some wind gusts of up to 35 or 40 mph but no rain. We could use the rain, too. We have only had one significant rain fall here in the past month or so and everything is drying up. I heard this morning that Chicago, already waterlogged, got about twelve more inches Saturday and Sunday. Wish the good Lord would move that just a bit east.

After I finished my conversation with Dave I went over to the microwave and warmed up my coffee. During the few seconds that took I thought, “Dave can’t do that just now and it may be several days before he can.” He had just told me what electricity he could muster at home he was dedicating to the refrigerator and little else.

Certainly with our home life as it is today, the loss of electricity is in its self a near catastrophe without all the destruction from the wind and rain that you have been through. He tells us it may be a number of days, perhaps a few weeks, before you get electricity back. It has been said many times, “We don’t appreciate what we have until it is lost.”

I have never been through a hurricane so I really don’t know what it is like. While I have seen reports, photos, newspaper and TV stories, none of that really brings one to a real sense of what it is like to go through one. My closest call to being in one occurred years ago when I was on a work assignment in Clear Lake, Tex. A hurricane was moving around in the gulf and was first predicted to hit land around Corpus Christi or Victoria, then it was Galveston and finally it came ashore in Louisiana.

I was driving a car down I-45 when it was blowing hard in the gulf near Galveston. Debris was flying through the air and I was having difficulty keeping the car on the road. I was glad to get settled in and also relieved when it didn’t come ashore.

In addition to Dave, daughter Denise and spouse, Linda, have been through them. Linda and Denise were vacationing in Florida several years. They had been to Disney World, stopped at Lake City on the way home and rode one out there. Later they were visiting with Dave while he was living in Houston and Alicia hit. They both said that was by far the worst of the two.

For now, however, the results of Ike still must be dealt with by you, your neighbors, businessmen and government officials. So far it appears things are being handled much better there than with Katrina in La. a few years back. May that be so and continue to be so for the sake of all of you.

Such are the people, places and things that have touched my life in my home!