We are lucky to have survived a hurricane!

We are home from evacuating to Arizona and doing good. Austin had to come back to school. It has been almost 2 weeks since the hurricane and we still do not have power. But we have a generator and a window air conditioner unit... so we are doing better than most!

I thought I'd share our hurricane experience: (see below pictures)


This is the 5 story tree that fell into their backyard.

This shows how close the tree came to the house. Joe, Nannette, and 4 kids were sleeping in this part of the house where the window is.

This shows the damage looking out of a small window to the front of the house.


This is the MONSTROUS tree that I COULD NOT KEEP MY EYES OFF OF! Many times when the winds were more ear-piercing, I jumped up to take a look at it closer. The builiding in back is an elementary school. See how big and TALL this tree is?

A tree that just snapped near their house

Nannette and Michael. This shows a little bit of the boarded up house.


SEE THE FENCE... SEE THE ROOTS! THEY ARE MASSIVE. I THINK THIS SHOWS THE POWER OF A HURRICANE!!!

This is the window I was looking out at the storm. Lily was saying to Ellie, "OH MY GOSH... THIS IS CRAZY... I JUST CAN'T BELIEVE IT!"


Keeping baby cool with washcloths.



On the night of the 12th as the hurricane was coming closer, we decided to leave our house and pack up our things to be with family. We went to Joe's house. They have a beautiful new home in a brand new area. However, the lots on both sides of their home is unbuilt and uncleared of trees ... and these trees are MASSIVE. They are about 5 stories high! We were quite exhausted from everything, so we all laid down in their guest bedroom to get some sleep around probably 10:00 p.m. We were upstairs and Joe's family was downstairs in their bedroom. The winds were already very strong and at around 10:30 p.m., our power went out.

I didn't wake up until around 3:00 a.m. when the winds were shrilling.... so loud that it woke up the WHOLE house! It felt scary being so close to the loud winds and the swaying tall trees, and the fact that a little earlier Austin had actually seen one of the neighbors 5 story tree FALL into their backyard! Upstairs, they have a HUGE picture window in their game room that I looked out to see it. I was AMAZED! I wasn't so surprised to see a tree in the backyard as I was STUNNED to see that it was pulled up by the roots! By this time, without any air conditioning, it was HOT. We decided that it might be safer to sleep in their hallway (it's big) because it is away from windows and further from a tree coming through the house. I stayed up putting wet washcloths on the kids and fanning them to help them go back to sleep. After they did, I went to lay down on the couch in the game room. I could not shut my eyes. With the near panoramic view out of their window, I could not sleep. To hear the wind and watch the trees sway from side to side was something I won't forget. It was SO NERVE WRACKING!!! What was so nerve wracking is to know what this storm was capable of and then to look out this huge window and to see other trees that could fall just like that one did and would be fatal to your family. I was watching 1 tree in particular. I was so scared that it was going to fall on us. I thought that if I watched it careful enough, I could see when and how it would fall. I kept on imagining myself yelling to my family "GET TO THE BACK OF THE HOUSE!" (not that that would really work... it's like the thought I played in my mind as a kid... that I'll just hurry and put on my seat belt when I see we're going to crash). From what I hear, the eye of the hurricane never came directly over us, so we were in hurricane force winds from 3 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.

Later that day, Austin and Joe went out to see if we could drive to our home. Streets had been cleared up enough for them to get to our house. No damage was done to our house, but of course, power was out.

Being that:
1. power was estimated to be off for 2-4 weeks (especially for us being in a non-priority area (compared to everything else)
2. Austin and Emma wouldn't have school
and
3. we are air conditioning snobs and we don't like roughing it because we get very grumpy,

we decided to take a little (just 18 hours) trip to visit our family in Arizona. Driving out of town really was DEVASTAING!!! I was going to take pictures, but I just couldn't. I guess I'd be a terrible photojournalist because I just couldn't take pictures of people struggling and not even stop and help them, you know? We saw streets of flooded homes. Many of the homes looked like they were struggling financially to begin with. Their cars were flooded. People were wading in water all the way up to their upper legs, somebody was running. It really did look like they lost all monetary belongings. As you know, many people have lost their homes. I really haven' been out to see much of the damage yet.

We had a REALLY great trip (more posts to come) and oh how nice the air conditioning felt! On our way home, we brought back 3 generators (2 for friends) and 1 air conditioning unit. Our van was slightly weighed down!

Emma and Austin started school today. We are hoping to get our power on Thursday.

So luckily, we did not die. It was much more nerve wracking than I imagined. There are many that were and are much less fortunate than we are. There are MANY neighbors without any air conditioning, any lights, any cold refrigeration, any stove/oven, any dishwasher, any washer and dryer., any t.v., any internet, ETC.! We are so fortunate to have these!!! It is a whole different way of living without them! About a month ago in church, we had a lesson on being prepared. The bishop urged every member to live on their food storage for 2 weeks. What great advise! Our prophet has reitterated getting our 72 hour kits and food storage OVER AND OVER... for good reason... there will come a time! be prepared... we are going to try and work on getting our food storage...

So I don't have much room to talk, but here is my:

WORD OF ADVISE:

1. GET YOUR 72 HOUR KITS!!!! DO IT TODAY IF YOU DON'T HAVE ONE! Austin and I were so grateful that earlier in the summer we had a hurricane scare and we went out and spent hundreds of dollars on getting prepared and stayed up until 2:00 a.m. one morning getting it packed in backpacks. I have a fantastic 72 hour kit list (thanks to Heather Roberts) and an AMAZING 2 week-2month survival kit (thanks to Joe Frost). Whoever you are, please email me and I will email them to you!

I was amazed to go to the store and see that the shelves were empty. What would I have done without batteries to go in my flashlights (BUY PLENTY OF BATTERIES!)

2. SERIOUSLY CONSIDER buying a generator and wall air conditioning unit if it gets hot where you live! When the power goes out, you'll be the smart, prepared one! You won't regret it!

3. If there is a hurricane headed your way, take the advise of my sister-in-law, GRAB THE KIDS AND LEAVE! I really do wish I would have tried to leave when we were contemplating it. Traffic was bad already and that is why we decided not to. Next time (hopefully never), I'll be out of here! I just think there's no reason risking what is entirely out of your control and it is NERVE-WRACKING!

It's late... so that's all for now.