Email During The Storm

Here is an email J and I JUST received from B (who was riding out the storm with us at J's office). She sent it on 9/13/08 while she still had battery power on her laptop.

Remember how I said J is on an emergency/evacuation team at his office? B was informing everyone else from the company that the "leave behind team" was okay.

Subject: leave behind team is well

Sent: Tuesday, September 16, 2008 3:31 PM
(Actually sent very early on Saturday morning.)

All,

I don’t know when the wireless will come back up, once it does this email will leave my outbox it is currently early AM Saturday morning 9/13. The power here has been up and down since 12:30 am. The transformer lightning show we watched was absolutely incredible earlier this evening. The wind sounds like a freight train passing the building but the building itself creeks, groans and strains like the sounds of a cruise ship in high seas. ………The power just went down again……I’ve lost count but I think that was the 9th time the power went off…..

Just from the experience of actually riding one of these Hurricanes out, “here at the office”, we’ve been compiling a todo list or check off list of add-on items for whomever is here to follow…… just……………. a few more items that need to be handled in the Evacuation plan book…. The power just went again of 10th and 11th time back to regular screens in the computer room. The Eye Wall has just made landfall and in 2hrs -2hrs&45 minutes we should get the highest winds we’ve seen yet. This is nuts!!! The power is just bumping so now we are at 12-17th time the power has been off for more than 20 – 30 seconds upwards of 3 minutes. There went 18 – 21 and now the power has been off for more than 2 minutes. This may be generator time.

It was generator time and we are on generator power currently we waited 5 minutes and the heat was rising in the sales office. The neighborhood behind us is completely out of power and we are watching it to see when to turn the generator off.

B.

I thought you might find it interesting to read what was actually going on during Hurricane Ike, and to get another person's viewpoint. I do remember everything B wrote, but when I attempted to write about our experience the other day, some things didn't make it into my post. Especially the sounds! Oh my, you should have heard the wind moving and shifting the building. Thankfully it was built to withstand 100 - 130 mph winds. The air pressure from the wind, caused the doors to shudder and shake all night. In the back warehouse, there is a rolling type of garage/bay door. The banging from it was pretty unnerving, along with the constant power outages, and emergency lights coming on.

Honestly? I am proud of everyone who was there. We all stepped up to get things ready, eliminate any potential problems (computers, cables, electrical cords...) and handle things during the storm that could have frozen us in our tracks. There were moments when we all probably would have liked to just stop working.

I recall one of the times we checked the front door again (yes again), and water was still pouring in under the seal. If you have ever wondered whether or not a door has a good weather seal, then take very high winds, add some sideways rain and see what happens. I personally felt like dropping the mop and sitting down, but I didn't. We all kept on mopping, wringing, and dumping the industrial size mop bucket full of water into the toilets. We were sleep deprived, and our stress levels had reached an all time high, but we pressed on.

Today, four days after the storm, J and I are still fatigued. We haven't been able to "shake" the feeling. After lunch, J said he just wanted to sleep. So did I! I think that calls for an extra early bedtime tonight.