Sweet Silence

Silence for the first time in 2 weeks. No humming of generators permeating the neighborhood. Just quiet. Love it. We have power as of 2:00 this afternoon. We are enjoying the A/C! I have some pics of some of the destruction here. Ryan's mom's street looked liked a war zone and is still far from being back to normal. We never thought we would be happy that we did not have trees. We live in a new neighborhood where the builder just happened to wipe out the forest and for that we are grateful, just this once. I think trees were the main weapon of destruction in our area. Trees everywhere. Across the street, in houses, ripping up entire yards. These are huge trees. 100 footers. I'll post pictures ASAP. Right now we are enjoying the quiet. Thanks for the good thoughts!

Our Status

As a quick note, we're are ok after the storm. There has been, however, quite a bit of destruction in our area and it will be sometime before things are cleaned up. Our biggest issue is not having electricity, thank goodness for wireless connections!! Anyhow, we look forward to things getting back to normal.

THE END OF THE WORLD!

Or so it would seem at Walmart this morning. I went to pick up diapers and encountered the chaos that is ensuing. It was the same three years ago with Rita. People running around with carts full of water and Progresso Soup. Thank goodness for food storage! I have to admit the feeling of mass panic is a bit contagious though. I grabbed a case of the very quickly disappearing water as well.
There are a bunch of counties issuing mandatory evacuations. We are not in that category. We are inland enough that our major concerns are winds. We are expected to get 75-100 mph winds in our area. There is also the worry of flooding if the storm "rests" too long in our area dumping rain. Our power lines are underground so we are hoping power outage for us will be minimal. Anyways we are ready to leave if we have to. The 72 hours kits will be in the car ready to roll.
We evacuated for the last storm that was projected to come our way (Rita). But only because we got a call from our High Priest group leader telling us that the Stake President wanted anyone who could leave to go. It was crazy on the roads. I think it was a "practice round". And sent the message to be prepared to all of us!
Hope everyone else is experiencing some nice weather in their own neck of the woods. I heard is was nice and cool in UT. Lucky ducks.