Our Evacuation Story in a Nutshell

We woke up the morning of Wednesday, September 21st to pack our belongings and head out of town. What started off as a relatively innocent packing ended up turning into an all day event. We started packing our bags with clothes. Eventually it escalated into "What if our roof blows off?". Or "What if our house is not standing when we come home?". So panic set in. The news media was adding fuel to our fires. We had our living room television on the local news and as we would pass by carrying a bag to the truck we'd stop and listen to the meterologist pleading for us to leave and take all. So, we did. Literally. We packed from 7am to 9pm. Let's just say that we looked and felt like a band of gypsies. We had all our precious things and the clothes we wanted to take in the truck and on our trailer that we use to carry our four wheeler back and forth to deer camp. We were packed to the gills. The kids barely had room to sit in their carseats and the dog was lucky to have a small space on the back seat next to Joshua.

We were caravanning with Mr. Big's parents to the Lufkin, Texas area. That was our first plan. We drove over to their house and met them there. We then followed them to the Beltway and decided to take it to 59S where we would take that up to Lufkin. We sat on the Beltway and moved 6 miles in an hour and a half. The kids were okay because at this point it was after 10pm by the time we had filled our tank with gas. , met his parents and gotten on the road. Jacob was watching Dora on his DVD player and Joshua was doing what he does best sleeping. So, no peep from the "Zoo crew" in the back seat. We exhibited quite a bit of patience and witnessed many things in our little trek up the Beltway.

We finally reassessed the situation and all parties agreed by two way radio that we should go up I10 to Lake Charles up to Northeastern Louisiana where we stay to hunt every year. We have family there and they would be so happy for us to come. So, we made the rest of our trek up the Beltway and took I10 to Lake Charles. All exits were closed except a few here and there. We stopped at one point to use the facilities and stood in the ladies line for close to 45 minutes. The traffic flowed and we moved, which I heard later others stood gridlocked running out of gas. We were extremely lucky!

We made our way to 165 and drove old country roads up to Monroe, LA where we ended up staying for the night. It took us 10.5 hours to make a normally 6 hour trip. We had been up for 24+ hours straight and could barely keep our eyes open. More caffeine was consumed in that one night that I've consumed all year. I haven't pulled an all nighter in YEARS!!!

Mr. Big's parents were pooped. His Mom had a stomach virus and had been throwing up the night before. She also had diarhea, however you spell that dreadful word. His Dad had an upper respitory infection and sounded tired and worn out. Those two were not looking good for the trip. They pulled it off though and made it with us. Thank God!

The kids fared well and did great during the ride. Joshua cried some, but I would take him out of his seat and nurse him periodically and put him back in as soon as he was finished. Jacob slept most of the ride when he wasn't watching his DVD player. We only stopped to void and change diapers.

We all got there and stretched our legs. We unpacked the trucks and settled in for the week. We took all our food out and laid it out to see what we had and what we still needed. Eventually we all laid down to take a nap. The kids cooperated and slept as well. We woke up that night to find out that the Hurricane had changed paths and that it was headed towards Beaumont and Lake Charles. We sighed a sigh of relief for our homes and realized that we had just passed through both of those areas unscathed. We also realized that the path of least resistence that got us there was soon going to be gridlocked with traffic.

We stayed from Thursday through Tuesday and came home. We drove back roads home to avoid traffic coming back into Texas. We actually drove back through Jasper and Woodville where both cities were hit pretty hard. We saw power lines down and trees on houses. We saw buildings toppled over. We made it home in 11 hours. The traffic in Houston was minimal because it was so early in the morning going into Wednesday. Once again, we were lucky. Besides the kids getting antsy on the trip home and me yelling to Mr. Big "Next hurricane take the kids, I'm staying home", everything went smoothly.

The house was untouched. The yard was dry. The plants were all intact. There looked like absolutely nothing had happened. The pond out front wasn't even up, which showed us that it hardly rained here. Our neighbors told us that the power had been out for a day and a half. Other than that, we were untouched. No damage of any kind. My Mom, who stayed at home, reported that she had seen worse thunder storms and she never lost power.

I've been unpacking and putting things back in their places since we arrived home. We had put furniture up on blocks and covered things with tarps. We had planned for the worst. Our home looked like it did when we moved in. Bare bones. It has been kind of nice. I have cleaned nooks and crannies that needed it and redecorated my mantle and shelves. All in all, I'm still bitter that we left and spent time, energy and money to get out of town, but also glad that we are all safe and happy back at home. I guess I got a mini getaway out of it. Wish it would have been to someplace fun and we would have had a better time.

That is my evacuation story in a nutshell. Nothing to catastrophic compared to the stories I later saw on the news and read about on the internet. My thoughts and prayers go out to the families that were actually hit by the hurricane, lost loved ones and were directly affected by it.