The Wrath of Hurricane Dolly

A recap:

Hurricane Dolly hit us Wednesday morning. Early that morning, J was called into work to help prepare. I decided to tough it out and stay at the house to weather the storm. Well that lasted until around 9 am when our power went out and I heard the wind crack one of my neighbor's trees. Within 10 minutes, Goob and I were packed up and on the way to my aunt's home. I figured that we'd be there for a few hours and then come home. (Ha!)

My aunt lost power around 2 pm and that's when things got really interesting. The wind was horrible! It was bending her trees so much that they practically touched the ground. Their fence (which has steel beams going 3 feet underground) toppled. Their neighbors trampoline ended up on top of the neighbors roof. Since we had no power, we all just sat and looked out the windows. The rain was continuous for 8 hours. That was the absolute worst part. When it rains here, it floods! My aunt had no flooding because her house sits high. But my truck was parked in the street and the water was about 1/2 up my tired.

Around 8pm Wednesday night, I needed to go home. I needed diapers and formula for Goob. Plus, J was on his way home. Just as I was leaving, J called to warn me about flooded streets. I thought he was exagerating, but nope. I tried to get home but as soon as I got to the main road, I had to turn around. I probably could have made it in my truck but I was too scared. J thankfully made it home.

Goob and I headed back to my aunt's house for the night. My cousin just had a baby on Tuesday night and they were sent home on Wednesday afternoon (in the middle of the hurricane! but that's another story!) so my cousin has some formula samples and extra diapers. THANK GOODNESS!!! At my aunt's house we still had no power so Goob and I had a rough night. He was so hot he couldn't sleep. Plus it didn't help that my cousin's newborn baby was in the next room. (Can you imagine spending your first night at home with a new baby in a hurricane!?)

As soon as the sun came out Thursday morning, Goob and I headed home. The water had gone down enough that I was able to make it home okay. And there was debris everywhere!!

We were extremely lucky that our house made it through without any significant damage. We lost a few roof shingles and most of our backyard fence. But everything else was okay. We had no flooding. Our next door neighbors actually lost half of their roof!

Thursday afternoon we received word that power would not be restored for approximately 72 hours!!!!! So J and I packed up and headed to the ILs who live a few hours away. As we were leaving town, we could see how extensive the damage was. North of us in some of the more rural areas, it looked like lakes! The flooding was horrible. Cars were halfway underwater. We could see fire fighters on boats going from house to house. We spent the whole ride saying how lucky we were. It was also pretty cool to see how many disaster relief trucks we saw going down to help out.

Our power came back over the weekend so we came home Sunday morning. Everything was fine here at first. I was SOOO glad to be home.