26
Sep
No Free Lunch For Me After Hurricane Ike
I live in Katy … Hurricane Ike did not spare us … but many of us here were not hit as hard as Houston and so many of the other local communities – I was one of the really lucky ones even out here in Katy … a few shingles blew off my roof and my son-in-law fixed it within a week after the storm … my water was off but it came back on … was it that Saturday or Sunday evening? … so that I could again be able to flush my toilet. My power went out at 3:10 AM that Saturday morning while the hurricane rolled into Katy and Houston with all it’s windy rage … my power came back on Tuesday afternoon!
Deer Park is a long way away from me – about 60 to 70 miles to the east of me, clear across Houston … many parts of it got hit fairly hard according to the news but like those in Katy, some people and their homes were OK. One person in particular made the news … KHOU News reported a story about a Deer Park teacher who was writing in her blog [the blog has been taken down now after the story aired] who was going to the Baytown and Deer Park POD’s for free ice, water and MRE’s … when she did not have any need for them.
I realize that every disaster will have stories of greedy nasty creatures like that teacher [makes me angry and sick though] … and I also know that there are many other people such as myself that did not go to the POD’s after the storm …. for whatever reason.
My family was in a position to help me – my daughter did not lose power during or after the storm and she gave me her ice from before the storm on that Sunday afternoon – I had plenty of water – about 12 gallons of water [2 gallon bottles and four 2.5 gallon water containers] plus 1 gallon of ice tea plus I filled my plastic canisters up with water and froze the ones that would fit in the freezer before the storm … when the ice in the containers melted … I still had plenty of drinking water for me and for the dog 
Before the storm, the news said to have enough water to last a week at the very least. I had instant coffee to make coffee on my gas stove though I had to use the candle clicker lighter to get the stove lit [the oven would not light for me though so I could not bake anything] … I was lucky – I never had to open the peanut butter … and I never went to get any of the free lunches or the free water, ice and MRE’s.
Both the Red Cross and Salvation Army and several others were giving out cooked meals all over the hard hit areas … I was and am eternally grateful to know they were out there handing out those meals to people though!
My daughter gave me lunch that Monday … sitting there at her table with my family eating a simple meal of cooked frozen pizza … it made life seem normal again even if only for a little bit … I still had to leave her house and go home to a house with no power … but my day and life was so much brighter because someone fixed me a meal … so I understand exactly how important a gesture it is for them to be here cooking and handing out meals to people whose food has spoiled and especially those who cannot cook at all because they have all-electric homes such as most if not all apartments and so many houses here in Houston.
I did not realize until the hurricane just how important a gas stove can be even down here in Houston! In Iowa, if a blizzard rolls in and takes the electirc wires down so you have no power … a gas stove becomes a life line … you can huddle around it in your kitchen if you have to do so – yes I have been there, done that – though not recently thankfully … but down here … when the power goes off after a hurricane … with a gas stove, you can cook meals from cans … so I can stock my pantry with more than just crackers, peanut butter and canned cooked meat next hurricane shopping season.
