9/17/08

Hello, everyone! I am going to ask you to join for a moment of respect for all the volunteers, officers, and workers who had to help clean and make our homes as habitable as possible. Thank you. As you all know, -well, most of you do- Hurricane Ike hit Texas and forced many people to evacuate right after Gustav -I think that was the hurricane's name- made lots of people from Louisiana to flee inland. This was not a joyful time.

Today is September 17th, the day we came back home after evacuating to a hotel somewhere in Waller County. Although, ironic as it seems, many people were not able to celebrate their birthdays properly due to the hurricane on September. It must have been hard for people to sing "Happy Birthday" when they did not know if their house was still standing or not.

When I got back home, the first thing I did was open the fridge to check for expired products. I was greeted by a smell that resembled the basic components of raw sewage, even though it wasn't. And so we threw away everything in the fridge, including the ice, water, frozen products, etc. The second thing I did was run into my room and plop down on my bed. It was such a relief to be back home.

I have a few people to thank before I move on. I thank Meagen Beeson, who kept me company through texting. I also thank Ruvinda Gunawerdhena, who inspired me to work out. Muscles came in handy. XD I also thank Shree Deshpande who told me that ankle weights would ruin my ankles. Thanks Shree.

And now to tell:

Several days ago, at night I was watching the news and spotted the reporter telling people to evacuate. I asked my family to evacuate, then and there, but they would not oblige. So, the next when we heard another warning, we packed our bags with bear necessities and left. Our original goal was Austin, Texas, but my little brother and I wanted to go to San Antonio for Sea World. Yet, our goal was not completed, and my parents and I met each other half way (literally), and stopped at some hotel in Waller County. We found out that the gas station nearby was okay, and their were a few restaurants beside our place of visit, and this is where we got our gas, food, and drinks. All this was fine until the restaurants closed and only the gas station was open, but the gas had run out. So we began to worry, for the rest of the hotels were full. However we survived long enough and tried to celebrate my mother's (38th)and brother's birthday (8th). This was all we could do, celebrate, for the food had run out. We kept calling Tara Energy to see if the electricity and water was back on, and when we learned that it was, we waited one more day and then we packed up to leave. After we packed up, we arrived home to find that one tree, two gates, a few shingles, and some other things had been broken. Our wind chime had flown away, and their seemed to be a strange draft in our home. I could not place my finger on it, but something was missing from our home. No nothing had been stolen or lost, it was just the nice feeling of "I am home" that was missing. I could not believe how much I missed everything, yet it felt like was visiting this place. However, I told myself to get over it, and I did, knowing that all that stuff was in my head.

Now we are going to be prepared for whatever comes our way.


-=Nawal=-