The aftershocks of Hurricane Ike hit Columbus today. All I can say is that I feel HORRIBLE for the people that went through it in Texas. The wind blew so hard here that drywall actually fell from our ceiling upstairs. Crazy! Something must have hit the house. We heard thumps but aren’t sure of damage. The kids had fun running around in the wind. It literally blew Ethan over. Poor guy could barely breathe when it blew in his face. We didn’t play for long.

Tony has to fly out tonight to Baltimore for work this week. Driving to the airport was not a trip I wanted to make in these strong winds. We were without power for about 4 hours so we had to open the garage door by hand to get out. The kids were clueless about the storm, but I was freaking out. I’ve never seen anything like it. We left early because we knew we would have obstacles on the way. Here were some we saw:

–downed trees (at least 5–some in the lane of traffic)
–branches down (15+)
–traffic lights with no power (all but 3 were out–one was hanging super low)
–orange barrels that had blown over into traffic making the road an obstacle course
–downed traffic signs
–fences with sections blown off

Ugh. Poor Tony is still at the airport waiting for his plane to take off hours after his original departure time. I wonder if he’ll sleep there. My superb sister-in-law and husband came a few hours ago to make sure we were alright. Bless them. I was worried about keeping the kids entertained while I tried to plan ahead for a night with no electricity. Finally the winds have died down and the power is back on. My prayers go out to those that had the bulk of the storm. I can’t imagine.

-g.