Our Texas town is around 15 miles inland from Galveston Bay and 25 miles north of Freeport. As of a couple of days ago these are the target of Hurricane Ike which is expected to make landfall overnight Friday. We’re not rugged individualists that you see strolling on empty beaches as devastating storms bear down on them. When our city advised its residents to make plans to evacuate we did so. However, as of this morning our city is not part of the mandatory evacuation. We’ve decided to stay. Hopefully, we’ve made a good decision. We have followed the hurricane preparation guidelines by stocking up on canned food, etc.
This afternoon I boarded up about all the windows on the house. The plywood was obtained after Hurricane Rita threatened our area a few years ago. It was cut to size and kept in the garage. Today, it was put up for the first time. Not long after I got the plywood I picked up some “hurricane clips” that are supposed to make it easier to cover windows. Today, I found out that when using the clips the plywood has to be cut a quarter of an inch shorter than it would be otherwise. I spent the afternoon in humid, 95 degree weather trimming plywood so I could use the clips. I hope there’s never a next time, but if there is, maybe next time the job will be as easy as it was supposed to be today.
Just as I finished covering the last window for the day we had a short tropical rain shower. I doubt it was related to Ike but it was a reminder of things to come.