Riding Out The Island Storm
Greetings from the island everyone. I hope that all of you are doing well and coping with this typical south Texas August heat we have been having. As has been the case since last month, I continue to do my outside chores and projects during the early morning and late evening hours. It’s just too dang hot and miserable trying to work in this scorching heat and high humidity. Thank goodness for the shaded front porch and Gulf of Mexico sea breeze.
Well, a few Saturdays ago, July 25th to be exact, Hurricane Hannah made landfall about 100 miles south of me, and I am very thankful that it made that south turn. Coming in as a strengthening high end Cat 1, sustained winds of 90 mph, I wasn’t overly concerned about it, and stayed in place on the island.
I spent the day Friday picking up and securing all the loose yard items, and took down the flags, hammock and wind chimes, as the winds would be in the 30-40 mph range. I also moved my boat over and secured it with extra lines to neighbors Britton and Susan’s dock, knowing their dock was higher and much stronger. . . I’m very glad that I did this.
As far as riding out a storm, this one was not terrible, except that the tidal surge was higher than I expected. After becoming a strengthening hurricane, the predicted tide rise for our area of the coastline was 3-5’, and with my house being at a 4’ sea level, I knew there was a chance I would get water into my downstairs kitchen/bathroom. And sure enough, during the 12 noon High Tide time of the day, while sitting at my kitchen table, I saw water start coming inside under the front door and along the baseboards of the octagon house. DANG!! That’s not a sight that you ever really want to see. Not much to do at that point except start picking stuff up off the floor, and hope it doesn’t get higher than several inches and damage the propane fridge. Luckily, just under 2” of Matagorda Bay water came inside, so I was slowly able to sweep it out the front door as it receded. My cat, Jetty, certainly did not enjoy walking in the water on the floor, so she jumped up on the table and spent the afternoon there.
These storms, even minimal hurricanes, have so much power and opportunities of destruction behind them, you really have to prepare and plan for them. I had very minimal damage, mostly consisting of some boards on my pier coming loose from the surge and washing away This was the fourth time in my 20+ years on the island to have water downstairs, so in that respect I am very fortunate.
As of this writing, the wooden floor in my 12’x26’ tractor garage is almost finished, needing only seven more boards to complete the job. Yay!! All projects out here are a slow methodical process, bringing out a few materials at a time on my mainland supply runs. I always say that the latest building project will be my last one. . . but it has yet to turn out that way, after the two-story house w/decks and porch, and now seven outbuildings. Geez!!
Well, that’s it from the island for now. Everyone please take care, stay cool and have a great day.
