Hurricane...

Hurricane - A hurricane is a tropical storm with winds that have reached a constant speed of 74 mph or more. The eye of a storm is usually 20-30 miles wide and may extend over 400 miles. The dances of a storm include torrential rains, high winds and storm surges. A hurricane can last for 2 weeks or more over open water and can run a path across the entire length of the Eastern Seaboard.

In case a mandatory evacuation was called for Edward worked from home on Thursday. I bought a month's supply of formula and picked up a full propane tank for our grill. I filled the van with gas and made 8 loaves of bread. Friday downtown was closed so Edward stayed home and we prepared for Ike. We did all our laundry and dishes, foreseeing we would loose electricity. We froze water bottles (taking a swig first so they wouldn't burst when they expanded). We turned the temperature all the way down on our fridge and full size freezer in the garage. Edward cleaned out our gutters and dug a tunnel below our fence so the rain could drain even, especially since we knew it would get clogged with debris. We brought in everything that wasn't attached to the ground: grill, yard toys, bench, plants, and our beloved BYU flag which we proudly fly above our front door!

We made a bed for the girls in our room and set up the playpen for Renesmee. The bedroom window is right above our headboard so we took our top mattress off the box spring and moved it to a safer part of the room. We put the girls to bed like normal and after they fell asleep we moved them into our room.

The sky was kind of a bright orangish color even though it was dark. It was very un-nerving to go outside and see the change from everything being perfectly still and quiet to the strong gusts of wind that would make the tree tops sway to a 45 degree angle. At least that's what my eye measured! And, that's what the hurricane was... calm then storm. All night long things would change from still, quiet and I'd doze off, then the winds would pick up and just keep intensifying and then trees snapped and cracked and rapped on our windows. There is a distance of about 8-10 feet from the edge of the tree branch and our window and it still rapped hard enough that I was sure it would break through. Edward and I didn't sleep all night. The wind would intensify and I'd grab Paul's arm and he'd say, "I hear it."

We finally fell asleep around 5 am or so and the girls woke us up around 7. It was still raining that the sky was still orangish. There were large branches all over everything, but no trees down. I was amazed! There was a fence down, but our property was completely fine. Here are some pictures of what I found when Edward and I drove around that morning.
On the bottom left is our blessed house and on the right is Edward's folk's. Miraculously safe!

Edward's parents' neighbor's house had a tree on the roof!

This tree was blocking half of the road. This is the street Esme's school is on.

Another house on the roof.

Follow the path on the bottom left corner of this picture. The whole thing is usually forest with the sidewalk guiding you through. It was completely underwater!