Hurricane windstorm in Indiana

Gracious! Who would have thought that southern Indiana would have winds up to 82 m.p.h. from Hurricane Ike. Last Sunday that is exactly what was happening. I felt like a 4-wheeling momma on Sunday. We were on our way home from church and I was driving my nephew's truck (he has such a pretty new red Avalanche- way to go Christopher) and the path home was quite windy but nothing prepared me for the journey off of our exit.

We live in the country and the road to get to our house is lined with trees on both sides. We went about a mile down the road and got roadblocked, a huge tree had taken down the pole and power line, so we turned around (mind you I'm only 5 miles to my house when I get on this road). We went around another way only to find a couple of more trees in the road, I was able to drive under one tree, go into ditch/field on another, only to be 2 miles from my house and be stopped again. I'm stopped by a friendly but concerned lady, who states, there is a couple of trees down up the road, I'm not sure how far you are driving and there is a power line across the road. I asked this nice lady, how did you get passed the power line? She replies, well my car fit under the line but the truck behind me drove over it. I'm just a bit nervous because I don't want to tear up my nephew's truck and I have 3 passengers and I certainly don't want to endanger anyone's life. I thank the lady and then proceed to speak with the driver of the truck, he tells me that it is not a power line it is a telephone wire but there are several trees down in the road. By this time, I'm not sure if we will ever get home and I'm supposed to be having about 25 people over to my house for dinner. I then proceed to call my husband and find out where he is to see if he could rescue me out of this scary situation. The four guys, (Wayne, brother-in-law, nephew and son) all decide to pave the way home. We went under a tree, drove through a neighbor's yard (with permission) and proceeded to arrive at home only to find the electric out. Little did we know that our electric would be out for 3 1/2 days.

Our sump pump overflowed in the basement because the electric was out and we had to run the sweeper off the generator by flashlight to suck up the water but other than that we had no damage. We were able to use a generator starting Sunday evening and it ran until Tuesday then it chose to stop cooperating. We had wonderful neighbors who allowed us to run an extension cord from their generator to our house so that the fridge, freezer and even a lamp would work. We were truly blessed compared to others.

The comforts and luxuries of home were not there as we had become accustomed to but conditions were livable. We still had a houseful of company who were going through this trial with us but we managed and all survived. We will never forget the windstorm of 2008, we ate by candlelight, had long conversations over flashlights and tiki torches. It is amazing how much I take for granted the hot showers and electricity. Our next purchase will be a new generator. I sure am enjoying the hot water now.