It's hard to sum up into words how it feels to be in the trenches. There are moments you feel surrounded by all the battles and you are looking for hope. I'll be honest at this point in the school year, I feel as though I'm in the trenches. It's a different kind of trenches, but I'm there.
School started with a bang to say the least. There were lots of smiles. It was great to see former students and meet the new ones. There was a solar eclipse on the first day of school. It doesn't get any more exciting than that. The teachers enjoyed the event despite the craziness and buzzing of the first day of school. On Thursday evening of the first week, we were told that there would be no school on Friday due to the hurricane that would be coming in. I remember leaving school that day with my "cart of work" planning to get caught up on my work and finalize some plans. Friday morning was the calm before the storm. I remember looking south of where I live and seeing the large, black cloudy sky waiting to downpour. My husband is a planner, and provisions had already been acquired. It was no big deal. We were going to get some rain. So my husband and I hunkered down. We filled bath tubs and water pitchers preparing for a loss of power. This was not our first hurricane. This was, however, my first hurricane to stay for.
Friday evening and everything changed.... Hurricane Harvey morphed into a beast of a hurricane. It was now expected to hit land at a Cat 4.... not a tropical storm. My husband and I became concerned. The gut feeling said to leave town, and leave now. The hurricane was set to hit Corpus Christi. Which is still far away from us, but the storm size was big. Being a Texas resident, I've learned the term "dirty side". We were going to be on the dirty side of the storm. So in haste, my husband and I packed up and headed North. We didn't go to the West because they would receive rain from the storm bands as well. It wasn't smart to head that way. We packed quickly only bringing what we felt like were necessities. The night before, we walked through our home and took a video. We didn't think much of it, but figured it may be a good idea. Before walking out the door, we began cleaning out the fridge and freezer. I literally cried when we threw away all the food. My husband and planned several meals to put up in the freezer as backup meals when I was too tired to cook. The beginning of school always seems to wear me down as I work to get back into the groove. We took the trash out into the garage and jumped into the car to evacuate.
Evacuating and being out of your home and comfort zone is always difficult. It is hard to find yourself in such disarray. I found that during our time it was full of the hurry up and wait feelings. Every time we turned around, the news was showing the hurricane and the devastation and flooding had caused. It was horrible. It got to where we just couldn't even bring ourselves to watch tv anymore. We didn't want to see another news broadcast showing people trapped in their homes, rescued by strangers, etc... While we were gone, we found out a high school friend of mine lived just a few houses down. He was able to go look at our home and confirm that we did in fact have flooding. That the car that was left behind still had water in it. After knowing the facts, we begin our plan of action.
We set out to gather supplies and prepare for the worst. We knew that many people would be in the same boat as we were and would be in need of the supplies. Utility knives, sprayers, shopvac, fans, etc... The baskets filled up quickly. The grocery store was our last stop before making the trek back home to the unknown.
About six and a half hours later we stepped foot into our flooded home and began to survey the damage.
