That’s what my 86-year old grandmother said when I spoke to her recently.
She lives on the family ranch in Deep East Texas, about 20 miles from the Lousiana border.
We wpoke in the wake of Hurricane Rita, which made landfall at Sabine Pass, Texas, more than 120 miles to the south.
When Rita reached my family ranch, it was still a Category 1 hurricane–120 MILES INLAND!
The wind blew and blew for hours, and my grandmother described for
me how the thought that the tall pine trees around the house would
crash over, but they didn’t.
One of my cousins shows up to help her during the storm.
The next day revealed that Deep East Texas is tore up BAD.
Grandmother described for me how there are branches down all over the place, power lines swinging, and virtually all normal services shut off.
The power is down, which means (among other things) that there is no radio, TV, or Internet, no clean water (everyone’s wells run on power), no gasoline (can’t pump it out of the tanks at filling stations), and worst of all–NO AIR CONDITIONING in the muggy heat of Indian Summer.
That’s not good for the elderly.
And the authorities estimate that it’s going to STAY that way (i.e., no power and no anything else) for TWO WEEKS TO A MONTH!
But my grandmother is determined to stick it out.
She’s got her dogs.
She’s got her gun.
And she’s got my relatives.
Like my six aunts and uncles who live in Houston, not to mention cousins.
The storm’s fury didn’t strike their areas near as bad, so they’re all fine.
My relatives have her set up with a small, portable generator that provides enough electricity to let her keep her phone and freezer working–and maybe an electric fan.
The relatives also bring her fresh water in jugs and gasoline (brought in from other counties) to keep the generator going).
So a big YEE-HAW!!! for my Tough-As-Texas grandmother!
And prayers for all the other HALF-MILLION folks in Texas who are without power due to Rita.
Thanks much, y’all!
The possibility of an “Indian Summer” is not until late October/ early November.
We live in the DFW area. Why have we not heard about what is going on in East Texas? I know that Katrina was a worse situation because of the geography of New Orleans, but all we heard about Rita was,” Whew, it didn’t hit Houston and it didn’t come to Dallas, so it wasn’t that bad.” I would like to know why East Texas has been forgotten by the MSM. God bless your grandma and let us know if there is anything we can do. I can tell you that right now it is 60 degrees outside and still dropping. It’s a nice change from the near record highs we have been having.
A niece of mine is currently in Texas helping start a youth group for an Evangelical community some friends of her family belong to. (Her dad, my brother, left the Church in the early 70’s – prayers, please.) At any rate, the faith community she’s helping out heard of all sorts of folks who live along the Texas/Louisiana border who haven’t received any help/supplies/water/etc because they live in very small, out of the way, towns & all the supplies are being routed by FEMA & other state-run agencies to more populated areas.
So they started a convoy of supplies, of a sort. They were very worried that the folks at the various checkpoints would take their supplies & re-route them, as is standard, apparently, but that never happened. Some rather inexplicable things kept happening that prevented their trucks from being searched & the supplies re-appropriated. They were able to get supplies to some very small towns that haven’t had contact from anyone since Rita, & some (in LA) since Katrina! Very cool!
Your gun toting, dog handling, hurricane withstanding Grandmother sounds simply AWESOME!
I wish her well, and will pray for her.
God Bless.
The generator’s well-ventilated, right? CO poisioning, and all.
Your gun toting, dog handling, hurricane withstanding Grandmother sounds simply AWESOME!
And she’s really SWEET, too!
Thanks for your prayers!
With you for a grandson, how could she not be ?
(No, of course I’m not ‘buttering you up’ so you’ll respond to my next email!)
Jimmy, your grandma sounds just like Grandma Dowdel of the Richard Peck books A Long Way From Chicago and A Year Down Yonder. (Juvenile literature, but the good kind that adults can enjoy) I had a grandma cut from the Irish version of that cloth. Tell her I love her!
Now THIS is what we need all over — folks taking care of themselves and their kin and not whining about why Bush isn’t down there personally fixing power lines . . .
Does she still ride the tractor? 🙂
I “evacuated” from Beaumont to Newton, about 75 miles north of the coast on the Louisiana border. I can tell you Rita did not discriminate against areas just because they were inland. I would say that — with maybe the exception of those coastal areas where it made landfall — the interior areas hit are worse off than most of us here in Beaumont. My electricity was restored within a week while my brother’s power in Newton was out for about 17 days. And I agree that the areas hit by Rita have been forgotten by the MSM. Fortunately, we didn’t have the body count that Mississippi and Louisiana had after Katrina.
I “evacuated” from Beaumont to Newton, about 75 miles north of the coast on the Louisiana border. I can tell you Rita did not discriminate against areas just because they were inland. I would say that — with maybe the exception of those coastal areas where it made landfall — the interior areas hit are worse off than most of us here in Beaumont. My electricity was restored within a week while my brother’s power in Newton was out for about 17 days. And I agree that the areas hit by Rita have been forgotten by the MSM. Fortunately, we didn’t have the body count that Mississippi and Louisiana had after Katrina.
I “evacuated” from Beaumont to Newton, about 75 miles north of the coast on the Louisiana border. I can tell you Rita did not discriminate against areas just because they were inland. I would say that — with maybe the exception of those coastal areas where it made landfall — the interior areas hit are worse off than most of us here in Beaumont. My electricity was restored within a week while my brother’s power in Newton was out for about 17 days. And I agree that the areas hit by Rita have been forgotten by the MSM. Fortunately, we didn’t have the body count that Mississippi and Louisiana had after Katrina.
I “evacuated” from Beaumont to Newton, about 75 miles north of the coast on the Louisiana border. I can tell you Rita did not discriminate against areas just because they were inland. I would say that — with maybe the exception of those coastal areas where it made landfall — the interior areas hit are worse off than most of us here in Beaumont. My electricity was restored within a week while my brother’s power in Newton was out for about 17 days. And I agree that the areas hit by Rita have been forgotten by the MSM. Fortunately, we didn’t have the body count that Mississippi and Louisiana had after Katrina.