But what I remember back then is about a week later, all sorts of service-industry people applying for jobs in bars and restaurants around our area and further north.

Turns out, they lost their jobs from flooded buildings. Some that my place hired said water got as high as 3-4 feet in buildings.

This hurricane has about the same strength winds, but apparently the surge is the same as a much stronger hurricane.

Turn off your power as soon as water comes into your home! Remember TS Allison when the boy tried to move his TV higher and got electrocuted, then his mother tried to save him and she was electrocuted as well. Also, a home in my neighborhood burned from an electrical short, because the owner wasn’t home to turn off the power. It caught the house next door on fire too. I waded to the other neighbor with my extinguisher (both my home, and my neighbor’s home had power turned off at the source — we lived here a long time). The firetruck almost flooded out on the way.

Also, beware of snakes, there’s been plenty of reports — two from neighbors I’ve known, of snakes in homes during floods. Also watch for floating fire ant islands, they climb anything fast, including legs. Then watch out for mosquitoes the next week when you don’t have power to keep the windows closed. I hope you bought plenty of spray.

I also remember Alicia’s food/water lines. Someone from my parent’s neighborhood rode their bike to the local mall just to see them. They reported back that lines were very long, and it was taking hours to get food and water. The lines were in direct sun, in August, with no power to cool them. My fridge/freezer is packed with water bottles, small and 2ltr, to build up thermal mass, as well as providing cool potable water as food thaws (heck, I need to put in the oven thermometer, oops). I also have quite a few gallon glass jugs filled with water, and will fill the bathtub for washing water so I won’t have to use as much potable. We’ll be covering the fridge with many blankets once the power shuts off. Hopefully between the thermal packing and insulation, I’ll get 3-4 days worth of freezer foods before they go bad.

Then I have a few cases of canned food. I hate canned food, but I always buy canned at the beginning of hurricane season, then eat here and there after September. We’ll be eating them a bit sooner this year, thanks to Ike.

Campstove has 2 cans fuel, plenty of candles and kerosene for our lanterns. I save wax chips from candles to make tin can burners. We only have one bag of charcoal though. I’m not in the mandatory flood zone; I hope those that are but stayed prepped much better than I did.

I have cousins in Houston, with whom I spoke last night. They’ve boarded up, have lots of supplies, and are just waiting for the beach-retreat traffic to subside a bit before they skedaddle.