Goodbye Humberto, we never knew you

There was a big hoopla yesterday that the tropical storm Humberto would arrive in my little Houston town. He was strolling around at 6 mph, 70 miles from Galveston. This was not especially good news to me. I was not in the mood for a TS, having experienced TS Allison back in 2001.

Allison came ashore, went back out to gather strength and came in again. We were saturated that week, and when she did go out that second time and threatened to come back a third time, all Christians said "Please God, NO!"

My little apartment took 22" that night. But what happened in the Texas Medical Center was much worse. The heart of Hermann Hospital is in one of the basements, and of course they flooded along with every other TMC hospital, the museum district, the art district, it was all hit and hit hard. Freeways washed out and cars were under water. It was awful.

At that time, I was working at a small, laid back community hospital, and we took as many patients as we could. All the hospitals did, and Houston has more than its share of hospitals. So all of the patients in the TMC had a bed to go to. My patient that I remember was a wonderful gentleman in his 70's who had just undergone open heart surgery the day before. He was moved by backboard down SEVEN FLIGHTS OF STAIRS IN THE DARK. Can you imagine this? He was trached, so someone moved along beside him, bagging him as they went. This still brings tears to my eyes, six years later. It always will.

I learned a lot of things from Allison. I learned that all my possessions are just STUFF. I lost a lot of STUFF. But no one in my family lost their lives. Praise the Lord. I learned that if your apartment take 22" of water and you clean it out within 24 hours, blisters will form on your fingers from the broom. That a half inch of water throughout your apartment will reappear while you are sweeping. I learned that if you don't spray every wall with bleach/water, mold will appear. I learned that even if it is less than 24 hours of flood, doors and cabinets will buckle and warp. I learned that vcr tapes can be saved, thanks to a Mexican National who took my box of tapes from outside my door, only to return them a few days later, all cleaned and ready to view.

Yes, I learned a lot from Allison. But the biggest thing I learned is that I don't want to have to go through it again. I'm in a house now, and this house has never been flooded. The water was nigh to the doorstep during Allison, but the house was spared. Nevertheless, I would not look forward to a test of that.

So Humberto, I'm glad you just skedaddled along and left me and mine alone, this time.

Lord, thank you for the sunshine today, the gentle breeze, and the dry pavement.

Kathygirl