Wild weekend weather

Well I'm glad that's over! We didn't get nearly as much out of Ike as we did Gustav. We ended up with less than 2" of rain and, as the end of the storm zipped through last night, we had our biggest winds. (20-25 sustained and gusts up to 45) Things could certainly have been worse!

There was a brief moment of excitement while I was working at the Red Cross shelter set up at our church. Under tornado watch most of the day and evening, we had an actual warning right after lunch. That meant rounding up all the evacuees and volunteers and moving everyone to a safer part of the church. We weren't supposed to be a shelter this time around, but many of the people who stayed with us during Katrina/Rita/Gustav showed up on Friday. It's something when you have seen folks in a situation like this often enough to recognize and call by name! For their sake, I hope we don't see them again any time soon!

We still don't know the extent of our crop losses. The beans were flooded by rains from Fay. (since when did storms from Florida head west??) Gustav, and possibly Ike, damaged the rice crop with wind. Time will tell.

More importantly, we're all waiting to hear how much damage the oil industry received over the weekend. What a mess! I don't envy either candidate running for president. I can't imagine wanting to take on the baggage this country is carrying!