Hurricane Gustav Evacuation

One month later... I'm finally getting pictures posted about our adventure - evacuating for Hurricane Gustav. And what an adventure it was... I am not originally from hurricane country. I grew up in Minnesota, where we had our fair share of fabulous storms and a few tornadoes here and there... but hurricanes? A whole different ballgame.

Once a tropical storm brews up in the Atlantic, people begin to track it 'round these parts. Once it nears the Gulf of Mexico... concern sets in... which leads to panic (understandably, as they're still cleaning up from Katrina's wake down here). I was thankful that Bill had thought ahead - he went to the gas station early and filled up three gas cans. Once it was closer to the time of evacuation, some gas stations were completely out of gas and putting bags over the pumps.

I headed out to Walmart the day before we left, just to get a few more items. Walmart was almost completely out of bottled water, flashlights, and the battery supplies and camping equipment were low. That was when I felt the rising panic myself - I've never been shopping at Walmart when everyone is rushing about for the same things - it was insane. Little, by little, the businesses were boarding up and closing. They almost become like ghost towns, as everybody packs up what has value to them, and just leaves. Anyway... here are some of our photos to give you an idea of what went on during our time of dodging Hurricane Gustav's path.

We met up with 11 other vehicles at a gas station, just north of I-10 in Vancleave, MS, at 5:45 a.m. It was exciting for the kids, and a bit eerie to be driving through the dark, only to see the emerging lights from a gas station up ahead... and an enormous crowd of cars, trucks, vans, trailers, car-toppers and so many people. The bathroom lines were so long, that a lot of us ended up just walking down the road and taking advantage of nature! There were scattered caravan groups around, hovering over their atlases, trying to figure out the best ways out of town. The highways were being closed down to Mobile - they wanted all traffic to go North. Excitement was rising... and we finally hit the road. What usually was a 4 hour trip to Birmingham, took about 10 hours. We had 12 vehicles in our group... we ended up splitting up, which worked out better!

Here is Bill with our commander (who kindly saw us off!) and a few others, trying to figure out a good route... Thankfully, another pilot was allowed to go as well - so Bill wasn't the only guy along with all of these women and children.
Time for a pit stop! I love the picture above - my friend, Peggy, was taking all of the little girls to go potty behind the gas station - potty chair in hand. : ) While she was doing that, Bill was helping check tires and making sure we were all ready for the road. It sure was nice to have him along... a deployment perk - I got to have my husband along for the evacuation!
Gotta love the deep south! This sign is just north of where we lived, two stations ago, in Prattville, Alabama. I've been trying to get a good shot of this sign for years - I just think it's hilarious!
We finally arrived at the hotel, completely exhausted. I think just about every mommy on this trip had an emotional breakdown at one time or another. The hotel itself was horrible. It was in a bad area to begin with, was dirty, with broken appliances, roaches and spiders. One gal even saw the housekeeper come in and wipe everything down with Windex, using the same rag, and smoking the entire time. After the first night, almost everyone found new hotels - but we had to separate, as everything was booked solid. This one was all we could find for everybody - hotels were booked from Atlanta Georgia to Memphis to Houston. NO ROOM IN THE INN. I'll bet Mary and Joseph were a little frustrated when that happened to them!!! I'm just glad I wasn't pregnant.
Getting out LOTS of wiggles!!! A priceless look on Bill here... the wiggles usually are aimed at him!
This was on our T.V. screen for most of our stay. It was a little surreal, just watching the television and not knowing what was becoming of our homes back on the coast... not a good feeling. We were feeling a bit edgy, watching the category of the storm rise and fall... wondering what damage we could be facing upon our return. And with that, the other fear after a hurricane is looters. Ugh. ...and we had no idea how many days we'd be here...
Mary - chilling with a snack in hand, while watching the news.
The next day, we switched hotels (after trying about 5 different ones - an adventure in itself) and got resettled. I then learned that my friend, Crystal, had injured her eye in a freak accident with saw dust the day before we left (there were so many vans and cars... I hadn't seen her before this day). It had gotten so bad, that she had to make a visit to the ER. They had bandaged her eye and basically told her that if she didn't rest it for a couple of days, she could ultimately lose her vision.

So... we took her kids for a night! Ethan is close to Ivan's age and Rachel is Grant's age and with five kids, we had a very fun and eventful evening. We took everybody to Chuck E. Cheese and had our kids' first sleepover ever, which they thought was VERY fun. Here's the crazy bunch!

Ethan, Ivan, Mary, Rachel, and Grant

The next morning, we fed the troops breakfast in the hotel and headed to downtown Birmingham where the McWane Science Center was giving free tickets to evacuees. That was a huge blessing - to have this incredible children's museum with all of these kids - for free.

We met my friends, Peggy and Cindy there with their kids too. Here's our group!
Lots of fun! Here they are working in the "garage."
This is the stuff that Daddies were made for... Bill built cars with the "big" kids while I chased Mary around the toddler area.
And after building your car... you were able to race it!
Bill vs. Grant... the "Mindball" game...
And the archaeological dig - I think this was a favorite... and everyone could be in it at once!
This was fun too - virtual sports. Ivan and Grant are showing off their bump, spike and set skills!
After Crystal's eye had a day and a half to heal, we handed over her kiddos and headed back to the hotel for naps... and some swimming. It really was nice to have Bill along (and he did survive the night with 5 kids, ages 5 and under!)... we were able to make a few more family memories before he deployed.
Mary was so funny in the hotel. She loved hiding up in the window ledge... thinking we couldn't see her!
And she had no trouble entertaining her brothers before bedtime!
They sure enjoyed it. They are her "number one fans!"
And... this is what we faced on the way home. It only took about 8 hours to get back, but the traffic through Mobile was just short of a nightmare.
The kids didn't seem to mind... evacuations can be exhausting!
This was the extent of our damage - just some large branches down in the backyard. We were very thankful for that...
Others did not fare so well... here are some pictures of the Biloxi coast. We drive on Hwy 90 - this same route - quite often. Ivan and Grant always say that Paul Bunyan could play that guitar!
And the Beau Rivage... the surges are incredible - just the power that a storm could put out to push the water up onto the land like that amazes me. I have never witnessed anything like this before.
Home Sweet Home. We returned late on Wednesday... had two full days as a family to pack Bill for his deployment and he flew out that Saturday. It was busy, but all went smoothly and we were very thankful that Ike changed his course and we did not have to do this again.