Hurricane Gustav and Ike

When we thought the summer couldnt get any more exciting...... it did.
On August 22nd we were all watching every news channel in anticipation to see where hurricane Gustav would hit between Texas and Lousiana. We had never been close enough to a hurricane so naturally didnt really know what to think, but on Saturday on our way out to work it seemed like half of the city was packing up everything they owned and heading out. Even the 2 state prisons evacuated their inmates. At that point i thought it pertainant to throw in the towel and attempt to evacuate as well. Within hours we had everyone packed up and heading to Dallas where we booked hotels for everyone for a week. The storm hit New Orleans and comically enough it did not even rain one drop in Beaumont. Ha Ha Mother nature.... we packed up shop and moved back by thursday.
But she definatly had the last laugh because not more then one week later along came hurricane Ike. The timing for another hurricane was impecable with Jessica's mom, Diane, visiting from Utah. I thought we would be tough and ride this one out so the day before it hit was spent filling up our cars with gas and waiting in long lines at the store for food, candles, ice, water, batteries, and anything else that would keep us entertained for days without power. Once we were all ready for Mother Nature to bring on the wrath we all chickened out and left the morning of the storm for Dallas again. Everyone was crying doomsday and "Curtain death" if anyone stayed. And sure enough it tore up Beaumont pretty bad and flooded more surrounding cities. While in Dallas assesing the damage and our options for ongoing employment in Beaumont we had a tough decision to make.... Ok. Where to now??? Concensous was to go back into the war zone of Beaumont pack up our stuff and move the whole office to Phoenix, Az. The problem was though that with in a 100mile radius of Beaumont there was no power, water, or gas and there was a strick curfew that they would arrest anyone out in public after dark. We all had to drive as far as there was gas, wait in line a quarter mile long for over an our to fill up with gas and pray that we could make it back out with the same tank of gas. It was dark when we left but luckly none of us were pulled over.
We stayed one night in Dallas and then straigh shot it over to Phoenix for 20 hours. We were all so so tired when we arrived and slept for days it seemed. But here we are now til the end of October in the bright sunshine 100+ degree weather! And getting closer to Utah with every trip.