Thank you all so much for all your thoughts and prayers! It just seemed like a miracle that while over 800,000 people in our state lost their power ... ours never went off in our neighborhood!! We had two big limbs snap off a large pecan tree in our front yard and there are limbs and debri everywhere but ... the mighty oak still stands!! It was amazing to see the damage that monster made so far inland ... I can't imagine the destruction on the coast where it came ashore! Even watching it on TV and seeing the places in the panhandle that we were so familiar with, we could no longer recognize the landscape. I know that it will take a long, long time to rebuild! We, of course, haven't ventured out, but understand that some areas are pretty ugly! The power company is saying it could be a week or longer before service is restored in some areas. It was certainly good to talk to Mary Ellen and Don yesterday during all this mess! Mary Ellen ... sorry about that expletive that "jumped out of my mouth" when that lightening flashed at the tip of my nose!!
That was the first we had seen throughout this entire nightmare and the thunder seemed to shake the ground! Fortunately there wasn't a lot of that. Our baby Toto was a brave little girl throughout the whole thing! Patrick was "storm ready" having spent the better part of two days trying to think of anything to have on hand that could help us through all that we feared could happen [even a little rain poncho for Toto!] She was a little "trouper" during the whole thing but seldom left our arms or laps ... most of the time snuggling, napping and closing her little eyes and hiding her face when she felt scared ... we were so thankful that we were able to keep an eye on everyone else by phone and didn't have to get out in all that to make sure they were all safe and sound! The best thing to do in these situations is to follow instructions and stay put!
Again ... thank you all so much for your prayers ... please continue to pray for those up there in the mountains where the storm is still going on! It hasn't ended and looks like the flooding and mudslides will continue for a couple more days and it makes what we had here seem insignificant!!