Fifteen years ago today, Hurricane Ike struck Houston. What’s your story from that day?

For me, I was 10 years old at the time. My family elected to stay home, and that evening we had some neighbors from down the street visiting just before everything went down. Naturally, the wind came earlier than expected, and it was so strong that it ripped the aluminum patio canopy in the backyard off its hinges and onto the ground, shocking the hell out of me (who had also been through Rita, and that did next to nothing to us). After the neighbors eventually left, my family and I slept in the hallway for safety. I was awake when the power went out at 10:30 PM, but somehow managed to sleep through the eye passing over around 3 in the morning.

When the storm passed us by, we ended up being mostly okay, aside from the canopy and a few tree branches littering the backyard. The big problem was the power, which stayed out for a week and a half. Thankfully, my dad had prepared for that eventuality and bought a generator. We used it to keep our fridge and freezer running, and since we were the only one on the street with a working one of either of those, all of the neighbors piled their food into our fridge and freezer. We also had grill parties pretty much every evening in order to eat the food as quickly as possible, and honestly, we had a blast in the wake of it all. Plus, the generator occasionally could power my Wii, so you know it was a lifesaver.