Hurricane Ike Sweeps Through Cincinnati

Last Sunday, the remnants of Hurricane Ike combined with a cold front in the Ohio valley to result in hurricane force winds that caused a city-wide black out of historic proportions. It has been three days since the winds hit at such a speed, that our entire house shook and over 300,000 Cincinnati area residents are still without power. School was cancelled for most today, making it three days in a row. We only lost some large branches from one of our many trees, about seven shingles from the roof and we were also fortunate in that our power was restored after one day. Many of our neighbors are still without power today.

Sunday evening was surreal as kids played board games by lantern and flashlight. Adults gathered in back- yards with remnants of their tailgate treats from the Bengals football game. We returned to the past when electronic devices didnt separate and control us. Kids were actually playing outside. No Wie, no X-box 360, no television, no internet. At first, I felt a little lost without my connection to the world. In this life of 24/7 news updates, I felt a little vulnerable. We were able to power our weather radio and found an old battery powered black and white tv that tuned into a local television statio. A lot of the tv news was being phoned in by residents. We spent that night by candle-light and flashlight dining on a meal of peanut butter and jelly sandwhiches and chips & salsa.

Here are some storm pictures sent in by local residents and some news headlines:

9/17/08- Cincinnati Enquirer: "The number of Duke Energy customers without power dropped to 327,092 this morning, three days after hurricane-force winds created the biggest power outage ever in the region."

"The disaster relief organization, in conjunction with fellow contributors WLW radio and Congresswoman Jean Schmidt, gave away 28,000 pounds of ice and 3,200 half-liters of bottled water to people still without power following Sunday's deadly high winds."