evacuate

Tropical Storm Harvey had transformed into Hurricane Harvey when I woke up on Thursday, August 24, and it was headed in the general direction of South Padre Island (SPI). Yikes, but wouldn't you know it: there hasn't been a storm of any consequence to hit the RGV (Rio Grande Valley) in many years, UNTIL we bought a house on SPI late 2016.

2017 has already brought us Hurricane Franklin, which hit Mexico about 150 miles south of the RGV, but about the only effects we had here on the island was a little rain and slightly taller waves. Still, it came close.

Just the day before, Harvey was a disorganized mess in the Caribbean Sea. But overnight, when the sun is not even shining on this part of the world and the winds and waves tend to subside, it spun up into a hurricane.

Can't really haul away the washer/dryer on the first floor.

SPI announced a voluntary evacuation. Not mandatory, but I was not sticking around. 

It's an unsettling feeling knowing that you have to leave your house on the island and you can take only so much stuff with you. As in, not much stuff. You have to decide what to take and what to leave behind. What kind of vehicle do you have? A car? A truck? A trailer? That's a little stressful. And yeah, I know the old saying: you can replace anything except a life. We have the expensive insurance required to live on the coast, but having to choose what stays and what goes is still pretty stressful.

No way I can take the elevator guts.
No elevator makes the stairs a pain.

The wife had left the day before. Her sister lives about 80 miles west of the island, far enough inland in most cases to be safe from storms. That's where I was headed on Thursday. If the storm hadn't gotten any stronger or turned away from the island overnight, I might just stay on the island. But when I woke Thursday and turned on the news I discovered we were now dealing with a hurricane and SPI was within the "cone of probability". And landfall was estimated to be at some time on Friday. I freaked a bit, and kicked the loading of the car into high gear.

The kiln would be a goner,
but replaceable without much hassle.

If sustained winds reach 45MPH, the Texas Department of Transportation will shut down the sole means of access to SPI, the Queen Isabella Causeway. So, if you are still on the island when they shut down the causeway, you are going to ride out the storm on the island. I didn't want to get caught on the island. 

Our 250-gallon LP tank is bolted down into its concrete pad,
so it will not float away in case of a flood.

The general rule of thumb here is that, in case of a storm surge, you can pretty much expect whatever is on the ground floor to get washed away, or at least ruined by rising seawater. Some homes have literally nothing on the ground floor, just pylons that support the house above, and it's a good place to park your car out of the sun. 

Our house has actual walls on the ground floor, including air conditioning, doors, windows, etc. All of that would probably get wiped out by a 15' storm surge, and they were expecting Harvey to strengthen into a Category 2, maybe even a Cat 3. (We know now it hit Cat 4 before landfall).

After packing the car, I took off, and as I crossed to the mainland on the Causeway, I could see really dark clouds forming in the eastern skies. "SHIT!!" I yelled to no one.