Floods, Storms, & Hurricanes destroy lives, businesses, properties, and homes. September 12, 2008, Hurricane Ike made landfall in the Galveston-Houston area killing 37 people and causing 30 billion dollars in damage.

I was a teacher in the area, at the time, living during the school week in an RV. The call from school came at 2:30 am that it was going to close until further notice. I laid there calculating the risk, because I saw the event as an opportunity for some dramatic shots. Then I thought of my wife up in Bryan, Texas, two hours away. I reasoned, “if I stay and the storm doesn’t kill me, she will when I get home.” So, I did the smart thing and got out of Ike’s way.

Its said that times like this brings out the best in people, but there were many reminders that the worst in people often come out. After the storm was over I came back and drove around on my motorcycle taking pics of the damage. I saw numerous people sitting out in front of what had once been their home, just sitting there with a shot gun across their lap; just daring a looter to present themselves.

We try to get a gauge on the human cost, but animals are likewise affected by storms such as this. It drove birds and snakes out of their habitats looking for safety. Sometimes, that safety was found in the ruins of someone’s home, making it dangerous for the resident to sift through the wreckage.

Continuing with the theme, Floods, Storms, & Hurricanes, record breaking Texoma Flood of 2015 deserves some attention. Denison Dam, on the border of Texas and Oklahoma, was completed in 1943. At the time engineers claimed it was the largest “rolled earth” dam to date. Furthermore, they said that Lake Texoma would not flood over the spillway but once a century.

Well, it only took fourteen years for the engineers to be proven wrong my Mother Nature. Not only did Lake Texoma flood over the spillway in 1957, it has done it four times since. In the recorded setting Red River flood on 2015, the lake went over twice and was within four inches of making it a third time for that summer alone.

And of course this event afforded me the opportunity to drive around and document the damage.

Though temps were below zero and wind-chill cut through most outerwear, the amount of snow we experienced was not really out of norm. The one thing that fascinated me most was while humans were sheltered waiting out the temps, avian life came out in the cold in droves.

But I wasn’t the only human that saw this storm as an opportunity. Let’s see…..school’s out…. snow on the ground…..PLAY TIME!!!! Yes I did see some brave people out playing in the snow. 🙂