Dean on sun 21 sep 08
Aloha David & everyone: I have watched the devastation in Texas with a personal understanding of the experience of a major hurricane. David, I have enjoyed your ClayArt posts and admired your work for years, your plight has prompted me to share my hurricane experience. Here on Kauai we found that sharing our hurricane stories was a vital part of our healing journey. Giving and receiving support was a source of strength to us all. I hope you may find some help or at least entertainment in my tale.
My condolences for your losses and the hassles you are facing in the coming months. I give thanks that you and your family are safe and sound. Be damn careful with that tree. Strange things happen in the aftermath, it's like the whole world has come unglued and things don't always work the way they should.
In 1992 hurricane Iniki rolled over Kauai. The eye of storm went directly over me & my wife Malone, our house and my studio. We have the dubious honor of having been inside the eye of one of the biggest storms ever recorded. Iniki was a category 5 storm with winds that broke a wind gauge here that was pegged at 240 mph. Tornadoes circle around the eye of a big hurricane. Their concentrated winds were too strong to measure. There is no way to communicate the terror that such a storm brings. I talked to Viet Nam combat veterans who said it was far worse than their war experiences. It clarifies your priorities. The life and safety of your loved ones were my primary concern during and after the storm.
Miraculously only a few people were killed, amazing considering the power and destruction and the many close calls as homes disintegrated and debris flew through the air at 100+ mph. One friend of mine was critically injured when flying glass pierced his lung but he lived and is well today. Iniki was one of the old gods, the primal forces that were here before man. It was a conscious being whose intent was to rework our lives here but not to harm us. We felt it's spirit even as we huddled in fear. So many of us had to restart our lives after that. I saw people leave all kinds of old, stuck, unhappy situations behind and rebuild their lives in greater happiness.
I was pretty bummed that my pottery business got shut down by the storm, it had been going really well. A few days before I had gotten very anxious to get a firing finished in my 24' West Coast kiln. I didn't have any pressing deadlines. In retrospect I see that I must have known on some level that Iniki was coming. The weather service didn't warn us till 5:00 am Friday, the day of the hurricane. We had 6 hours till the winds went over 100 mph and you had to crawl to move around outside. Evacuation wasn't an option in so short a time. Not enough planes. I pushed my creative river a bit and got my kiln firing late Thursday ignorant of the coming catastrophe. The firing ran late, I didn't get cone 10 solidly down and the kiln soaked and shut down till 3:00 am. I was a little bleary when the air raid sirens woke us at 5:00.
We made a few futile preparations and around 11:00 we tucked into our neighbor's bathroom with friends and a couple of pets. My kiln was around 1500 degrees when I left it to weather the storm. We spent the next 6 hours in total terror. Our house was destroyed, thankfully we weren't in it. Only two wall were still standing. Our bathroom refuge twisted, the wall bent, the floor lifted under us as nails were pulled out. 4x8 beams flew through the air and slammed into the wall we leaned against like artillery shells. The house held together but just barely. My studio was in a carport and since the wind could blow through, it survived, quite a mess though. My kiln stood, the kiln shed was gone. We opened the kiln the next day and unloaded pots in between sifting through the wreckage of our house looking for things we could save. A unique transformational moment of birth and destruction. We literally had to sweep aside pieces of our house to make room
for the new pots.
I can hear all the potters asking "So how did the firing go?" It was a good one, no disasters, all pieces more or less as expected. I've always wondered if cooling the kiln in the 945 millibar low pressure in the eye of Iniki did anything special to that batch of pots. I hope not, I could never duplicate it. One interesting thing happened. I glazed quite a few pieces with a dark turquoise glaze with a trailed white overglaze. I was fixated on that design but attached no meaning to it. I did the decorating a week before the firing, way before I heard the name Iniki. When I looked at those pots after they were done they looked like I had made a pattern of white droplets of rain falling at an angle (in the wind) with "Iniki" written in a loose script through the middle. Art connects you with the cosmos in the most mysterious ways sometimes. That firing was very healing and helped us through the next couple of years of recovery. It was the last firing
I did for about 18 months. I did sell most of those pieces in a "yard sale" to other survivors. I think the magic of those pots offered hope for the future to all of us who had endured the hurricane.
I still have a couple of those "Iniki" pots, permanent reminders of the journey we made through disaster to a great new life.
Blessings,
Dean
Elizabeth Priddy on mon 22 sep 08
where you are, a generator is a strange thing to own.
=A0
here on the coast where even a little storm blows your power, maybe.
=A0
We don't have one and we do fine.=A0 Lots of candles, hurricane lanterns an=
d
good sense to not open the freezer til it comes back on.
=A0
For a week, I would eat up everthing in the freezer as it thawed.
We have a gas stove, speicifically for that reason.
=A0
This storm was a complete fluke to hit you where you live.
=A0
I would just borrow a generator if it happens again and leave it off.
=A0
Glad you didn't get hurt in the clean up.
=A0
=A0
E
Elizabeth Priddy
Beaufort, NC - USA
Workshops and pottery online at:
http://www.elizabethpriddy.com
Natural Instincts Conference Information:
http://downtothepottershouse.com/NaturalInstincts.html
Kiln pictures and such:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7973282@N03/
--- On Mon, 9/22/08, David Hendley wrote:
From: David Hendley
Subject: Re: Life after Ike/The Iniki firing
To: CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG
Date: Monday, September 22, 2008, 12:11 PM
Scary story Dean!
My little brush with Hurricane Ike was, of course,
nothing compared to going through a major hurricane
on the coast or on an island. I just never realized I
could be so affected by a hurricane 300 miles from
the coast, and so amazed at the wallop it still packed.
I had loaded my kiln at the first of the week. Unless
there is a looming deadline, I often load the kiln and
wait until a good day to fire.
A wood kiln is not like a gas kiln. I want to wait for
a good day to fire, meaning I want to have someone
available to spot me for a few breaks, and I try not
to fire on those extra hot Texas days.
So, I was concerned about what might happen to the
kiln during the storm. I could picture the wind blowing
over the chimney or blowing away the kiln shed or
blowing through the kiln and messing up the stack.
I decided that if we made it through okay, I would fire
the next day, which is what I did.
It was a good decision, as it focused my attention on
something besides storm damage and made for a more
normal day.
The firing turned out good - average but not spectacular.
There is still the debris of branches and leaves blanketing
the yard. I have all the uprooted trees removed, except
for that one hanging towards the house.
There are dozens around my 70 acres of woods that
will simply be left to decompose. I already have a
several-years supply of fire wood, so am not too
motivated to cut and split more.
We were without power for 5 days.
Many of the larger towns in the area had no water or
had to issue "boil water" notices.
I am proud that we had water the whole time, as one
of the accomplishments during my 18 years on the
water board was the installation of propane-powered
generators. Life without water is in many ways worse
than life without electricity.
I had never used an emergency generator until a
friend brought me one last week. I have to say I am
not convinced it is a worthwhile investment. It cost
about $20 a day to keep the freezer and refrigerator
and a few lights going. That would buy a lot of ice -
you have to buy either gasoline or ice every day.
Even if a couple of hundred dollars worth of frozen
food is lost, that is not much compared to the $1000+
cost of the generator. Add to that the hassle of
storing and maintaining an engine that needs to be
run a couple of times every year, and it just doesn't
seem worth it to me.
Care to convince me otherwise? Am I overlooking
something?
David Hendley
Maydelle, Texas
david(at)farmpots(dot)com
http://www.farmpots.com
----- Original Message -----
> Aloha David & everyone: I have watched the devastation in Texas with a
> personal understanding of the experience of a major hurricane. David, I
> have enjoyed your ClayArt posts and admired your work for years, your
> plight has prompted me to share my hurricane experience. Here on Kauai we
> found that sharing our hurricane stories was a vital part of our healing
> journey. Giving and receiving support was a source of strength to us all.
> I hope you may find some help or at least entertainment in my tale.
>
=0A=0A=0A
David Hendley on mon 22 sep 08
Scary story Dean!
My little brush with Hurricane Ike was, of course,
nothing compared to going through a major hurricane
on the coast or on an island. I just never realized I
could be so affected by a hurricane 300 miles from
the coast, and so amazed at the wallop it still packed.
I had loaded my kiln at the first of the week. Unless
there is a looming deadline, I often load the kiln and
wait until a good day to fire.
A wood kiln is not like a gas kiln. I want to wait for
a good day to fire, meaning I want to have someone
available to spot me for a few breaks, and I try not
to fire on those extra hot Texas days.
So, I was concerned about what might happen to the
kiln during the storm. I could picture the wind blowing
over the chimney or blowing away the kiln shed or
blowing through the kiln and messing up the stack.
I decided that if we made it through okay, I would fire
the next day, which is what I did.
It was a good decision, as it focused my attention on
something besides storm damage and made for a more
normal day.
The firing turned out good - average but not spectacular.
There is still the debris of branches and leaves blanketing
the yard. I have all the uprooted trees removed, except
for that one hanging towards the house.
There are dozens around my 70 acres of woods that
will simply be left to decompose. I already have a
several-years supply of fire wood, so am not too
motivated to cut and split more.
We were without power for 5 days.
Many of the larger towns in the area had no water or
had to issue "boil water" notices.
I am proud that we had water the whole time, as one
of the accomplishments during my 18 years on the
water board was the installation of propane-powered
generators. Life without water is in many ways worse
than life without electricity.
I had never used an emergency generator until a
friend brought me one last week. I have to say I am
not convinced it is a worthwhile investment. It cost
about $20 a day to keep the freezer and refrigerator
and a few lights going. That would buy a lot of ice -
you have to buy either gasoline or ice every day.
Even if a couple of hundred dollars worth of frozen
food is lost, that is not much compared to the $1000+
cost of the generator. Add to that the hassle of
storing and maintaining an engine that needs to be
run a couple of times every year, and it just doesn't
seem worth it to me.
Care to convince me otherwise? Am I overlooking
something?
David Hendley
Maydelle, Texas
david(at)farmpots(dot)com
http://www.farmpots.com
----- Original Message -----
> Aloha David & everyone: I have watched the devastation in Texas with a
> personal understanding of the experience of a major hurricane. David, I
> have enjoyed your ClayArt posts and admired your work for years, your
> plight has prompted me to share my hurricane experience. Here on Kauai we
> found that sharing our hurricane stories was a vital part of our healing
> journey. Giving and receiving support was a source of strength to us all.
> I hope you may find some help or at least entertainment in my tale.
>
KATHI LESUEUR on mon 22 sep 08
On Sep 22, 2008, at 12:11 PM, David Hendley wrote:
>
>
> Even if a couple of hundred dollars worth of frozen
> food is lost, that is not much compared to the $1000+
> cost of the generator. Add to that the hassle of
> storing and maintaining an engine that needs to be
> run a couple of times every year, and it just doesn't
> seem worth it to me.
>
I've owned a Honda 1500 watt generator for twenty years. It cost me
about $500. I've used it at least once every year. Several years ago,
when the grid went down in the mid-west, that generator was a life
saver. We were without power for a week. I'd run my freezer with it
for several hours. Then run my wheel and lights so I could keep
working. I fired my gas kilns, with it's forced air burners, twice
during that time. I was able to keep working. During power
interruptions that weren't that long I, also, helped out my neighbors
on either side, running their refrigerators for several hours each.
Saved my food and that of two others. If I was setting it up now,
I'd have a natural gas powered generator so that I didn't have to
worry about storing gas.
Kathi
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