Okay, so he was supposed to head overseas the day before IKE made land fall. The key word in the last sentence is SUPPPOSED. We had already heard that some flights were being cancelled, and that the airport was planning to be shut down before IKE made landfall. So what happened?
He drove us all up to the Bush airport, and we dropped him off at international departure. We drove ALL THE WAY HOME. My dad calls all the way from Seattle, asking how we're doing, aware that I will be facing this storm alone. While we're on the phone talking, and I'm also feeding myself and my two little ones, I hear a beep on the phone. It's an incoming call. My dad lets me go, and I pick up on the other call coming in.
"Hello, honey. You won't believe this." (I won't direcly quote him, because I don't remember exactly what he said, and I'm not sure I can actually quote exactly what he said without offending some one).
It turned out that his flight was NOT cancelled. So what was the problem? He should have been able to fly out, right? His flight was confirmed. He wasn't supposed to be on stand by. Here's the issue. Gustav had made landfall in Louisiana less than a week before, so communication between computers responsible for booking his flight and paying for it was down. His flight was booked, but it wasn't paid for. The computer that was supposed to be handled in PAYING for his flight was affected by Hurricane Gustav. So his flight was never paid for. Not only that, but he couldn't reach anyone that could pay for the flight. He wasn't about to pay for it himself. We're talking about a flight ticket that would have been well over $1,000, and even $2,000. The personnel also seemed more intersted in getting someone else on the plane, so they wouldn't have to hear from one more person trying to get on a flight that might have to wait a week or two otherwise.
So, shortly after I and our two little ones finished eating a quick lunchmeat sandwhich, we were headed back out the door, back to Bush Airport. Ealier, that whole day, we went to WalMart and grabbed what we could in water and canned food. He taped up windows, and made the comment that if he had more time he would have bought some plywood to board up our windows - - just in case something happened to crash into it during the heavy winds...