Pandemic Motherhood Diary, Entry 34: Fleeing Beryl

Another road trip was not in our immediate plans. But there we were, driving to Austin, TX, after 10 p.m. on July 8, following the chaos of Hurricane Beryl. After enduring a day without power and driving hours for hot food, we decided it was best to leave despite the looming worries of COVID-19.

There has been an uptick in COVID-19 cases, with reports of increased ER visits and deaths. The CDC has also tracked several variants, including KP.2 and FLiRT. My family and I dealt with our second bout of the virus on a family road trip to Dallas during spring break. I can’t help but think about the conclusion of that trip and bringing the virus back home with us. The further we travel, and the more we do, the more I know that the possibility of being exposed again increases.

However, the thought had to take a backseat to the hurricane’s aftermath. We are Houstonians, so we took precautions and prepared for the storm. We shopped for groceries, stocked up on water, filled our cars with gas, and kept LED lights ready for the possibility of loss of power. Still, naivety took over. Because it was a category 1 storm, we didn’t anticipate going days without power. Newsflash; this is Texas. Secondly, we didn’t expect the heat to be in the three digits for the whole week. With that in mind, we had to make a swift decision. Battery-operated neck fans and cracked windows were not a real option.

We drove back into our dark neighborhood, with only our phone lights and barely moonlit streets. We gathered what we needed swiftly and prepared for a late two-plus-hour drive where we knew our kids would have everything they needed.

We stayed in a hotel for three nights and three days and made the best of it as safely as possible. To our kids, it was just a vacation. We even took them to the museum and other kid-friendly spaces to enjoy their time away from home. The circumstances weren’t favorable, but we did enjoy ourselves.

We returned home Thursday afternoon. Like everyone else, we had to throw away bags of food and deal with the unraveling of the hurricane chaos. Hitting reset on normalcy is our least favorite part. We were able to actually rest while we were away, so that was a plus. We even ran into several families from Houston who were also avoiding the power outages.

Since the storm, every time it rains, my oldest toddler has asked me, “Mommy, is the power going to go out?” The event is now etched in his memory as a concern whenever it rains. It brings me comfort that he follows it up with the certainty that we’ll just find another hotel to go to if that happens. Although we have no desire to keep paying for hotel stays, I’m glad my son knows that mom and dad will make sure they are okay no matter the circumstances. They know we will figure it out despite our fears of the virus.

Melissa Menny is an author with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism. She is a poet and a writer in all aspects. When she is not working, she enjoys painting, music, and spending time with her husband and two sons.

This is the most recent in a series of essays about raising young children in the COVID era. Read entry 33 here.