And I survived Hurricane Sandy!

[wraithfodder]

Although somewhere along the way, it got named "Superstorm" Sandy. Tough to tell when, as I had no power for six days. The storm came in on Monday and we lost power probably just about the time I was standing the garage, watching the row of 50-60' tall white plines (hate white pines, hate 'em) wavering back and forth violently and hoping they would NOT fall and hit the house, the car or me. Then the wind died down. Phew. An enormous gust roared in and KER-RACK! the huge pine at the end of the driveway snapped in half, and oh yeah, there went power. Luckily, the next day a neighbor came by and wondered if I need help and came back with chainsaw and cut out a portion so I could get car out. I did manage to get to work on Wednesday, drawn more by power and heat than the desire to work ;) Everything was covered in pine needles, the car, the house, the gutters, the entire yard. I still have to clean up the front yard.


Yes, VIrginia, there is a driveway underneath the wreakage...


Freedom!


But, we got a nifty blue sky out of it.

So, no power, no heat (that was the worst), no internet as a big tree in neighbor's yard uprooted and took out all the power/cable lines. LOTS of trees uprooted. Fortunately for all the falling trees, no one's house nearby got nailed, but there's a ton of useless wood (pine isn't good for much) in big piles in yards.  But we had water, our Y2K candles (they will outlive us, I'm sure), pizzza and I kept the cat warm by going to work and microwaving his Snuggle Safe pad each day so he'd be warm at night.

Comments

[black-raven135.livejournal.com]

Oh my word..........
I just heard today that there are still thousands without power
in the NJ and NY area........
Now two weeks later.......

I remember when the freak storm hit Oregon on Columbus Day
the power in some areas was out for ((((((weeks))))))
The coast sustained 176mph winds and here in Portland it was clocked at 127mph.......
It was a remnant of Typhoon Freda which suddenly blew in from the South Pacific

[wraithfodder.livejournal.com]

Yeah, there are folks in the tri-state area without power, thousands of 'em. Some had their homes literally taken out by the storm sturge, then there were over a hundred homes burned down in Rockaways by fire while they were chest deep in water. While the tree damage in our yard is extensive, I'm very thankful we didn't suffer house damage. I can't image no power in 20-30 degree temps!

[black-raven135.livejournal.com]

They did a story not too long ago about Staten Island homes that were
pulled up from their foundations and floated into a marsh some
500 yards away
It was unreal
One of the homes was owned by a returning Afghanistan soldier and his wife.........we went with them in a boat out to where their house was now located
He managed to find a briefcase above water line which contained
all his documents
He jokingly said "insurance papers to find out what they are NOT
going to cover"
There were about five houses total out in that marsh like
somebody had picked them up and carried them out there.

[wraithfodder.livejournal.com]

I hadn't heard that one. Eegads!

[black-raven135.livejournal.com]

It looked eerie......sitting out there in the marsh
which looked like cat tails foliage etc.
I mean the camera man was in the boat with the man and his wife

[jya-bd-cp-ttgb.livejournal.com]

Glad you're okay!! And pine is good for chopping up and making either mulch or cat litter out of, can't remember which.

[wraithfodder.livejournal.com]

Hmm, cat litter....I've got a cat...

[jya-bd-cp-ttgb.livejournal.com]

You could probably find a 'recipe' on the net somewhere *gestures* but I think it's chop until just about dust, dry out the sap and use.

[wraithfodder.livejournal.com]

well, a 60 foot pine, should yield something, I hope ;)

[jya-bd-cp-ttgb.livejournal.com]

Oy vey. Happy hunting...and if you grab an axe, it'll take out a lot of frustrations.....

[wraithfodder.livejournal.com]

heh, I could be out there for a year chopping all that wood! ;)

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

Glad to know you're okay :D

You know, I love trees, but when you live where you can get high winds, tornadoes or massive hurricanes then they're scary as all get out.

[wraithfodder.livejournal.com]

Trees are nice, as long as they aren't tall enough to fall on house, car, me(!) or power lines. Alas, where I live, they are everywhere, but they do house the cute squirrels, so...

[adafrog.livejournal.com]

Wow. Glad you're okay.

[wraithfodder.livejournal.com]

Thx!

[libra-traveller.livejournal.com]

Glad to here you're are doing okay. That sure sounds like a lot to deal with.

[wraithfodder.livejournal.com]

I can deal without power for a while (happens all too often, alas), but don't like no heat (thank god I have a sleeping bag) and well, the trees are now the biggest headache. I hate to think of the cost, which is probably $1K+.Sigh.

[timespirt.livejournal.com]

Glad you survived.

We lost power that Monday at 3:30 PM when the telephone pole in the front corner of our yard broke in half; took the power out all the way to our small town and Fire Dept. Power was back up Friday night but was on and off until 2 days after the Nor’easter. It was definitely cold and keeping the parrots warm was really hard. People worse off through out the Island though.

My vet said there were sand sharks swimming around the streets of one of our downtown seaport towns.

[wraithfodder.livejournal.com]

Yeah, there was yo-yo power for a while in some areas as they'd connect power, then turn it off so they could reconnect another section.

Sand sharks? I saw the photoshopped sharks in the subways in NYC... but if you've got an eyewitness. At least they were crocodiles. That happens in Australia.

[timespirt.livejournal.com]

The sand shark thing was told to me by my vet so I believe what he said. If someone else said it...not so much.

[wraithfodder.livejournal.com]

The idea is so cool and would have been great to see.

The folks who photoshopped the shark in the subways did a good job, but as usual with the internet, someone took the picture, posted it as real and people were OMG, *panic! ;) Think they should panic more over the fare hikes...

If we ever got sharks in our backyard, well, then, end of the world time considering distance from shore... oh man, Trader Joe's would be underwater then. *sniff*

[timespirt.livejournal.com]

Bahahahahahahaha. True, the fair hikes should be more scary.

Oh no, Trader Joe's under water. I would have to take a boat for the rice milk I get. Hope I never see that day.

[fififolle]

I'm so glad to hear you made it through the other side safe! Very scary. And yay for helpful neighbours with chainsaws :)

[wraithfodder.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know the chainsaw I'd like to get... Stihl 026. Very nice and cuts up evil pine trees pretty good.

[fififolle]

Ooh, sweet :D My original character works in forestry, LOL. He'd love one of them to go with his Husqvarna 390 *snort*

[wraithfodder.livejournal.com]

Ooh, if only...

[fififolle]

Hee!

[lost-sheep-2.livejournal.com]

So glad you`re okay :)

[wraithfodder.livejournal.com]

Thanks :)

[immertreu.livejournal.com]

Glad you're okay!!

[wraithfodder.livejournal.com]

me too :)

[dejla.livejournal.com]

Truthfully, chainsaws scare the heck out of me. Considering how clumsy I am at the best of times, I can only see disaster as the result of me+chainsaw.

I am glad it wasn't worse up your way.

I really feel guilty that all the difficulty I had was in trying to get into the city without the Battery Tunnel.

[wraithfodder.livejournal.com]

Well, I wouldn't use it. I'd make my brother use it! ;) My wrists couldn't take the vibration. Tried it once. Yeah, glad things weren't as bad as they could have been. Did you lose power?

[dejla.livejournal.com]

No, we didn't. I feel rather guilty about that - there are so many people out there who lost everything and all I had to worry about was trying to get to work!

[cimmerdeux.livejournal.com]

Hurray!Six days isn't 'too' bad considering how long you were without power last time and no houses or cars or people were harmed in the near vicinity.

[wraithfodder.livejournal.com]

Once you hit 7 days you start getting grumpy over lack of heat ;) Fortunately we had only 6 days this time. Some folks in town were at 11 days before their raods got fixed!

[flingslass.livejournal.com]

Oh wow, I forgot that you were nearby! I'm so glad that you survived. We were following that one BIG time (The New York Marathon was cancelled and we had runners over there. Proud to say they didn't complain, just pitched in and helped out :)
And yes, I know this is a bit late in the reading but I'm going through my backlog (and I now have the ljapp so I can keep up :))

[wraithfodder.livejournal.com]

The sad thing is that the tree and branches are still on the lawn. Gah, must break open savings and suck out cash to get rid of it... Darn.

[flingslass.livejournal.com]

or "must find something less interesting to distract me" :)