This is a long one, so get comfy.
Being from the west coast, Arizona specifically, I've had to re-acclimate myself to all kinds of cultural and environmental changes. Its all been a process, some of these changes are a little traumatic while others are unconscious. After living over here for nearly eight years, 4 1/2 in New Jersey and 3 years in Maryland, I find myself more comfortable with our new lives and feel more like an outsider when visiting my childhood home. The last few days reminded me how much I am becoming an Easterner when we suddenly became national news.
Hurricane Sandy was being predicted in all of the weather models to hit landfall right on us on Monday night. Usually in a situation like this, the news makes it seem more dramatic than it really is, and with all the calls from family to check on us, I can reassure them that it is no big deal. But this time I was scared. So when my adventurous brother Michael called, his curious nature had him asking all kinds of questions about what we were experiencing. In response to that, I am writing this post for all those other curious minds that wonder why it was such a big deal to us, especially since we weren’t hardly hit in the end.
Since moving to Maryland, we have now experienced our second hurricane. Before this, we had only heard of other places getting slammed (ie: New Orleans, Florida) and just getting the residual storm. But last year with Hurricane Irene and this year with Hurricane Sandy, we are now experiencing them first hand. We are used to large storms here and it rains a lot. And in the winter, it snows a lot. These storms can cut off power in some neighborhoods or confine us to our homes. We receive regular calls from the county letting us know what to expect and what emergency course of actions we need to take to prepare and where to go for shelter if necessary. But there is a difference from a big storm and the unpredictability and potential devastation of a hurricane. You’ve seen the pictures on T.V. They are real. No matter how much they look like what you see on your digitized movies and T.V. shows, these are real to the people living there.
Last year’s hurricane wasn’t predicted to be as devastating, but a lot of wind and rain still knocks out power. And out here that means sump pumps stop running and houses, schools and businesses flood. Also, the ground is so saturated with water, that these massive trees growing so abundantly around here just topple over. The kids were out of school for a week. Nevertheless, it wasn’t a big deal and we took it in stride.
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| Raining in our backyard surrounded by tall trees |
This time, all of the weather models showed Sandy heading straight up our way and hitting landfall just east of us. The danger in this is that a hurricane is the most powerful over the water, and as she moved north, she gained more speed and power. On top of this, a cold front was set to collide with Sandy right on top of us during a full moon and high tide. Those huge thunderstorms we’ve all seen are usually a result of a warm weather system and a cold weather system colliding as the cold air forces the warm air to make a rapid ascent, which turns into lots of thunder, lightening, and rain. Now take that warm weather system and replace it with a MUCH more powerful hurricane. Those thunderstorms are a sprinkling in comparison. This storm would be referred to as “Frankenstorm”.
So last week sometime, as soon as the models came out, the news came out with warnings and the county started making calls. People out here knows what that means, so within a short amount of time store shelves were emptied of water, flashlights, batteries, generators, and more. They get in shipments as soon as they can, but are sold out again quickly, like an hour.
After making sure we have plenty of the necessities for survival (72-hour kits are commonplace out here), we started making preparations on our home in case we do lose power and the water supply is contaminated. We fill all of our coolers with water—we are told we need a gallon a day per person and need enough for 3-5 days. Some people even fill their bathtubs and washing machines. I then filled gallon ziploc bags with water and filled our freezer so that they can keep the fridge and freezer cold if the power goes out for an extended period of time. Then its time to head down to our basement. We are lucky because our basement is unfinished and just holds storage and a small play area for our kids. But because we don’t have a generator, we have to put everything up off the floor in case it floods. We have two sump pumps that run almost constantly during a any rainstorm, so we will flood if the power goes out and they stop running. We then fill our cars with gas at a gas station you can find open and get some cash from a bank that isn’t out of money. We pull our “Go-Packs” out with a change of clothes, money, important documents, and food. We also pulled out our charcoal, propane stove, flashlights, and candles. And when that's all done, we do the laundry, dishes, and shower while we have hot water.
In church on Sunday, the emergency preparedness specialist wants to make sure we are all prepared for the worst as he is also a firefighter and sees the worst of these storms. He tells us to plan for the worst. Our power will be out for an extended period of time, our homes will flood, the siding will be ripped off our houses, and shingles will fly off our roofs. He warns us to sleep downstairs because falling trees will go directly into those upstairs bedrooms common in colonial homes out here. And he also warns us not to put our generators (if we are lucky enough to have one) in our homes or in our garages or we will die—it happens too often.
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| Our home on Monday afternoon |
And then on Monday morning we wait. We get a call from the county .
“Good Afternoon, this is an emergency message update from Emergency Manager Rick Ayers. I can't stress enough that we are getting ready to experience a very serious weather situation for our county citizens. In the last 6 hours, Hurricane Sandy has strengthened. Harford County is now expected to recieve 9 to 12 inches of rain and hurricane force winds of 70 to 80 miles per hour. The sustained winds starting at 6 PM today will be in the range of 45 to 55 mph. Also, there is a serious threat of inland flooding and I again remind citizens in flood prone areas to self evacuate now. Patterson Mill High School is available as an Emergency Shelter if needed, but please bring personal hygiene items and towels. Also, unless you have to drive I recommend that this afternoon through Tuesday you remain off of the roads... Remember this is a very dangerous storm and please act accordingly. Thanks and be safe.”
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If you look closely, you can see
the rain coming down pretty heavily |
I found a lot of courage in a story my mom told me about a farmer who hired a farmhand claiming that he could sleep when the wind blows:
The little man worked well around the farm, busy from dawn to dusk, and the farmer felt satisfied with the man's work. Then one night the wind howled loudly in from offshore. Jumping out of bed, the farmer grabbed a lantern and rushed next door to the hired hand's sleeping quarters.
He shook the little man and yelled, "Get up! A storm is coming! Tie things down before they blow away!" The little man rolled over in bed and said firmly, "No sir. I told you, I can sleep when the wind blows."
Enraged by the response, the farmer was tempted to fire him on the spot. Instead, he hurried outside to prepare for the storm. To his amazement, he discovered that all of the haystacks had been covered with tarpaulins.
The cows were in the barn, the chickens were in the coops, and the doors were barred. The shutters were tightly secured. Everything was tied down. Nothing could blow away. The farmer then understood what his hired hand meant, so he returned to his bed to also sleep while the wind blew.
After preparing for the past several days, all that is left to do is sit in our homes watching the rain fall steadily and listening to the wind roaring louder and louder as the day progresses. Or if you are my husband, it is the perfect day to clean the bathrooms and move our extra fridge from the garage to the basement because APG (the army post) even closed down Monday & Tuesday, which it only has done a handful of times for the heaviest of snowstorms.
At this point, we are physically exhausted. We get phone call after phone call from family watching the news and stay close to a computer so we can constantly monitor facebook updates and see how our friends are faring. Post after post talks about what we’ve done to prepare, how the lights are flickering, power is going out, sump pumps are going out, and sleepovers with kids downstairs. And in the middle of this a snide jokes about the storm. I understood the jokes, we’ve said a few, but at a time when I was relying on that source of communication to hear of the safety of my friends, I was feeling so fragile.
Here is my response:
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| Hunkering down for the storm |
For those of you elsewhere in the US, be mindful of your posts. Its a scary place to be over here on the east coast, no matter how brave or how much humor we put into our posts. This is how we are communicating with those we love in neighboring towns and states, and how we share that we are still okay. You may think its funny to joke about how certain people over here deserve the destruction of a hurricane, but to those of us who live here in our quiet neighborhoods with our families, we are praying and exercising our faith pretty strongly right now. And we still have HOURS left to go. Now all we can do is hunker down, pray and support one another. We'd really appreciate your combined faith and prayers that our homes and families will be protected--especially after the days and days of preparation its taken to get us to this point.
Most importantly, we found ourselves praying and petitioning others to pray for us. I felt that power every time I found myself on my knees. But even so, I found myself pacing and nervous because any time the power of that storm was going to hit us and we would have no idea how bad the damage and who of my friends was devastated until Tuesday morning after the storm would be completely past us.
By the time I went to bed, around 10:30 or 11pm, the eye was about 60 miles north of us and the winds almost completely died down. The news reports showed the storm hitting landfall further north than projected and I was a little relieved. We were on the ideal side of the storm because with the wind moving counter-clockwise, the water was being pushed back to the ocean instead of flooding us. Even so, the winds picked back up and with gusts up to 79 mph in our area that I actually felt rumbling our house when I was up with our baby in the night. I was expecting the worst.
As most you know, we were pleasantly surprised by morning. Our power never went out, so our house was warm and our basement never flooded. It was still raining pretty heavily, but we still went outside to survey the trees surrounding the homes in our neighborhoods. It looked as if nothing had happened. Other than the leaves stuck to the sides of our house and cars, it looked like any other rainstorm. It was surreal, but I was still nervous because somebody was hit, and I still had a lot of close friends in New Jersey that lived much closer to the water than we do now. Back onto facebook we went searching for updates on our friends . Only one family that I know here in Maryland had a tree fall on their home and another had a tree fall in their yard. Other than that, a lot of families were out of power. The next several hours were spent calling, texting, and facebooking to offer our warm homes, hot showers, empty freezers, and helping hands to cut up trees. Last year was much worse, so we were quick to take up anyone who needed help.
The news showed complete devastation along the entire Jersey Shore, showing places right on the shore (beach) where we lived a short time and where we loved to go after Matt got off work. Remember how I said we were on the ideal side of the storm. Well the New Jersey shore was on the wrong side. With the eye of the storm passing between us and them, that same counter-clockwise wind pushed that storm surge straight up the shore wiping out boardwalks and transplanting houses so close to where we used to live. Power is out, phones and internet don’t work, and cell phones have sketchy service. Texts were our best bet and we heard form our closest friends that they were safe, although without power. You’ve heard most of the rest on the news. As far as I know, everyone we know is okay, although I have yet to hear of anyone with power. The projection is that they won’t have power for another week or two at the soonest. It is cold and soggy, they are confined to their homes to a certain extent because of downed trees, there is little technological distractions (tv, computer), and they are charging cell phones in their cars for when they actually get service.
For the first time, I understand how news stations can totally obsess on one devastation and stay focused on it for days on end. When it hits you personally and you see places you love so destroyed, you keep watching in case they show another place you know or a person you love. Its actually difficult for me to watch other notable news stories (ie: elections) when I am SO lucky and blessed to come out unscathed. I can’t describe the powerful protecting power from so much faith—and the tangible hand I felt cradling my family that night. We were told by so many friends and relatives that we were in their prayers and our names were put in a few temple prayer rolls. We felt that protection and peace and its hard to go back to life as normal.
I don’t know if we’ll ever have to face this again, but we’ve already talked about what preparation we need to do. We need to buy a generator so we don’t have to scramble putting everything in the basement up and then down again after the storm. We need to buy extra propane in case we need an alternate cooking source for several days.
But for now, I have a lot of water to dump.
Aren’t they so cute!! Not quite as dolled up as they were for the trunk-or-treat at church, but they sure had fun!
