Surviving Sandy

(Credit: NASA GOES Project)

Sandy needs no introduction. The media has been saturated with coverage of the Atlantic’s largest tropical storm on record. She rose up from the Caribbean, then blasted her way onto land at the mid-Atlantic coast, closing down virtually the entire Eastern Seaboard, causing death and destruction along the way. That said, we survived with some disruption of our lives, but I think we got off relatively easy.

A few days before Sandy was expected to arrive, we made some minor preparations. Brad applied insulation to some potential leaky spots in our house’s foundation. He also moved everything from our deck and put it in the basement. We stocked up on ice so we could help preserve our refrigerated food in case of a power outage. I made sure we were well stocked with non-perishable food. Not being sure how power outages would affect early voting in Maryland, on Sunday I stood in line two and a half hours to vote. (We will be in Barack Obama’s hometown on election day.) I made sure my laptop and iPad were fully charged.

Birthday Sauce

Yesterday morning I began the day off by putting a pot of tomato sauce, meatballs and sausage on the stove. It was Brad’s birthday, you see, and that is the meal I traditionally make for him every year on his birthday. I started extra early, hoping to get the meal cooked before any power outages might occur.

That afternoon, We heard on the local news about a house two blocks from us that was split in two by a fallen tree. It wasn’t until the evening, however, after we had finished our meal (it was yum!) and cleaned the dishes, that we felt the brunt of the storm. Windows rattled, the wind screeched, and trees swayed ominously. Brad discovered water in parts the basement from a mysterious source and not the area he had insulated earlier. There was not a lot of water but Brad spent some time moving boxes and wooden items out of harm’s way, mopping up some of the water, and guiding the rest towards the basement drain. We moved the litter pans from the basement to the second floor bathroom.

Brad was working on his blog as I settled down to watch the new Upstairs|Downstairs on PBS, trying to comfort the kitties who were totally freaked by the scary noises outside. Then we lost power.

Well, it certainly didn’t come as a surprise. The surprise for me was that, even though I’d charged up my laptop and iPad, I still couldn’t get online because the cable modem was down. (Doh!) And my cell phone battery was almost dead because I’d forgotten to recharge it. (Doh!)

My brother-in-law, who lives nearby, still had power so we gathered all the items from our freezer, hauled them over to his place and put them in his freezer. (Irony: My brother-in-law recently purchased a whole-house generator. Of course, he didn’t lose power. Only those of us without a generator did!) We used the ice to help preserve the other items in the fridge. We lit candles and played scopa, an Italian card game until it was time for bed. The house was cold but were comfy under a pile of blankets. And both kitties crawled under the covers with us—I guess they were cold (and scared), too! It took me a while to fall asleep as I worried about the tall trees near our house, swaying about at Sandy’s whim.

I tossed and turned much of the night. In the morning I kept peering at our radio alarm clock, hoping to see the digital numbers flashing as a sign the power had come back on. No such luck. We arose about 9 a.m. this morning and, lucky us!!, the power came back on a half hour later. Inspection of the basement revealed most of the water had dried up overnight.

So, 13 hours without power—most of it overnight—and a little bit of water in the basement made us feel pretty darn fortunate. Our hearts go out to those who suffered worse than us during this historic storm.