I was debating between a Halloween post and a hurricane post... this seems more on topic.
Just before I started this blog over a year ago, we were hit with a big ole hurricane. To be honest, it wasn't that bad. We were without power for eight days, which was devastating to our food supply, but otherwise weathered the storm okay. One nice thing about tropical weather- it tends to bring tropical temperatures. Billy was fine, we camped in the den with all of our camping gear, minus the tent and ordered a lot of take out.
One lesson learned from Irene (last year's storm)- don't put food down the disposal when the power is out. Ahem, someone I live with that also washes dishes. Washing your dishes in the bathtub because the sink is backes up is NOT FUN.
But Irene wasn't a terrible storm. Not like Isabel in 2003. That was a terrible storm. Trees down everywhere, no power, storm surge. Where I work the streets were flooded so that the only way to get to our office was by boat. And I wasn't at the family farm for that storm, but there was a lot of damage, cars ruined, houses flooded, boats damaged. It was bad.
Then there was Floyd that flooded out my college campus so that I had to wade through two feet of water to get to the dining hall just so I could eat.
How can I forget Ida? I was on a ship in the middle of the storm. You'd expect boats to rock, but during the storm on twenty foot seas the boat moved up and down, front and back, and side to side in no particular rhythm. We could feel the wind push on the rigging, nearly flattening the 300+ foot ship. In our bunks the boat rocked so far side to side that at one moment we would be lying in bed, the next stand straight up on the foot board, the next doing a hand-stand on the head board. I talked a good friend of mine into going with me. It was an experience, but I'm not sure if she regrets agreeing to sail headlong into a hurricane. But, if you have to be on a boat in a hurricane, who better to be with than the Norwegian Navy?
And I could tell many stories about being at the beach with a storm coming up the coast. When the winds started the sand would blow so hard it would sting your skin like a thousand tiny knives. We would put the storm shutters down, so we couldn't see what was going on outside, only listen to the pounding of rain, howling of wind, and the surf getting closer and closer. One storm ripped the beach away. I remember standing at the ocean's edge, which the day before had been 100 ft further out. Some storms left pools of water trapped on the beach full of fish. One time one of those pools had a shark in it. That was cool, except that in hindsight, that shark probably died. And often the storms would flood out the basement of the neighboring hotel, and we would play in the "pool" created by it.
What will Sandy do?
If we're lucky she'll give us a sound lashing and then head on her way. I don't look forward to the debris, the water, the destruction. If we're lucky she'll leave that part off.
We've prepped, we've prepared. I've told Billy about the big storm. He doesn't care. I'm not sure what I'll do with him if we're trapped inside for several days. He's not an inside all day kind of kid.
All I can say is, go away Sandy. You're not welcome here.
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