In the latter part of this Summer, our area braced for what could have been one of the most devastating storms in a century–Hurricane Irene. And although Irene did wreak havoc throughout much of the State…our little area seemed to be spared. We were very thankful.
But, I didn’t mess around when it came to that storm. I did what I do. I prepared.
Preparing to me is easy. I prepare for most things in my life. I prepare my change of seasons, for gardening, for kids, for my husband, for my business, for my home. I am always thinking ahead and focusing on the what’s next. I make a plan and I do it. My husband made fun of me for the better part of the month following the Hurricane. Some things for obvious reasons (I bought those coal mining head lamps from REI and they were not cheap), we returned them after the storm. But some I got a little pissy about…because in my mind those things were necessary.
One of the things we HAD prepared for was a generator. If we lost power, what would we do? We assume we would just pack and go somewhere. But what if we couldn’t? Well, let’s see…we wouldn’t have to worry about heat, it’s Summer. But how do you keep the food safe and cold, how do you keep the basement from flooding? Answer: you need some sort of alternative power source. We opted for a generator. Unfortunately the only generator we could find was a bit pricey but because we didn’t lose power, we decided to return it. Getting another one has been in on the list for some time, but life just gets busy.
This is where the curve ball comes in. We ran into something we were NOT prepared for.
It never fails that Halloween weekend seems to drop 10 degrees. But this Halloween weekend not only called for cold but for Snow. Snow? Yep, October Snow.
But when I tell you that NO ONE payed any attention to this little storm warning. No one.
In fact on Tuesday before the storm I considered opening up the weekend for photography sessions. I had previously closed it off because it was my favorite Holiday, and I wanted to share it with the kids, not to mention catch up on editing. I am so busy right now that I did give a 2nd thought about opening up the weekend for new sessions but after Tuesday’s weather report for that weekend….nope not for me. –wintry mix. Snow and rain.
Bummer on the shoots.
But yay, to having a weekend to catch up and spend time with family!
Perfectly planned.
Well, that’s where life is a biatch. Because plans changed. And they changed fast. People around here witnessed something no one has ever, ever seen. Snow in October PLUS the huge problem of trees full of leaves and above ground power lines.
This is how our week of the storm unfolded.
Warning, picture overload. We are a bit obsessed.
Let me just preface with this— that at no point did any of us feel in danger with this storm. Although there were serious dangers going on around our town, we never felt like we were directly threatened. I don’t want anyone to mistake my obsession with complete paranoia. 😉
Friday, October 27th 2011.
Perfectly, perfect, perfect Fall weather.
We were trying on our Halloween costumes and getting ready for Halloween day on Monday.
Saturday, October 28th 2011.
We had dance that am with the girls and there seemed to be some talk about weather.
At that time it was so light and there was no sticking. Heh. Nothing to worry about. Stupid wintry mix.
Not for long. Just over an hour later, we were blanketed with beautiful October Snow. It really was a sight and the kids LOVED it.
My husband decided to take the kids outside to play. I decided to work.
Not long later, he called…he was taking kids to the Mall. And strangely he said, he got a little nervous because a couple of trees snapped.
Okay. Whatever. Have fun.
Mmmmm….not so much.
I was sitting at the computer, working away at edits when I hear a snap. Crash. Snap, snap, crash.
WTF? Seriously. WTF was that? And most people know, I am a paranoid freak.
I head outside and check out the surroundings. Nothing. I don’t see anything.
Back to computer.
Something along the lines of the sound of metal tearing away from something. Boom. Crash.
WTF?
I go outside into the backyard. I walk out and…snap, crackle, pop. Neighbors trees crash on his front lawn.
Holy crap.
I run inside I call my husband to find out where the video camera is. I need to get this on camera.
Kinda crazy.
I go out into the street. Video camera-less but take my camera. I am such a mess at this point. My cameras are scattered. Low batteries. Memory cards scattered. Video cameras all off the charge. Blackberry sucks. Husband has best video camera left and he is not home. Seriously, we have a dozen different possible ways of recording things and I “GOT” nothing.
I quickly decide to bust out the Canon 5D Mark II handbook and figure out how to get that thing to video.
By the time I get outside, my neighbor is now walking down the street—we both are literally bewildered at what was happening.
The trees were falling. Like everywhere. Falling.
And the sound of metal pulling….transformers were blowing. Power was snapping.
Sirens. Tatatatattatatatatatattatat. Pops. Snaps. Crashes.
Holy shit.
I call the hubby to tell him what’s happening and to get home now. He agrees and jumps in car to bring two (now not very happy) kids home.
On his short ride home, he encountered a full tree in the road, downed power lines that our truck could barely clear, and no traffic lights.
Ummm…what?
Bring my babies home now.
After they arrived home, we pretty much spent the rest of the day in total awe of what was happening outside with the snow and the trees.
NOW we payed attention. NOW we went online to see reports—giant RED snow alert, crazy weather warning for our area. We documented the whole day. On video, in photos, on FB. We were obsessed.
Our power flickered on and off and we saw many, many FB updates about local friends….losing power. What? It’s snowing, it’s just above freezing temps outside. Yikes!
10pm–power goes.
We decide to stay in the house that night. We brought out all of our flashlights and emergency power supplies. We put a few more blankets on our sleeping babies and we called it a night.
Next morning, house is FREEZING. We still have no power.
Time to head to the in-laws.
We were fortunate that our neighbors still had power. We decide that unless we can get a generator (which after seeing the outside we know is not possible), then we need to figure out another way to preserve the life of the fridge.
We decide to run some extension cords from the house to the neighbors backyard. Fridge secure. Freezer secure. Sump pumps secured.
We head to my in-laws and this was what we saw on our short drive.
Sunday, October 29th 2011.
We spent the next 3 nights living at my in-laws house. We are so grateful and thankful that we had somewhere to go. They were really kind to put up with us.
Most of the town (95%) had lost power. And surrounding towns had the same issues. Streets were blocked, traffic lights were out, downed trees and power lines were EVERYWHERE.
Everyone had a friend or 2 in their house. Every single person we knew was in 1 or 2 boats.
Housing friends/family without power.
or
Being housed by friends/family with power.
We even heard of families moving into hotels.
School was canceled for 3 days.
On day 2 of our stay with the in-laws…their power went out. 24 hours. Not bad.
They had no other way to power their fridge/freezer. We threw food into the snow and we took over remaining food to stuff into our fridges.
We ate dinner by candlelight and we were all in bed early. Their house was still retaining heat better than ours…which on most days was barely in the 40’s.
Week of Monday, October 29th through Saturday, November 5th.
Around town.
I ended up finding those headlight lamps again. At a yard sale. A buck a piece. SCORE. They were perfect, not to mention a hit for everyone. I wish I had photographed my MIL doing dishes with them in the dark.
Sunday, November 6th 2011–1 week Later.
This was in front of our house and on our street.
Bye, bye trees.
Thursday, November 17th 2011
Now, almost 4 weeks after the storm…….
The tree graveyard.
A good 20 to 30 feet tall at areas and this parking lot is about 60-100 yards long.
WTH? And there are still trees left to be picked up.
It really was/is all crazy.
I didn’t share this post on FB. I figured my FB peeps were tired of hearing about all of this. My insecurity with FB is a post for another day.
Whatever though. If you were here. You would know. No one, no one has ever seen anything like it.
Nature’s way of trimming the trees, I guess.