Hurricane Sandy, October-November, 2012
Hurricane Sandy arrived Monday, October 29. The eye passed about 30 miles south of us heading west. We lost power (and landline and cable/internet) about 7 pm but got the power back after only about 12 hours. Much better than lots of others, including the subdivision right behind us which was without for over a week.
Our landline came back after 2-1/2 days, but the cable/internet didn’t return for about 8-1/2 days. We decided we didn’t know what to do with ourselves without internet.
By the time it got dark Monday, we hadn’t seen any trees fall. But when we got up Tuesday morning, the landscape was different. Seven big trees had been uprooted. Fortunately they didn’t hit anything major. Three of them fell into our neighbor’s yard, adding “gates” to their fence in three places. One of them punctured the roof on one of their sheds and wound up resting on the shed. In addition we lost 4 other big trees. The neighbors lost about 15 big trees of their own.
Also there were cap (ridge line) shingles laying about, so one of my first priorities was to cut away the cedars blocking the shed to get the extension ladder and get up on the roof. It turns out 22 shingles were blown off. Fortunately, I had enough new shingles, roof cement, and roofing nails to make repairs right away.
Jane’s college room mate, Sue, and her friend Terry were driving up from Hilton Head for a week long visit. They were supposed to arrive Monday. Sue was planning to stay with us while Terry visited her sister in West Orange. Thursday the three ladies were planning to go into NYC for a fancy dinner and a play, “Wicked.” Friday, they were supposed to start the return trip. On the way up they had a stop in Virginia to visit family. They stayed in Virginia a few extra days and finally arrived Wednesday. Terry had word from her sister that there was no gas, so we went out to find gas to fill up the car before she headed to West Orange. There were already lines and it took us about 3 hours!
There was still hope they could make the dinner and show on Thursday. With cell phones, it was discovered that both the restaurant and theater were operating. But it was also learned that getting around would be very difficult. They weren’t many ways into Manhattan. Getting to the Lincoln tunnel would take over two hours and getting through it would take at least 45 minutes. After a lot of conversation, it was decided to give up on the NYC trip and do it some other time. The theater was good about exchanging tickets. Terry returned from West Orange on Thursday afternoon, and the four of us had a nice dinner at Winberies in Princeton. It was very crowded as it was one of the few places that had power and was open.