Frankenstorm/Hurricane Sandy

Still don't have power at my house :( I figured I'd post my Sandy update from the comfort of my office at work (which, lucky me, never lost power.)

Let me just preface this by saying I am no stranger to hurricanes. I grew up in Houston, yo! I know how to batten down the hatches!

In Houston we never used to stress much about category 1 hurricanes because they never really posed too many challenges to us. So last year when Irene was on its way to the NYC area, I was all, "Why is everyone freaking out?! It's a category 1! It'll just be a tropical storm by the time it hits land! Chill out people, this is baby stuff!" Ha. Silly me.

The main differences between storms here and storms in the south are:
1) tree volume
2) power sources

Here in New England, most of our power lines are above ground. So, when wind blows them down/trees fall on them, we lose power. For DAYS. Sometimes weeks. With Irene, Bradley and I were out of power for 8 days! So we knew that Sandy meant business, even if she was just a measly category 1.

Also, our tree roots are pretty shallow here, and our soil saturates and retains a lot of moisture. This means that when we get crazy winds, our trees topple. And not just little trees. Giant trees fall all over the place. And we live kinnnnndof in the woods. SO. Storms here can be a bit frightening.

On the morning that Sandy was supposed to hit (Monday) mom called to see if I wanted to run to the grocery store really quick before we settled in for the day. There was plenty of food, surprisingly, and several people there. She dropped me back at my place around 9:30 and Bradley and I got some work done, did a last load of laundry, took our last showers, made ice blocks in our freezer (filled a ton of large tupperwares with water and strategically placed them in the freezer) and watched some shows online. We tend to lose power before my parents do, so when we heard a driving ban would be instated at noon, we decided we should pack an overnight bag and head to mom and dad's house for the rest of the day/night. So glad we did! They didn't lost power til 10:30 PM! We watched Sherlock online all day, I baked a pie, mom made butternut squash soup, and dad cooked a lot of the frozen meat we had. We feasted like kings!!!

And then at 6, the trees started to fall. The tallest tree in the backyard, a tulip poplar that was half of the home to the hammock in the summertime, toppled over, missing the house by like 2 feet! I was watching right out the window and I pretty much almost wet my pants. Then 3 tall pines behind it all snapped in half (we have three 20 ft matchstick stumps in the yard now). At 6:30, I was in the kitchen doing dishes with Bradley and my dad, when we heard a crackle, then a giant thud that shook the house. We ran to the next room and all we could see out the windows/sliding doors were pine branches. A giant pine tree had fallen on the house! We ran upstairs to Abby's room to look out the window (the storm window was shattered) and saw that the tree had ripped of a few feet of the gutter from the roof, a couple bricks from the chimney, and half of the deck.

We were all a little shaken so we retired to the basement for the evening, and watched a lot more Sherlock until we ultimately lost power at 10:30. Then we all went to bed, and fell asleep to the sound of howling winds and the visual of some strange flashing lights that we couldn't tell what they were. They weren't lightning. I was convinced the aliens were coming to get me. I think it was power lines coming down, actually.

We were all kind of excited (in some sick way haha) to wake up in the morning to see what the aftermath was; it was so dark the night before, we couldn't really see much. That excitement quickly turned to dread when we saw how much work there was to be done. I'll share some pics.

The view from Abby's window when I woke up.

Some views of the tree that fell on the deck.

The pines that snapped in half.

Fallen pine.

Tulip poplar (hammock tree :(  )

The base of the tulip poplar that got ripped up.

Some friends in our ward who came to help (:

The pine that fell on the deck.

Pine on the deck.

The base of the pine that fell on the deck.

Deck damage.

As per hurricane tradition, we decided to take our day-after "post-apocalyptic walk" to scope out the rest of the town's damage. Except, my grandparents are in town (they are from New Orleans, this stuff is totes NBD to them) but my grandpa is 81 so a walk wasn't really in the cards this time, so we took a drive once they lifted the driving ban at 11 am. We saw some bad stuff! Like this:

Yikes! I heard they were in that room when that tree fell! We felt pretty blessed after seeing that.

This blasted tree is the reason Bradley and I have no power at our apartment! BOO!

Then we went back to my parents' house (they have a gas stove, so we can at least heat food at their house), had a snack, mom and dad called the insurance companies to see if we could start on cleanup, and by 11:30, dad, Bradley, and mom were out in the back with a wheelbarrow, chainsaw and a tarp whacking away at the fallen trees and bringing them to the curb for the town to pick up. Bradley wouldn't let me help because of my "condition." >.< I guess it probably wasn't the best activity for a 7 months pregnant person to be doing....After a catnap and an hour of feeling completely useless, I made them the coldest lemonade I could (no more ice, so it was pretty lukewarm) and sent out an email seeing if anyone had an extra chainsaw that they weren't using, since things could move a lot faster if both my dad AND Bradley had a chainsaw, and to my surprise, 20 minutes later, 4 families from the ward plus our bishop came, chainsaws and wheelbarrows in tow, to help clean up all the trees!!! By 4:30, half of the trees were hacked up and brought to the curb! One of the families who came to help had never lost power (Thompsons), so they offered us all hot showers at their house, and cooked anyone in the ward without power some hot dinner. We are so blessed in the church to have such an AMAZING support system that is so organized and fast-acting! I was really touched that so many people were so quick to help and spend so much time with my family clearing out all those trees! Words can't really cover it so I'll just give up. (:

Now, if you want to see something really cool, check out this video I took with my phone of that tree stump finally being sawed off and the giant collection of roots snapping back to the ground:

 

After dinner and games with Thompsons, Bradley and I went home to our cold, dark apartment to sleep in our own bed. Lucky for us, I just bought a giant down comforter last week, so we were toasty warm and slept really well. Bradley and I both had to work today, so he left early to get there. I had a little more time, so I checked my phone, and had a text from my amazing visiting teacher, who let me bring food to her freezer this morning, and take a hot shower at her house. I had breakfast at my mom's, and now here I am at work! 65% of my town is still without power (including my parents and myself), but my parents are picking up a generator today, so not all is lost! I heard the power people were working on my street today, so my fingers are crossed! 

To all of my out-west-y friends and family, thanks for all of your prayers, we have been blessed with health and minimal damage!!!! Now we just wait for the power people to do their job, and the worst is over. (: