FRANKENSTORM aka Hurricane Sandy

I remember waking up one morning and reading online about a huge storm headed our way with three different weather systems colliding. I remember reading that the hurricane had already taken several lives in Haiti, that the storm was being called "Frankenstorm", and that it could be worse than Katrina. GULP.

I considered flying home or something, but I was pretty sure that it would be impossible to get a flight out this late in the game. Also, that's too expensive. Luckily, we live 30 minutes from the ocean. I felt a rush of relief that we had chosen to live inland, even though we had looked at, and been tempted by, homes on the water. But even still, we knew that we needed to use the few days warning that we had wisely. Grocery stores would get crowded fast.

One of the first things we tried to do was get a generator. We called around, but everyone was already sold out. We heard about a fist fight over the last one at one store. We considered ordering one online, but there was no guarantee that it would make it here on time, or that it would even be able to make it here at all. So, we decided it would be okay to rely on our neighbors who have one.

We went shopping for food, flashlights, and other things that we thought we might need. Mostly I was wracking my brain about what I might possibly need??? I had many basics thanks to church guidance, but still, one can never be too prepared, right? I ended up buying things like boxed milk and cereal (easy things to eat that didn't require cooking), and, as per Adam's request, a solar powered phone charger (which, by the way, didn't really work because it was always overcast during the power outage that followed). 

Other preparations that we made included filling up the bathtub with water. We did this because out here, when you loose power, you also loose water. Our home uses well water, so the pump is run with electricity. In any case, we had been warned that many bathtubs have a slow drain, so we used duct tape to cover the drain with a plastic bag, then we filled it up. We also filled up every bucket we could find and all of our water bottles. We raked the leaves in our yard - no small task. We filled up both cars with gas. We considered filling a gas can as well, but they were sold out.  We bough propane tanks for our camp chef. We went to the library to stock up on fresh books for the kids. I cleaned and cleaned like a crazy person, wanting everything to be in it's place when the storm hit. We located all of our candles and flashlights to have them ready. We gathered games, books, and stuffed animals, and began waiting. We also spoke to our children about the things that might happen during the storm, and what we would do in each case so that they could understand and be at ease about things. They seemed a little apprehensive, but also excited. School had already been cancelled, so they were happy.

We felt ready to hunker down and take whatever might come. As a safety precaution, we decided to all sleep in the basement because there are many trees near our home that could easily have fallen onto the house. The waiting time made for good family bonding. Below Ru is doing "homework" in an activity book.

We got to watch a squirrel devour our pumpkins that we were planning on carving for Halloween. At first the girls were disappointed, but it was fun to watch the squirrel eat. We decided that it needed to eat our pumpkins to be able to handle staying outside during the hurricane. It was a fun experience to watch, and we never would have seen it without the storm.

Here we are watching a movie while we wait for the storm. This was, of course, before we lost power. The power went out at about 5:30 pm on Sunday night. We were told to expect high winds, power outages due to fallen trees, and about 10 inches of rain. The girls were excited to have a family sleepover, and they went to bed with relative ease. Adam and I enjoyed listening to the storm outside as we sat in the darkness. It was sort of surreal as we sat there with nervous excitement about what the night storm might bring. We could hear loud winds and occasional cracks of limbs outside. We were half waiting for a thunderous crash upon our house, but it didn't come, and we eventually wend to sleep as well. We thought that the night would be a rough one, but thankfully, we all slept peacefully, much to our surprise.

When we woke up, the winds had died down, and we could see that our yard was heavily littered with branches and twigs. There was not a ton of moisture (definitely didn't get anywhere near 10 inches of rain). Adam went out first to survey the damage. Eventually we let the kids out to help clear the driveway. The sound of chainsaws echoed through the air. People were out early, clearing trees. We gathered several bins full of twigs to use as kindling on our fires. It was a lot of fun to work together as a family on the project. It was exciting to find giant branches standing straight up in the ground or in crazy places. We were happy to see that our chickens were safe. At some point, the wind picked up again, and it occurred to us that we should take the girls inside again as many trees or branches could still fall. Below, Viv is hauling a long branch off of the grass.

At the end of our driveway, we could see why we didn't have power. It was a crazy sight to see a giant tree broken in half and laying across a power line in the road. Further down, the telephone pole was busted in half and lying on the road. Our little Mark Twain Lane had at least five trees down, blocking the road, and hundreds down in the close surrounding area. That sounds like a lot, but there are just SO MANY trees out here, it barely made a dent in the tree population.

For the first day, we were homebound, and thinking we would be for the long haul. We made quesadillas on our camp chef, and started straightening the house now that it was light out (it is truly baffling how messy a house can get in a matter of minutes... after all that cleaning). Our next door neighbors, Terry and Sue who share a driveway with us, stopped over to make sure we were alright. We chatted about the storm and our provisions and the like. It was all very pleasant. Not long after that, more neighbors came by. This time, they were neighbors that we didn't know well at all. They live at the bottom of the hill, and I only knew the woman's face as I had seen her by the bus stop. They had made their way to our house (about a 7 minute walk) in a small golf cart sort of vehicle. Apparently, enough trees at the bottom of the hill had been cleared from the road (trees that weren't touching any power lines), so they were able to make it up about half way on the road. Then they went through our landlord's property in the backyard, and up the hill through our backyard and into our driveway. They were so kind and helpful. They were simply making the rounds in the area to make sure everyone was okay. They offered their home if we needed a shower. They offered to run to the store and get milk or whatever, as we were stuck at our house. It was so sweet of them.

After they left, we went back inside to do homework and play games, etc. Not too much time had passed when I saw the Eberhard family (the ones who used to live here) making their way through our backyard. The kids were soooo happy to have other kids to play with! I was happy for the distraction. They had parked down the road and came up to check on us as well. It was during their visit that we discovered that our car could actually squeeze through the side of our yard and make it through to our landlord's house and finally to the street! YES! Freedom! Surprisingly, I had mixed feelings about being able to escape. I was excited to have Adam all to myself and no internet for a while, but with an escape route, he'd be going back to work. Ah well. At least we could go places when needed. The Eberhards have a generator, so they invited us to dinner. I brought my own food and was grateful to do so because it occurred to me that many things would go bad quickly if we didn't eat them fast.

Driving to their house was an amazing experience. Our eyes were glued to the windows as we drove, and we saw so many many trees down all over the place in every direction. It was incredible. Pretty much every road was at least partially blocked by trees in one place or another. People were encouraged not to go out, because it just wasn't that safe, but we were determined. We had a lovely evening that included dinner and a shower/bath, and them came home in the dark. We decided we had to leave the car parked at our landlord's house so that we wouldn't damage the grass. Luckily I brought flashlights so that we could hike up to our house.

Look how lucky that house was!!

Story time at night became sort of magical. It reminded me of old times without electricity... except we had flashlights as well as candles. The girls each had their own mini flashlight for individual night time reading. I was so grateful that I had enough for each child. It made such a difference for them. It made night time fun, and gave them independence. It was fun to watch them have flashlight wars on the ceiling and that sort of thing. Yes, it was cold (in the 40s, so could've been worse), but we were having fun, too.

Having the kids all sleep together helped keep them warm at night. Although, Viv complained about Noma kicking her, so she ended up cold and on a small couch cushion one night. Poor thing. Getting out of bed in the morning was not as fun or magical. It was mostly just cold. No one wanted to move or get dressed. Using the bathroom was unpleasantly cold. We decided to all use the same toilet during the power outage to minimize flushing needs and cleaning afterwards. We adopted the motto, "If it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown, flush it down". We used our buckets and bath water to flush. I was grateful that we could at least do that. Washing hands was a little more tricky, and the water was ice cold! We felt like we were camping. We made fires in our fireplace, but we were still sleeping downstairs, so the heat didn't travel down there. Also, I know that there are a lot of people out there who love sleeping in the cold, but I'm of the sort that sleeps toasty warm with an electric blanket. I hate getting into a cold bed. Brrrrrrr!!!!

We really didn't have to "suffer" for very long at all. I know we did not suffer at all, really. We were only inconvenienced. We know people who lost their homes. In fact, Adam went and spent a day helping our friends in Norwalk whose home was flooded. They still have big cracks in the walls of their house. The entire foundation is compromised. 

It wasn't long before we began hearing about things that would help us out. We were able to get occasional texts from the city about road clearing progress. Cell phone coverage was spotty and infrequent, but it worked sometimes, and that helped. We would turn our cars on to charge our phones a couple of times in order to stay on top of the news, which was risky. We heard stories of people waiting in very very long lines to get gas, and some stations being completely out of gas. In any case, we found out that school would be cancelled all week. Halloween would be postponed. The church was open each evening for free meals and showers. Emergency food and water rations were being given at the local community center. I was excited about that because I hadn't thought about the fact that washing dishes would be such a pain! (Hauling water to the camp chef, heating it up, washing, rinsing and drying int he garage, etc). We had already used a ton of dishes, and they were piling up in the kitchen (I didn't/don't have a dishwasher in which to hide them until the power returned). The kitchen was beginning to smell bad, the fridge needed to be emptied out. So, yes, I was excited to have a free meal or two that I didn't have to cook or clean. 

People have asked me what I wish I would have done differently to prepare for this experience. I thought of two things. First, I would stock up on disposable dish ware (plates, cups, etc). Doing the dishes would have been doable, but remember that you are sort of in a state of shock with added stress and unspoken anxiety that make the task seem bigger than it really is, so having paper plates and cups on hand would have been nice. I mentioned this to yet another kind neighbor, The Lopes, who later brought us a ton of cups and plates that they had on hand - so sweet! 

The second thing I wish I would have done was have a frozen two liter bottle of water in the freezer. That way, I could have put it into a cooler with the essential items I wanted to save when I cleaned out my fridge. I know it would have only been a temporary fix, but sometimes that is all you need. In any case, I had just finished cleaning out my fridge when my landlord's brother showed up at our house. My landlord is in China at the moment, by the way, but somehow he got word to his brother about our situation. He came to drop off a generator! It is the kind that sits outside away from the house (they are loud!), and it has a long cord that you run into your house so that you can plug in a few things into a power strip. We decided to plug in our fridge, a lamp, and a space heater in our kitchen (which left room for charging phones). Yea!!!! It was glorious. I put up a curtain in the doorway to help keep the heat in. We all stayed huddled in that room for eating, homework, and pretty much everything. Below you can see the girls warming up their clothes on the space heater before they put them on in the morning. 

We had yet another visit from some friends (the Johnsons) who came to check on us. We felt so loved. I decided to take the girls and go out with them to the community center to get our rations for the day, and to get out of the house. Everyone we saw there was pleasant and helpful. I marveled throughout the week at how a disaster really brings the community together. I also marveled at the food rations that we got. They were self contained full meals that were self-heating. Yup, self-heating. It still sounds scary to me, but it's pretty amazing. I was grateful for the water bottles as well. We still had a lot of water at home, but not fresh, and not a lot of clean cups. While we were at the community center, I was interviewed by a local reporter, and later quoted in the local news about our experience. I'm practically famous now... ahem. Disregard the misspelling of my name.

After that, Tiffany Johnson and I (and our children) went across the street to the school playground. It was cold, but they didn't care, and it felt good to be out of the house. Later, we headed to the church for a free hot meal. Adam met us there and took a shower after hauling heavy wet sheetrock and spoiled stuff into a dumpster all day. It was so nice to go there and hear the stories that others had to tell about their own experiences so far. The next day we decided to be gone from the cold house all day. We started at the library, which had just regained power, then we went to a friend's house and ate our sack lunches. Then  we headed to a community center in another town that advertised free kid's activities. There was a craft, a bouncy house, and a park (in addition to free showers, swimming, food, and shelter for those who needed it). The kids were in heaven. Later we drove to the Danbury mall to ride on the double-decker carousel, because... they had power, and.. what else? Finally we finished the day with dinner at the church again. Really, we were having a great time. It was like a vacation, just not as convenient, and a little colder.

I'll admit that I didn't keep a journal during the hurricane, so the days all sort of run together in my head, but I'm pretty sure that the next day was Halloween. We knew it had been postponed, but we had heard that there was a neighborhood that might be participating. We had nothing else to do, so we were off! Ruby's costume was an impromptu result of her not wanting to get out of her pajamas. Not bad, eh?  

I tried to get a shot of Noma the chicken by our actual chickens. You can only barely see one in the coup.

Here we are at our next door neighbor's house. Sue got dressed up and everything. We were the only trick-or-treaters, guaranteed (our street still blocked). After this we drove to the neighborhood that was rumored to be celebrating Halloween. After an hour of hiking up and down ridiculously long driveways, we gave up triumphantly with THREE pieces of candy. They certainly earned that candy! I guess Halloween was really postponed after all. Sheesh. Incidentally, when the town finally did celebrate, we opted out. It was November, already, and the magic had passed. Plus, we had done our thing already.

I can't remember which day this was, but there was a point at which we were all filthy, our dishes were out of control, and the laundry situation was getting scary. I decided to graciously accept the many kind offers of friends and neighbors who had power restored already to come and shower, wash, etc. I didn't want to overwhelm any one person or house, so I spread the love. I showered and did a load of laundry at Thayer Smock's house. Then I took my kids' to Marcie Keller's to take a bath, finally I ended up at Sangeeta's house. She was incredible. She took me in, gave my children snacks and put them in front of a movie. She then sat me down in front of some delicious Indian food, and washed all of my dishes - by hand. I was speechless. Her kindness was overwhelming. Later we talked and she massaged my feet. I kid you not, she actually massaged my feet. (She is a counselor and meditation specialist). I left her house with clean dishes and laundry, happy children, a ton of food, and a healed soul. What an amazing person. I went to her home twice during the storm. The second time was similar to the first. I am in awe of this woman. 

Enter: the Lopes family. While I was out and about that day taking care of business, I got word from Kathleen that they wanted to have us over for the night. The temperature was supposed to drop in the evening, and they didn't want us to get cold. They live two houses away from us, but they have a generator that allows them to heat the house, run water, and use electricity in parts of the house. Our initial gut reaction went something like, "Oh, really, that's okay. You are sweet, but we'll be fine". However, we were tired of being cold, and warm beds to sleep in were just tempting enough to lower our pride enough to accept such a generous offer. We realize that it is no small thing to invite a family of five into your home. We went there and fell in love with the Lopes. They are wonderful people. The have a daughter with them who is in her twenties. The girls absolutely adore her. They also have a sweet dog, Ash, who is gentle with kids. Noma slowly warmed up to him over a few days (which is amazing in and of itself). 

It was sooooo nice to have running water again. It was lovely to have a place to shower and eat. Best of all, it was so great getting to know these wonderful people who we would probably never have gotten to know on such a level if it weren't for the hurricane. We sincerely thank the hurricane for our new friendships, for lessons learned, and for a greater appreciation for simple things we take for granted. We accepted dinner invitations at another friend's house in Weston, and another on our same street. Truly, the outpouring of kindness and generosity that we experienced cannot be overstated. The people of CT are fantastic!

Outreach continues still, weeks later, to help the real victims of hurricane Sandy. Relief efforts are ongoing and at the front of everyone's minds here. Many go to New york and help every weekend. Church services are shortened to one hour to help facilitate the efforts. It is easy to get involved and help out. We are grateful for the opportunity to give back and help out where we can. 

We ended being without power for one full week. the day after power was restored, a snow storm came. Noma and I went to the library for story time, and while we were there we lost power again. Noma, as you can see below, was unfazed. I was a bit shaken. Thankfully, it came back 5 hours later.

The end.