Tuesday 30th October
Another first for the whole family. Today we have awoken (those of us that slept at least) to the aftermath of "Frankenstorm" - our first real experience of big continent weather and the wrath of the Gods. We had spent a frantic two days preparing - clearing our basement and putting the remainder of the things down there on bricks in case of flooding; clearing up all the fallen leaves and branches in the garden (why?); doing all the washing and ironing in anticipation of at least a few days without power; filling containers with water (who would buy a house with an electricity powered well?); packing the emergency bags in case we needed to walk out of the house in the middle of the night; and watching the weather forecast in minute detail. Whichever way up we held the map the eye of the storm was predicted to come pretty much over the top of us.
The weather was building up over the weekend and by Sunday evening school was shut for Monday and work was closed from lunchtime onwards. Monday dawned wet and windy, but not as wet and windy as it would get. By early afternoon the rain was fair lashing down and our pool was rapidly filling up with water (all in all 12" fell in 1 day). All started to look as though it might go horribly wrong when, at about 4pm, a check of our basement revealed that the water table had risen to such a height that the pressure was "popping" the plugs in the thirty year old termite treatment holes and water was bubbling in. Like a boy with a damn, M was down there quick as a flash eager to use his wet and dry vac and get some dowels hammered in to try to stem the flow - it worked a treat but it is strange to walk away and say we just need to leave it and hope.
We had decided to sleep on the ground floor to save us either from when the roof lifted off or a tree came crashing down. All was quite exciting (in a good way) as we settled down to watch "Up" before bed. Then about 7.30pm we lost power - it really is very very dark when that happens in our street. Fortunately it came back after a few minutes - but it was a sign - everyone to bed, quick sharp. The night was long, windy, wet, full of strange crashes and bangs and a mini fireworks display on the other side of the street as their electricity supply was cut off. But ...... most of the family slept very peacefully.
This morning we are know we have been very lucky. We still have power (although the other side of the street don't); our house and drive are untouched (apart from the small puddle downstairs); and we have only lost one tall tree (although it is now resting rather precariously on the power lines at the back of our property but at least it did not flatten next door's chickens). School and work are both closed for today as well - lucky because we can't leave the house anyway due to fallen trees in the roads around - but today we can spend some time clearing up - there are a lot of leaves and fallen branches to clear (?!?) and maybe carve some pumpkins. We know those in surrounding states were not so lucky though so we wish them well. Also, will R & G make it out of NYC to us? This was a hairy part of the adventure!
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