Batten Down The Hatches

[bellj]

We were watching the coverage that night too and were especially concerned because I have a niece who decided to ride the storm out pretty close to the action (I'm not going to say that would have been my choice and I had emailed her before the storm offering to do whatever we could to go and get her). Luckily, received this email the day after (I didn't include the mentioned pictures):



Jim,

I survived Hurricane Sandy!  Fortunately, I never lost my electricity!  The only damage was to one window that blew out, but not all the way through.  It was only the outer layer of a double paned window.  Also, the wire for my cable and internet snapped and is laying in the street.  So I'll be without that for a little bit.  I'm using my neighbors wireless internet network at the moment.  There were hair-raising moments.  Around 8pm last night the winds were blowing so hard that the 3 story building I live in started to rock back and forth!!  Around that time I started packing my to-go bag!  Ha!  The winds started to die down around midnight so I was able to sleep through the whole night without too much trouble.

This morning I took a look around my neighborhood and it doesn't look too bad.  A few trees were uprooted, some construction fences and debris fell, but otherwise everything looks alright.  The river water has already receded (see pics below).  Brooklyn lucked out!  Manhattan, on the other hand, has a lot of damage from what I'm hearing.  

Thanks again for checking in on me.  Make sure Grandma, Patty, and Samantha know I'm doing well.  

Christina



We knew of someone in Jersey too, but haven't received word on them yet. Sure was something to watch - must have been a lot worse to experience in person! My wife showed me a map of possible power outage areas, which even included half of Wisconsin (we were right on the line), so instead of winterizing our camper like I had planned, I heated and filled it with water instead, just in case we needed to use it as shelter. That might sound like over-doing it - but we lost power for a few days about 2 decades ago shortly after this city decided they no longer needed a generation plant and tore it down, and as luck would have it there was a catastrophic failure in both feeder stations on opposite ends of the city - I remember well going through that, so knowing we are now totally dependent on the aging infrastructure electrical grid which is fed a lot by the East made me a little nervous. The ironic part is that the power for around 11,000 households just 40 miles north of us (where one of our city's main power feeder lines comes from) went out last night. They claimed that it was just a coincidence and had nothing to do with the storm...  

Glad to hear everyone on the forum from out there came out OK!  

[V153]

Glad to hear y'all made out okay. Bummer 'bout yer shop Rich, but I have faith you guys'll bounce back. What else ya gonna do?

Coulda been worse. Here's a before & after of infamous Gilgo Beach on Long Island. That road used to be 1000 feet from the ocean, with 15' dunes in between. Talk about erosion, yikes!

[Rich_V174SS]

Some pics I took of the remnants left by Hurricane Sandy.

A tree supported by electrical wires, this was on route to my shop.


A pics from inside the shop garage, note the water line halfway up the garage door. It's amazing to think the water level was that high inside the building.


Garbage that floated everywhere and was just left about.



Our boardwalk behind the shop that got lifted by the tide.

[Glastronjohn18]

Rich, sorry to hear about the damage but the important thing is that you and yours are safe. We had only a little wind and rain up here in CNY,

[bellj]

Very sorry to hear about the damage. It's kind of cliche to say it and it used to kind of irk me because of my own misplaced priorities when I was younger - and it can be gut wrenching to lose things and a pain to clean up - but it really is true that the most important thing is that you're all safe.

I was reminded of that in a totally "unrelated to the hurricane" manner this afternoon when we learned that a friend's sons did something that most of us have done in one way or another in our reckless youth before we knew any better - they decided to celebrate Halloween last night by driving a fairly large Lincoln across a dipped country intersection around 100mph without stopping for a stop sign. I won't bore anyone with the details - but the car was "launched" and clipped the tree line and finally wrapped around one on it's way down. To put this into perspective - the mother/car owner was at the scene shortly after it happened and before the emergency workers were able to contact her on her cell phone (at the scene no less) to inform her, even she didn't recognize the car enough to realize it had contained her sons.

Anyway, the one son has embedded glass and a broken arm, which they reportedly haven't treated yet because there might be a problem with his back. The other son - the one not wearing the seat-belt - somehow came out relatively unhurt in comparison.

So once again, a sobering reminder that most of us in our youth - or at least in mine - we somehow were always very lucky when reckless - but the fact that they survived, just like all of the people who survived the hurricane, really is the most important thing!

[WetRaider]

Sorry to hear that, Rich.
I can just picture what you're talking about with the boats.  We drove into Galveston to help clean up after Ike in 2008 - there were boats everywhere ... EVERYWHERE!  For clean-up, you'd see fork lifts punch through hulls of a boat resting in the roadway, lift it, and move it off to the side.  The boats stayed for 6 weeks or more, just lining the sides of the road.  Insurance companies were spray-painting them so they could identify the boats that had been claimed.  They made several make-shift lots for misplaced cars - fork lifts doing the same, punching through windows and lifting the cars by the roof, and setting them on a flat bed to be moved.

I hope you get things sorted out quickly & that repairs continue at a steady pace.

[V153]

Sucks that yer shop got flooded Rich. But once ya clean up the mess there may be a silver lining. It's been my experience hurricanes are great for the boating business. I've never been busier'n I was after hurricane 'Charley' hit Pt Charlotte.

I always tell my customers in the event of a big blow, they should remove ALL canvas & cushions. Think they listen? Nah. Oh well, bad for them good for me. I went out to bid jobs where the only remaining canvas was a few shredded threads around the fastener(s). Rest of the material was gone with the wind but by gum that fastener was still there. Never forget that. I 'member this weird stench in the air too. Of things better left buried.

Take care man, hope you get up'n running soon.   

[Rosscoe]

What a mess! Good luck getting it all back up and running. I bet you will have lots of new business.