Frankenstorm 2012!

Frankenstorm--the superstorm created by the collision of Hurricane Sandy and a giant Nor'easter--pounded the Mid-Atlantic yesterday and early today. It was massive, stretching an incredible 1,000 miles, and fierce.  Its power resulted from record-setting low pressure.

Thanks to weather-system computer models, round-the-clock news and the Internet, we were given lots of advance notice.  Landfall of the relatively small but strong hurricane had been predicted for somewhere between Ocean City, Maryland and New York.  Forecasters said the storm would settle in and churn for days, and electricity was expected to be out for days for millions of people along the East Coast.

Donna and I spent Saturday preparing.  I had gone out Thursday evening to try to buy a generator but they had been snapped up.  Early Saturday morning I went to the local Lowe's and scored.  They had received a shipment of 200 and forklift operators were unloading palettes of them to the retail floor.  Eager--or desperate--shoppers were buying them up faster than they could unload them.

I also got more extension cords, a long telescoping painter's pole and roller cage (a futile attempt to cobble together a home-made gutter cleaner), gas cans, a locking chain for the generator and other hardware.  If nothing else, the storm surely stimulated the economy and drained our checking account.

We cleaned out the garage and made a trip to the dump so we could store our deck furniture and other things in the garage.  Donna did a great job of taking down bird feeders and the poles they hang on, hanging flower baskets, baskets on our deck rails, flower pots (we do have lots of flowers) and lashing down everything else with bungee cords.  We brought in copious amounts of firewood and had more at the ready.  We had two full propane tanks for the grill.  Flashlights and batteries out the wazzou.  Candles and matches everywhere.  Extension cords strategically placed so we could quickly fire up the sump pump, the refridgerator, the wireless router.  Battery-powered radios.  We were ready for Sandy and, for that matter, Armageddon.

Then the storm came.  The rain started Monday morning and got heavier as the day progressed.  The wind started to kick up in the afternoon.  By 5pm it was loud and very wet and windy.  We waited for the lights and the heat to go out. 

About 4pm I discovered the area around a basement window that is surrounded by a half culvert pipe was filling up with rainwater quickly and I feared would soon flood through the window into the basement. 

I grabbed a utility bucket and started baling, only to discover that the water was rushing in through the metal guard.  I tried for half an hour, in the wind and rain, to caulk the gaps between the guard and the brick of the foundation.  Caulk is wonderfully sticky, but last night it stuck not to the brick or the metal but to my fingers.  The more I would try to push it into the gaps the more it would adhere to my fingers and pull away from where I was trying to get it to stay.  Donna, who was watching from the kitchen, was surprised at the extent of my vocabulary.  I was finally able to get enough caulk into the gaps to slow the tide of incoming water but within a couple hours the catchment area was full and I would go out to bale some more.  I baled for the last time at about 9pm and decided to take a chance that we wouldn't flood overnight.

I woke up at 2am and with great trepidation ventured to the basement to assess the damage.  I was greatly relieved to discover a dry basement, and electricity.



Never been used.

The bottom line: We never lost power, never had any leaks or flooding, and had no downed trees or limbs.  Kate never lost power at her place in Maple Lawn and neither did Eileen and Andrew in Canton.  Everybody is safe, dry and warm.  The storm, expected to pound us for several days, was gone in less than 24 hours, moved west and north, causing blizzards in West Virginia and heavy rain and wind from Maine to Chicago.

New York, Connecticut and New Jersey seem to have bore the brunt of the epic storm.  All of Donna's New Jersey siblings and her parents lost power.  We have been watching the news accounts of New York, Atlantic City, Ocean City and Connecticut.  An hour ago we saw the first video of Long Beach Island, where Donna's family has a beach house.  We don't know the status of it but the first shots of LBI look promising.  Lots of debris and sand and water on the Boulevard and side streets but the houses all look to be standing.  We are all hoping for the best.