Watching the TV this morning, we saw the devastating destruction along the Eastern Seabord from the storm. Costs for repair will be in the billions. Many communities and neighborhoods throughout the region are without power this morning and if you haven't seen the areas, especially in New York City and New Jersey, you should spend some time on the news channels.
The Gator Homestead was a lot luckier than many people. We never lost our power, our basement is completely dry (It isn't always after such massive storms), and the only damage we've seen so far is from one front lawn tree that lost a couple of branches. There's nothing here for me to photograph that would be unusual. Perhaps that in itself is the picture.
My Fearless Friend, who lives in another community, said he did lose power last night and by early today it hadn't returned; but he has a generator that has provided him with necessary electricity.
One of our retired friends who lives in Florida but comes to Maine for the summer left over the weekend for his home. He emailed me saying he had expected to see lots of hints of Sandy along the way but saw none and had clear driving all the way to Florida's West Coast. One sight, he said, was impressive. Along one of the Interstates travelling north was a convoy of at least 50 utility trucks with their light flashing heading into the Northeast to help with the restoration of power.
So, so far our little place has been lucky and we've even seen peeks of sun this morning. We are still getting a few gusts, however. Now, we continue with the original "Sandy" post . . .
Among the many things I'm not is being a meteorologist. I can, however, listen to those who are and be reasonably certain that we're in for at least a couple of anxious days. A Gal Named Sandy will be influencing our weather and the things we do beginning Monday.
Sandy was a hurricane that promised all last week to be a real major storm for the Eastern United States. We won't really know until late Tuesday or Wednesday just how "major" it truly turns out to be. What we do know is that our section of the world probably will miss the real brunt of the storm. Southern Maine will, though, get some pretty hefty winds with gusts into the 50s or 60s, perhaps even a 70, MPH guests. The winds are expected to begin creeping in late Sunday and intensifying all day Monday and peak while we sleep Monday night.
"While we sleep." Sure. Knowing the people and pup in this house, there'll probably not be much sleeping. I know I don't do too well when I can hear heavy winds howling outside. Our Golden will sense our anxiety and so she'll also be roaming around the house all night, probably with the plan of protecting us.
The rains are also expected to be rather heavy at times beginning late Monday and continuing into Tuesday morning. At least one local TV forecaster is saying by late Tuesday afternoon, we could be outside assessing what we hope will be the non-damage.
It looks like much of the northern Eastern Seaboard from Boston down through Delaware and a long way inland is going to get the direct hit and have most of the wind, rain and damage from the storm.
There have been seven hurricanes strike Maine in my lifetime, some a little more devastating than others. The first was only known as The Hurricane of '38 in 1938 (Yes, I was around then, but just a toddler). Carol visited us at the end of August in 1954 followed just a couple weeks later by Edna. I left to live in Florida shortly after those but returned to Maine for good just before Donna hit in 1960. 1985 brought us Gloria and Bob rambled through in 1991.
It was during Bob when I had my most interesting hurricane experience. I was photographing the scene around Wells for a Portland TV station. I stood at the water's edge to get a shot of a reporter and town official looking over the incoming storm and did not see a shoulder high wave racing toward me. The other two people shouted but I didn't hear them and was almost swept away with a very expensive TV news camera. Fortunately, I was able to hold the camera well above my head while I got soaked by the ocean wave. To say it was a cold, wet ride back to the TV station in Portland might be an understatement.
Now we're carefully watching the weather to see what Sandy will bring us. I hope you'll stay safe and damage free.
By the way, did I mention my wife's name is . . . ? No, I'd better not go there; she might not like being compared with a hurricane.
Dave
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