Hurricane Irene: Wherein History was Made

Well it has been a hell of a week! And a good diversion from the worries and sadness I normally would have had if I’d allowed myself five minutes to think about something other than the moment and dwelled on the fact that my glorious summer was coming to an end.

What’s a little wind and rain, you say? Well, wind and rain can do some serious damage, even if it’s from a tropical storm and not a hurricane. Essentially, Hurricane Irene wreaked havoc on the Hudson Valley. It was SUPPOSED to wreak havoc on NYC and Long Island, which is what sent my family fleeing to my house after a mandatory evacuation in their area. And it did cause power outages and flooding in both of those areas. But the three hardest hit counties were Ulster, Delaware and Greene counties. We live in Ulster County, and Delaware and Greene counties both border Ulster, one to the west and the other to the north. So you get the drift. On Sunday Aug. 28, almost 70% of our county had no power. By mid-week, 36,000 people still had no power. Our power company hired another power company from Kansas City to help with the extensive repairs.

My weekend (the last weekend in August) was supposed to be a baby shower bonanza. I had two showers – one on Saturday and one on Sunday. I couldn’t go to the first and the second was postponed because it was in the hurricane’s targeted path. Keith was going to have two fun-filled days with Cole. Instead, we had a historic event take place. As I mentioned before, my family was evacuated from their Long Island home. The historic event is that they spent three whole nights at our home. They rarely spend more than four to five hours during a visit because of the length of time it takes to get there and get home. But wait – that’s not the half of it. My grandmother came to High Falls. It took a hurricane for her to come to my home!

They (my father, my step-mother, my grandmother, my step-sister, and her cousin) arrived at 1 a.m. on Saturday after escaping Long Island. Fortunately, they were smart and left on Friday night instead of waiting until Saturday, so they didn’t hit much traffic. We spent Saturday gearing up for the storm (shopping, cooking, contacting relatives) and tracking its whereabouts. My step-sister and her cousin couldn’t bear the thought of one more night in my cozy (Read: Small) home, so they booked a room in a hotel in Kingston and flew the coop Saturday afternoon. My grandmother read my blog book and looked at my wedding album. Cole played with his great-grandmother and his grandparents. Definitely a stimulating day for him. Saturday night the rain started. By early Sunday morning, after several hours of flickering lights, back-up batteries beeping on and off, we lost power for good.

By late Sunday afternoon, the storm had calmed down a bit, but the winds were still going 20+ mph. We left the house for a brief foray out and saw just how much the wind and rains had affected our area. The NYS Thruway was closed. Apparently some parts were under 3-4 feet of water. Lines were down, literally on the ground. High Falls itself looked more like Niagara Falls. It was a little surreal. I was quoted in an Associated Press article about the effects of the storm and the irony of my parents escaping Long Island only to get stuck up here in this ravaged county for three days. Finally, on Monday morning, part of the Thruway reopened and my family made their way back home. It took them 7 hours (in what should have been a 2.5 hour ride), but they made it. Their home was unscathed, and they had power. Go figure.

We went to a very poorly organized Central Hudson dry ice distribution on Monday, even though I stupidly thought we’d get our power back sometime that day. So much for being optimistic. Having no power was not horrible because we still had running water. It was kind of like camping in that regard. We used the camp stove and the grill to cook. We used headlamps, a big loaner lantern (from my dad), and candles (only when the baby was asleep) to see in the evening and during the day in parts of the house that had no windows. And all the while our food in the refrigerator perished. We managed to save just a few things in our cooler, but when the dry ice melted by Tuesday night, all was gone. The whole experience was doable (albeit extremely challenging) until we lost our water on Wednesday. I noticed the pressure was really low in my shower that morning, and by the end of the day there was just a trickle in the faucet. Wednesday was by far the hardest day to get through.  I started my first day of work on Thursday with no shower and breakfast with the family at a bagel shop. But by Thursday afternoon, we had excellent news – we had power, running water, and even our cable! Who knew it would all come at once?

I’m sure you noticed that the tone of this post is non-complaining (at least I hope it is). As I said before, there was devastation in this county and the surrounding counties that brings tears to my eyes. I was lucky that my home did not get damaged by water in any way. Many homes became swimming pools, or their basements were swimming pools, and more were simply washed away by the swelling mountain creeks and rivers. Roads were destroyed; bridges were washed away. If you want to see a video of the destruction of northern Ulster County, check out this YouTube video.

Local farms were also devastated by the flooding of the Wallkill River. Our own CSA, Taliaferro Farms, suffered severe flooding on 14 acres of their farmland. Click here to watch a video of the devastation on the farm. The host may be a little corny, but it's the farmer, Pete, who really tugs at your heartstrings.  I am counting my blessings that all we suffered was a power outage. In the grand scheme of things, it was just a minor inconvenience. And if anything, the hurricane gave us two things we are grateful for: first, a fun weekend with my family and, second, the motivation to clean out our fridge for the first time in a few years.

I hope you enjoy the pictures...

My grandmother reading my blog book

Papa brushing Cole's hair

This temporary home of our cats

First phone, then coffee

This kid LOVES bouncing on the air mattress

A lot of hurry up and wait for the storm

Keith reads up about the storm

My father plays with Cole and Cole's first day care craft

Our source of new: the battery powered radio (above the non-functioning tv). Notice the baby in the left hand corner locating his battery powered toy

Cole shows Buddy his guitar

Cole gasps as Papa comes in with a REALLY big guitar

Look at that neck! I want it Mama!

Safely in his chair admiring Papa's guitar (hooked up to a battery powered mini-amp)

The stream normally runs under the road, but here it's running over the road (and roaring on down) 

Four generations!

This was Cole's favorite thing to do all weekend. Unfortunately, it wasn't Buddy's.

Cole gets one last bounce on the air mattress

Cole patiently waiting in the car for dry ice

The line for dry ice

Keith "This is what you call a 'clusterfuck'"

On line for dry ice

The Rondout at the highest it's ever been since the Army Corps of Engineers remade the banks of the creek,

High Falls a ragin'

The power crews try to figure out what's wrong with the electric lines.

Another one totally stumped

Lunch at Olive Garden

Endless breadsticks= endless fun

Dinner at HF Cafe with the sun setting in the background.

our "kitchen"

our "computer room"

Kiwi caught in a headlamp