Sandy Report

Hope this post finds everyone safe and having not lost much in the wake of this massive storm.  I was semi-awake most of the night.  Our power went off a few times, and cycled on and off for a couple hours, but luckily it held.  There were no generators to be had as of early Friday afternoon ... this is something we need to get because all I could think of was our freezers full of food being lost.  

Being at relatively high elevation and far enough inland, I wasn't worried about water too much, more about wind and our big tree.   One fairly big limb came down on our shed which then blew apart ... Not sure if it can be saved, but it is what it is, and relatively minor.  Quite a few smaller limbs came down as well.  Although it makes for less privacy, I'm happy our neighbor had some limbs on his tree  trimmed recently.  Still, something hit his house and ripped his fascia board off.  

According to the hubs, we have a chicken in the neighborhood that clucked its way through our back yard.   (This would make Joel Salatin happy, but not the town officials.)   

My folks are without power so I expect company later since it was just the line to their house it won't be top priority.  One neighbor lost a car to a falling limb.  We'll take our tour of the neighborhood later.  One good thing is there'll be lots of free firewood to be had.

How'd you fare?

Comments

As my new place is in NW PA (nearly in Ohio), I wasn't too concerned about Sandy. OTOH, there is a hulking pine tree in the neighbor's lot that would smash my house like your shed should it fall. With the forecast for tropical storm wind gusts, I was a little anxious! But as of this AM, all is good and now I just am waiting for the new washer dryer ;).
Paul Jaminet said…
Glad to hear you came through safely. We had lots of branches on the ground but no real damage that I saw. I think some cars got dented.
Anonymous said…
Stayed in elderly housing, in the apartment of a friend who's in the hospital (I fed the cat). Snug as a bug.
MM said…
I'm so glad to hear you are safe! Thanks for giving us an update.
CarbSane said…
Thanks gang! A little update: We went to the Home Depot to get chain oil and gas mix for the chainsaw. Twas an interesting trip about the neighborhood and we needed to take a few detours. Our's is an established neighborhood from way before cookie cutter subdivisions. Most of the existing homes were built in the 40's and 50's, there are many older than that, and now lots of new ones as developers/new owners bulldoze and erect mansions. Regardless, we have LOTS of old established trees, and it always amazes me when one comes out roots and all and falls -- we saw three or four of this variety laid out across roads and smashing a garage. We worry about that for our big tree. We figure if there are odds on all of this, we already lost our other big tree a couple years back so should be safe. It fell on our empty lawn area, thankfully, and we were away at the time. In fact we didn't even notice it until a couple days later when we returned. Judging from the charring on the woodpile behind that tree, I think it was a mix of rot and lightening that took it down. The tree at my folks that did the damage looks like someone intentionally took the top off of a pine! Tons of major limbs down everywhere. The funniest site was on a rather major road there was a small branch (and by small branch I mean like 6' long maybe 3" diameter, my mother could pull that outta the way) in the lane. Rather than moving it, someone took the time to tie caution tape to it and the roadside fence! {{shakes head}}

Getting a better look at the shed, it will be salvagable. It's one of those Rubbermaid deals and it looks like someone just took it out of the box and laid out the panels getting ready to assemble it. The cross bar and brackets are holding the front and back together and that's about it, but nothing appears to have broken. I'm just bummed we didn't strap it up, though it might not have mattered with the limb coming down on it (or it might have just broken rather than broken apart). Luckily most of the stuff inside didn't scatter, and I only lost some seeds and fertilizer, the tools and gas cans and such will dry off.

On that bright side, there will definitely be a ton of firewood to be had for winter!
Sandy Daigler said…
I'm glad you came through it in one piece. I live upstate, a few blocks from the Hudson, and was worried about flooding (like last year with Irene), but we got lucky this time.
My mother and step-father are visiting up in Bath, NY. I haven't heard from them, yet. I'm glad to hear you fared well. Sounds like the biggest nightmare is going to be for the insurance companies.
CarbSane said…
They just showed a boat on the tracks in Ossining. I presume you are further upstate, but some even consider anything north of Yonkers to be upstate ;-)

They also showed video of a big tree coming down in someone's back yard. They just so happened to have the same shed there, which seemed to be staying put. Big tree came down pulling up the roots/lawn. THAT is the scariest of it all. We have some behemoths here. Phew is all I can say!
CarbSane said…
It's mostly shoreline communities ... TONS of devastation.

Ya know, I've been to Jersey shoreline, but never to Seaside Heights with the iconic amusement park. No more. Not quite as unfortunate as growing up in the NYC burbs and never being in the WTC, but still. Can't imagine what these people are going through.

Just looked where Bath is. I don't think you have much to worry about there. Hope you hear soon in any case.
Diana said…
I live 'inland' between Amsterdam & Columbus in west 70s so other than some very scary sounding wind gusts, wasn't touched at all. Mostly stayed inside and watched the devastation on TV. What happened in Lower Manhattan and East Side was shocking. There still hasn't been a lot of reporting on what happened there, esp. Battery Park City, which I read was totally inundated. I didn't know Manhattan had a sea wall.
Galina L. said…
I am glad you are fine. I live in Florida where tropical storms and hurricanes happen regularly, so all weak wood gets blown away bit by bit and more attention are payed on the potential danger in general. I think having rare hurricane should be worse - too much potential projectile limbs are hanging arowd.
CarbSane said…
Man ... how bad is it now?? We just went out for dinner and there was a police directed line like a half mile long for gas. It's definitely not locals!!

We did see some pockets of outages still in our neighborhood, which weren't apparent in the daytime.
CarbSane said…
We don't have hurricanes much, but have our fair share of storms and such. In recent years many have taken down trees and/or the utility companies have trimmed a lot around the powerlines. When a 50-100 year old tree comes out of the ground though it's pretty amazin!
Sandy Daigler said…
Yes, I am quite a bit further north of Ossining. I live in Troy. Where I live some people consider anything south of Chatham to be downstate!
Galina L. said…
Yes, it is amasing. I hever saw something like that myself. In my are trees usually falling more often when groung is very saturated with water.
CarbSane said…
It's been relatively dry here making this all the more amazing. I took a ride further north and on some back wooded roads today. LOTS more devastation closeby than originally observed. Huge trees entirely down with 4+ foot diameter trunks, others are trees with many main branches snapped every which way. Still, I'm watching Channel 2 out of NYC right now, and Staten Island and NJ shore, etc. it's just heartbreaking to watch. I feel blessed.
CarbSane said…
Ahh Troy ... my old romping grounds.