Monday, April 5, 2010

Worse storm in PSEG history...


...the voice mail said. We want to thank you, our valued customer for your patience & understanding while we recovered service for over 25% of our customers.  Clearly, they have me confused for some other PSEG customer because I, dear friends, was not patient OR understanding. I was cold & aggravated & wondering where the heck I could go with 2 kids, 2 dogs, & a husband.  This is no way to live.

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Flashlights (even Dora was there to help..hey, we were desperate!)


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Outdoor fridge…alla Little House on the Prairie

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Every candle I could find in the house (Thank you! To anyone who's ever given me a candle) I can see why the Ingalls used oil lanterns...they were definitely on to something back then.

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And thanks to BJs Wholesale Club...we had plenty of battery power!

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And wearing coats INSIDE.

But at least we had an inside that we could all jam into. Others had it a lot worse. Imagine a friggin giant tree landing on your house & setting your roof on fire. 

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And here was the other half of that tree..

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That’s pretty scary stuff. And as we took an adventure to the nearest diner we realized that there was a lot more damage out there then just our block.  

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This storm brought a lot of awful things too close for comfort. I didn’t sleep a wink that night for fear that the burning wires near our house would land on our house & set the place on fire. We were prepared though. We had a bag packed, the girls & I slept in our clothes, the dogs in their collars & leashes nearby while J watched our bedroom window if anything should happen.  Several times that night our window lit up bright orange from the wires burning right outside our window. Eventually they broke off & landed in our driveway & the car survived, thank goodness.

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But like any horrifying experience it makes me reflect a bit. What would we do if we had to suddenly leave our home? What would we take with us? I packed the pictures of my babies & our toothbrushes, some underwear, socks, clothes & some toys for the girls, and food for the dogs. And there you have it, my most prized possessions all jammed into a duffle bag near the door.  That is all I treasure, our lives & the basic needs to keep the people I love alive & well.  I’m not sure why I torture myself thinking would if this? Or what if that? In my head I planned several escape routes & thought about places we would go or could go.  In the end we were fine & survived that night. The next few days were another story. We lost power the night before right after dinner so we tried to figure out what were the next steps. Thankfully it was the weekend so we didn’t have to worry about work & all that business. Three days later we got power back & internet (with some lingering issues) and are all alive & accounted for.

It was nice to have family that we could rely on who were in much better conditions then we were. And I’m also thankful for modern day inventions like…portable generators. Hopefully we will be better prepared next time mother nature decided to drop a nifty little storm like this one again.


1 comment:

Unknown said...

omg. You guys had it bad!! I'm glad you made it through intact. BTW, please don't hesitate to call in a crisis. We're just a town away!!!

We got lucky. Our side of the street had power, but friends were out for days. Some major tree damage on the street. Pretty scary.