We lost power last night at 10:00, but it just came back on here! Other than that, no damage to our property or nearby neighbor's homes despite the wild winds and rain. DS had water running down the plaster wall at his new-to-him home-looks like he needs more/new flashing around the vents in the roof. We feel very lucky and are thinking of everyone in NYC and NJ. Also thinking of those in W. VA who really were slammed with snow.

Thanks for asking, Golddust.

There's a thread on the other side too where some have checked in. So glad to see ya'll checking in! Poor Polly! I do hope we hear from more soon.

tina

Lived to tell the tale & doing fine. Whining about the clean-up duty, but so grateful no loss of power or mishaps ensued. Very fortunate. Thanks for your thoughts, Golddust.

I hope everyone is ok!!!
Stinky, the clean-up part is horrible I know. It's been a couple of years since I had to go through all that but living in Florida I know all about the exhaustion of it all. A few years back we had a hurricane and it took me almost a year to get things right before another came the following year. I learned I really take air conditioning and ceiling fans for granted in 95 degree heat. And, down here with all the sitting water the mosquitoes are lethal.
The really bad part for those up north who are without power and with young children is not having heat if it gets real cold. They are actually pretty lucky though in that some do not even have a house to have heat for...very sad!

I had you all in my thoughts and prayers the entire day yesterday. I kept CNN on, watching and hoping you all were ok and that your family and friends were, too. I'm hoping the clean-up from Sandy goes well and that the power is back on everywhere quickly. Hugs to you all!
Lynn

Hey everyone....thanks for your concern. It was scary as hell sitting in my house with the wind howling and shaking the house. The sky kept lighting up green from transformers blowing and the lights flickering. The sky was flickering orange from a fire in town. My friend's husband is a firefighter and he was there. I am terrified of natural disasters, I couldn't believe we were sitting through it again after Irene last year. We were all camped out in the living room in fear one of our trees would fall into one of the bedrooms. Anyhow, we made it through. We think we lost our wall oven from a power surge and that's it. We were so fortunate. I was terrified for my sister as the water was rising fast by her house, but she only got 2 inches in her playroom. Her power was restored today. My brother did ok too. I was really frightened for my Dads girlfriend she lives on the water. His house is around the corner. She should have evacuated, but she stayed because she was fine in Irene. There was serious damage to the sea wall there, but the houses were ok, only minor damage compared to some of the other beach neighborhoods in Staten Island where there were fatalities. My father recently passed away, I feel like we had a guardian angel protecting us. I'm just so grateful my family is ok. I'm so sad for the lives that were lost, so tragic. The truth is this was the worst storm on record for the tri-state area, we didn't know what to expect, many people figured they made it through Irene, they could make it through this and didn't evacuate. It's very sad some paid with heir lives for that decision. On the other hand my town in NJ was devastated after Irene, the people who were told to evacuate did here and they didn't flood this time. But they took the warnings serious, a very hard lesson to learn for some. DH goes back to work tomorrow, his building in L.I. city is right on he water. Who knows what he will go back to.

(((Polly))). I'm so glad that you all made it through this safely. So many things to deal with still, I know, but I'm very happy that you and yours are OK!
Lynn

So glad to hear from you Polly and to hear that you all made it through safely.

tina

North of Philly, no power since Monday and the power company is predicting it won't be restored until Friday at the earliest. We are all safe, the house has lost roof shingles, some fascia boards, the shutters flew away in the wind. The ferals used their rubbermaid shelters I think, they showed up looking for food after a few days once things settled down. Glad that's all over! Now it's the clean up. Many small branches down and one big tree that (thankfully) fell without damaging anything.

I posted this on the "Sandy" thread on the main as well but I was wondering if anyone has heard if mtnrdredux is ok. I could be wrong but isn't her home in a low area?

I wish she'd check in too. I hope is well with her.

We're across the Delaware River from Philly in Moorestown. Our schools are still closed due power outages caused by falling trees. We never lost power but we did have a tree fall against the house. Our neighbor's pine fell in our yard and crushed the fence and a magnolia.

But this is minor compared to what others are dealing with. My prayers go out to them.

Been busy putting stuff away. Seems like all I did was prepare; then had to melt all the milk jugs of ice as well as any containers used. Pack candles back up; thermos's; seemed never ending. Got the last of it put away last night.

We were hit by Irene worst then Sandy. The power company was saying possible 5 day minimum loss; so I prepared as much as I could. Seems the storm hit above us (I'm above AC). My old area lost power; so did up by my home town in North Jersey.

The rain was pretty bad during the day; caused a lot of flooding. I managed to keep most of the water out of my basement; my son dug a huge ditch that saved us. It was pouring in with Irene. I did get a small amount but was able to catch it with a towel propped up against a trellis that dripped into an underbed storage bin. As of last night; the water stopped.

The wind was horrible. It was so windy that it sounded like it was going to rip my doors off. It sounded like it was pouring but the rain stayed a mist until I crashed about 10:30. My son told me it was done & at that point; I was so exhausted that I just crashed; not caring if it was not.

Hi,

We just got internet. Much of Fairfield County, CT still out of power; we have a whole house generator that goes on automatically and can run for prob 2 weeks. We have been fine.

We did lose 3 large trees.

Jterrilynn, We are actually on Mountain Road "Mtn Rd Redux". So we are not low lying at all. Thanks for your concern!

Mnt, glad you all ok! I am not familiar with that area at all. I just know that you had a lake/pond and when the water table goes up mixed with high winds trees go down.
Well in a couple of days serious crankiness will start for those without power and a generator. Modern day humans that are not used to hardships or are not camper sorts will have their nerves starting to fray to a hairier level.
I know that after the fifth day or so without power during one hurricane I wanted to rip my neighbors head off. It all started over something as silly as him asking to borrow one of our portable propane burners so his wife could cook broccoli along with their meal. The upsetting part for me was that he knew our grill had conked out and all we had was two little burners for our food. He had a huge gas grill with a burner and a smoker and a generator (he limited his generator for a bit of nighttime a/c and hot showers). If not for my husband I would have dug his face off with my nails.
Nerves will get very high soon!

They are getting high.
It is getting ugly in the gas lines. People are getting desperate and stealing gas from parked cars.

Polly I just saw on the news that there is also a lot of price gouging going on. Is that true? How horrible if it is. Yes,the crankiness will get worse! However, not towards those less fortunate, any good person will help those and share what little supplies are on hand. It's the greedy people that get under your skin in a bad way. Oh and the thieves too, close to the same as the greedy.

mtnrdredux- Glad to see all is well with you and thanks for explaining your moniker! I was tempted to ask - but now that you've written it out I can't believe I didn't think of that. Our other home is on a mountain in NE PA and at one time we even toyed with vanity plates - and mtn was one of the combinations.

I saw on the news that there was a family that had run extension cords out there front door so that people who did not have elec.could come by and charge their phones.
Even Alec Baldwin is lending a hand...

Good Happens~

Here is a link that might be useful: http://video.today.msnbc.msn.com/today/49639505/#49639505

I've been so busy breaking everything down that I did not check on a few people until yesterday. Niece is without power by Trenton; if it doesn't turn on soon; she's probably coming down.

I'm originally from North Jersey; which was hit pretty bad.
My son's relatives are all without power. His 105 year old great Gram that lives in a home that has apartment & assisted living; thankfully my ex-SIL called to get her moved to the backup building with generator. Other residents are not as lucky & are freezing.

Her daughter; my sons great aunt who's in her late 70's is without power. Thankfully she has a phone. Most of her neighbors do not because they're on Comcast. She's very happy she kept the analog phone. She tried to drive to her mom & couldn't make it there for various reasons. She finally got out there; but she's not able to go often because of the gas situation. She's very fortunate; an older tree is across her lawn that did not hit anything. Her car is garaged. She's the only one on her street that has a gas light outside; she said everyone's thankful for that little glow. I asked if she wants me to send my son (he lost his job 2 weeks ago) to pick her up so that she can get a hot shower; meal; stay a night or few but she can't leave that area because of her mom. I'm going to have my son call her today; he can offer to bring her down for the day; maybe she'll do that. She's done so much for me when I was a young single mom & her nephew was the dead beat dad that I want to do what ever I can to help her.

I have 4 or 5 gas cans that my son could bring up; problem is they're giving tickets on the Turnpike for carrying gas (it's not allowed). I don't know how he'd drive there otherwise.

My ex-BIL down the street from her lost 1 personal car; 1 work van that my nephew drives from an older tree falling on them. It hit a 3rd new company SUV but only damaged the front.

ex-BIL works for a large family glass company down by my old town in another county; they can't even work much because of the gas situation as well as a lot of people not having phones or electric.

Great Aunt said my gas station in the next town is also without power & this upsets me because if dad & I were there; we'd be running a generator to sell gas. We were always the only ones open when power went out.

Large old trees are nice but they do a lot of damage in storms. Hub & I had started cutting trees down at our old house (where my 89 yr old neighbor lives) because the sugar maples rot from the inside out. The neighbor next to me told me that limbs came out of my old yard twice; thankfully the buyer cut the rest down. The old man has a lot of trees on his property; he's very fortunate nothing has come down on his house yet.

Polly; I keep forgetting you live in the next town over from where I grew up. No clue why I think your closer to the last place I lived. I'm so glad your ok because I know what your town could have had happen. I have to catch up with people from my old town today to see how they're doing. I know they didn't have power Tuesday on the East side because trees fell.

The family business my BIL works at is in the next town West from you on South. My ex-FIL (now deceased) used to be part owner; sold his share 30 years ago to start one in the Plfd area which is where my ex-BIL & great aunt live. Our business is across 22 on the mountain side. G gram is in Basking Ridge. It's hard to wrap my head around this & how bad the different parts up there got hit.

Do you know what the cause of the outages was? Is it mostly from trees that fell due to wind? I'm not sure how different the storm was for you guys then us. I'm down by AC; so a good 2 hours from you.

~Hugs

Yes Rose, the power outages this time were mostly from fallen trees. I'm right off South, so I'm assuming your family business is really close to me.

Yes, my town saw utter devastation last year with Irene. I think 15 homes were condemned and about 25% with major flood damage and another 25% with damage from trees. One school was closed until last March renovating.

I thought for sure it would happen again. But this time we were lucky. No major flood damage, just downed trees. It's 5 days later and half the town is still without power. I was lucky and never lost it. I can't help but think my Dad was guarding me and my siblings from above. We all fared fine.

I'm originally from Staten Island, NY. That borough was hit hard. The death toll continues to climb. I'm heartbroken to see the place I grew up in in ruins. Heartbroken for those who took a chance and stayed instead of evacuating and are now paying the price with their lives or the lives of their loved ones. A lapse in judgement, and the ultimate price paid. So very sad. My father lived in an evacuation zone. He would have no part in evacuating during Irene no matter how me and my siblings pleaded with him. If he had not passed, he would have most definitely stayed. His neighborhood was waterfront, and also is still there with minimal damage compared to the rest of the island. I really feel like he had a part in that as well.

NYC is crippled without public transportation. Now with gas lines running through entire neighborhoods, people can't get gas to get to work. It's just a mess. We can only hope for time to alleviate all of it. New Yorkers are resilient people, they will come back. They will rebuild. I have no doubt.

I'm still without power. It's inconvenient but I'm grateful that I don't live on Staten Island and other hard hit areas. What a tragic mess.

We slept at the house until Wednesday night when, oddly, it was my husband who cried "Uncle" first and said it was too cold to continue sleeping there. For the past 2 nights we've been at a family member's house. It's close by, which is nice, so I can pop back home to pick up more stuff as needed.

It appears the power will not be restored today because they can't fix the line until the crew can come out and cut down the tree that fell on it. There are still roads shut, due to downed trees, so the crews are very busy. I will foolishly hold out hope that by tomorrow night it will be restored.

We have a black tie fundraising event tonight. I just went home grabbed various pants, dressy jackets, different heel height black shoes, and some jewelry. Something is bound to work. And if it's not perfect? I don't really care. I'll be happy to be out with friends, forgetting about the storm, and supporting a good cause

I'm at Wegman's at the moment, using their wifi (and heat and electricity and food!). They have been terrific - providing extra extension cords so everyone can power up phones & computers.

I just made a post for getting & giving help if anyone needs it.

Polly; I'm feeling very fortunate too; like my dad was protecting our area. He was probably protecting yours too since that's his home area. The business is glass; name starts with Mac

I sent a message to someone in another state telling them pretty much what I said above & was told I should count my blessings that is wasn't as bad as it could have been & that many people didn't fare as well as us.

I hope no one got that impression with my post here because trust me; I know about the people that did not. I also know about the people in my old town & other towns being without electric; or part of their house due to huge old trees crashing in them & how since their damage wasn't as severe as the shore; that help is not getting to them. There are others who's kids can't go to school because the schools are being used as a shelter; & I listen to 101.5 as much as I can to hear updates on what's going on. There were 2 more towns that were supposed to grab & go today but can not because the roads are unsafe. They wanted to shut their water off because of the freeze & grab their kids clothing & backpacks :(

I've been updating my FB page with as much info as I can find on where to donate clothing; food etc; whats needed; where to find help; pharmacies; gas. Reaching out to people I know to give them info on where to get help.

I just took a load of stuff to a friends who's bringing it to 3 teen girls that will have someone truck it up. I was able to find 1 winter coat so far & hub bought the wrong size work boots; wore them once or twice- donated them. I'll go through closets more tomorrow for some warm clothing & whatever else I can find thats needed. I don't have cash to give so trying to help in other ways. I really wish I could do more then I am. We haven't bought clothes in years; haven't had a real Christmas since 2008. I haven't done real food shopping since February. With him being on the road; I didn't have to buy meats; etc- kids & I have been eating ramen & hot dogs; egg salad plus whatever was left in the cabinets because money has been so tight. I've tried not to go to the food banks because people need it more then we did.

I finally did meat shopping a few weeks ago because we got our taxes back; I'm very thankful we didn't lose power & did not lose the meat I just bought. My basement leak was like a river with Irene; so with the basement staying as dry as it has plus the power not going out; I'm feeling like I won the lottery with my luck & am trying to figure out ways to repay it. I can't volunteer due to my back being so bad & can't give blood because of the meds I'm on.

Getting sick of people I know complaining about finding a baby sitter on Friday so they can go out & drink or another that texted to donate $10 then went shopping to spend $$$ for a trip.

I'm numb seeing such devastation on the east coast and all those who are suffering w/o power, let alone food, water, bathroom facilities, and a warm place to rest their head at night. How *does* this happen in a country where there is such an abundance of materialism? How does this happen when we have a president of our country? How does this happen when we have planes flying far and wide, offering help to other countries? How does this happen as *we* go about our daily routine? How do we NOT feel the guilt of being safe, with all our needs met?

As one human being I feel powerless, overwhelmed with pity and heartbreak, knowing my lousy little $200 can't make a big enough difference!

I'm a spiritual person, though not religious, and I have to believe that prayer will bring the relief these people so well need AND deserve. Will you pray with me?

Patty_cakes said:

"As one human being I feel powerless, overwhelmed with pity and heartbreak, knowing my lousy little $200 can't make a big enough difference!"

Patty, your $200 does make a big enough difference. It's $200 more that will be used to help. I think any donation makes a big difference.

Thanks Marlene. In my heart I know it 'helps', but if I were a millionaire........

We're supposed to have our basement leak fixed either this week or next. I went to the company FB page; said they're busy with storm damage. I contacted our rep to see if we're getting rescheduled so that they can work on those that need it; he told me they're all waiting on insurance or FEMA. I can't even imagine them having to wait.

Oh, goodness. I was wondering about insurance. Is it common for people back there to carry flood insurance? My niece had a tree fall on her car while babysitting at someone's house. The home owners policy declared it "an act of God" and wouldn't pay a penny.

It depends on the area. I assume those close to the beach & living near water (lakes; wetlands) have it. Part of the issue will be some homes were summer homes. People are applying with Fema & getting turned down because they did not call their insurance 1st.

I was reading another board; someone applied to fema months ago; never heard back. They said the same jobs are still being posted & it does not look like work is being done yet.

My ex-brother in law is still without power.

My basement repair will be next week. I told the company that if someone else with damage needed my slot to let me know.

Darius Rucker is giving away $10,000 worth of toys to one lucky city. A bunch of us voted for cities that was hard hit by Sandy

I voted Seaside; I then asked for Staten Island to be added. I debated voting Toms River because it has the most votes (NJ) but Seaside got hit harder

Here is a link that might be useful: Darius Rucker giveaway

Has anyone heard from joshuasamah, who last posted when her house on the south shore of Long Island was surrounded by water (and this was before the peak of the storm)?

She mentioned she lived on the Great South Bay, so she probably got wind & storm surge damage. Hope she's all right and that she didn't lose her house.

awm Thank you so much for checking on me! I haven't been on much because we are in recovery mode...It was a rough night when Sandy hit. We are near where one of the breaches occurred on Fire Island so we got slammed with waves and water. The good news is we survived! We got power back last Monday (had to have house rewired due to corrosion from the saltwater that flooded our basement-we even had fish and baby shrimp down there), heat last Friday because we had to put in all new vents and blowers. This morning I got a new refrigerator! I almost cried when it came because we've been living out of a cooler on the back deck since Sandy.

The good news is we have a roof over our heads and heat and electric which so many others don't have. I am very greatful. The bad news is we have about $100,000 worth of damage so it will be awhile before we are back to pre-storm living. I am very sad for my neighbors-of the 12 or so houses on our street, only 4 of us are able to stay in our homes right now. We do the best we can to help each other out-even if it is just a hot cup of coffee or a hot shower for our friends who are cleaning out their houses of most of their belongings, or for the workmen who are gutting the houses to begin rebuilding.

It was a very scary night-we didn't evacuate-won't do that again.

Joshuasmah.

GLAD to hear you are ok. There are many people who are saying they will never again ride it out and will leave when told to evacuate.

I can't even imagine how scary it was for you with water filling your home. It was scary enough for me in NJ.

I'm sorry to hear of all the damage. But just like you said, it's all relative when you still have your home and so many lost so much more. Bravo to you for keeping it all in perspective.

Have a wonderful Holiday Season, as best as you can.

Thanks so much for the update, joshuasamah. I'm so glad your basics are back online & that you made it through. I read about the Fire Island breaches -- so hard to believe that so much has washed away. Just heard from my son in NOLA. He evacuated to a friend's house during Hurricane Isaac last September, and the house got destroyed by flooding. Nevertheless, the family is hosting a Thanksgiving feast & invited my son. Such perseverance!

Polly I know New Jersey got hit badly also. Along the shore there was extensive damage and many lost their homes. Hopefully you didn't have damage. My neice, her husband, and 8 year old son are homeless right now. Their home was about a half mile from the ocean and they lost everything. The biggest problem for them now is that with so many homes lost it is impossible to find a rental in the same school district and close to their jobs. Any rentals have been taken by others in the same situation. They have been staying in my mother's house which was sold (Mom passed away in July) and is closing next week so she has been looking again without much luck.

awm NOLA has had so much devastation it is heartbreaking. I feel so badly for those in that area. You really can't understand what it is like until you see the real thing. I am sending good wishes to your son and his friend to have a joyful day today.

Happy Turkey Day everyone!