Hurricane Sandy - Aftermath
******THIS IS A LONG POST********
Unless you were under a rock the past few days, you had to be aware of the big storm that has hit the East Coast over the last couple of days. I will admit that I was a little skeptical of the hype of this storm having been through more than a half dozen hurricanes over the years. The skepticism proved wrong as I assessed the damage to our town after the worst of the storm passed over New Jersey.
Before the storm, Heather and I made several trips to the local grocery store to watch people stock up as if the world was going to come to an end. On Saturday, we saw the aisle with potato chips and snacks plucked clean. Heather was able snag the last bags of Lay's chips. It was amazing to watch people wrestle for water as the workers brought pallets of new stock to the empty shelves.
Last night I got my first call from a resident who lost power at around 5:00PM. When I checked the utility company website it showed that only 30 homes in town had last power, so I figured it would be very localized. However, at 5:30PM, our power went out. I went out immediately to assess how widespread the outages were and most people around us still had power. After an hour, we decided to head to the Maroney's, who still had power, and hang out in the lights. By the time we got there, the winds were really picking up with gusts well over 75 mph.
90 minutes after we arrived at the Maroney's, their power went out. When I checked the utility company website, it indicated that outages were about 50% of households. Knowing how the utility companies work, I knew that the lights would not come on for days at this point. We left the Maroney's around midnight and slept at home last night.
I awoke around 8AM and got dressed and headed out to assess the area. Everything around us was out and lots of trees were uprooted and laying on the ground and across utility wires. This would take a long time to clean up.
I headed down to Flemington to see if the commercial area was without power as well. To my surprise, the Flemington Circle area had power. 2-3 gas stations, a 7-11, and a Dunkin Donuts. Even though I had a little more than 3/4 of a tank, I decided to top off and then get some coffee and I am glad that I did. There was hardly any line at the gas station (that would change later in the day), but the line at the Dunkin Donuts was like a bread line from the 1930's. 7-11 only had a few customers, so I got a couple of coffees and a chocolate milk for Heather.
I dropped the coffee and milk at home for Vicki and Heather and headed to town hall to meet with the Chief of Police. Seeing the power on in Flemington, gave me hope that the situation was not that bad. However, after we toured the area (see picture) and were briefed by our Department of Public Works, I knew it was going to be very bad. Essentially, 90%+ of the town was without power and our town was no different than others in NJ. The towns closer to the coast and on the coast got it much worse as you probably saw in the news.
At this point we are looking at a minimum of 7-10 days without power which is a problem for people like me who get anxious after 7-10 minutes without power.
As the day progressed, things got both better and worse. It got better in the sense that everyone, including those outside the area, expressed concern and understanding to the devastation in NJ. It got worse in the sense that my fears of 7-10 days were confirmed as a best case scenario on a conference call with state officials. Essentially, there were over 20,000 sites within the utility infrastructure (down poles, trees on lines, blown transformers, etc.) that needed attention and only 1200 crews available to do the work. Because the work is very dangerous, there are limits to what volunteers could do to without training - this is something that I am going to follow up with Governor Christie on.
TJ and Sarah were doing OK. TJ stayed in New Brunswick and his power came back on in the late afternoon. Sarah hung out with her friends. There was rumors that Rutgers would cancel classes for the whole week.
After I hung up the from the conference call with the utility company, the Chief called me and said the there was a steakhouse in Flemington open. So I called Vicki and said I would come by and pick her and Heather up for dinner. On my way home, I drove through both Somerville and Flemington and there were a few gas stations open. The lines were about 50-75 cars at each place - power was not going to be the problem - it would be supply. After I picked up Vicki and Heather and drove by the same gas station - they were out.
The wait at the restaurant was about hour and we hung at the bar. Normally, we would balk at such a wait. Not tonight - we could hang at the bar and watch the news and we did. The news highlights showed the highlights of the devastation around NJ and the images were generally worse than anything that I saw in person today. So no matter how bad we had it, others had it worse.
We will go to bed early tonight and get up to see what another day holds.
Unless you were under a rock the past few days, you had to be aware of the big storm that has hit the East Coast over the last couple of days. I will admit that I was a little skeptical of the hype of this storm having been through more than a half dozen hurricanes over the years. The skepticism proved wrong as I assessed the damage to our town after the worst of the storm passed over New Jersey.
Before the storm, Heather and I made several trips to the local grocery store to watch people stock up as if the world was going to come to an end. On Saturday, we saw the aisle with potato chips and snacks plucked clean. Heather was able snag the last bags of Lay's chips. It was amazing to watch people wrestle for water as the workers brought pallets of new stock to the empty shelves.
Last night I got my first call from a resident who lost power at around 5:00PM. When I checked the utility company website it showed that only 30 homes in town had last power, so I figured it would be very localized. However, at 5:30PM, our power went out. I went out immediately to assess how widespread the outages were and most people around us still had power. After an hour, we decided to head to the Maroney's, who still had power, and hang out in the lights. By the time we got there, the winds were really picking up with gusts well over 75 mph.
90 minutes after we arrived at the Maroney's, their power went out. When I checked the utility company website, it indicated that outages were about 50% of households. Knowing how the utility companies work, I knew that the lights would not come on for days at this point. We left the Maroney's around midnight and slept at home last night.
I awoke around 8AM and got dressed and headed out to assess the area. Everything around us was out and lots of trees were uprooted and laying on the ground and across utility wires. This would take a long time to clean up.
I headed down to Flemington to see if the commercial area was without power as well. To my surprise, the Flemington Circle area had power. 2-3 gas stations, a 7-11, and a Dunkin Donuts. Even though I had a little more than 3/4 of a tank, I decided to top off and then get some coffee and I am glad that I did. There was hardly any line at the gas station (that would change later in the day), but the line at the Dunkin Donuts was like a bread line from the 1930's. 7-11 only had a few customers, so I got a couple of coffees and a chocolate milk for Heather.
I dropped the coffee and milk at home for Vicki and Heather and headed to town hall to meet with the Chief of Police. Seeing the power on in Flemington, gave me hope that the situation was not that bad. However, after we toured the area (see picture) and were briefed by our Department of Public Works, I knew it was going to be very bad. Essentially, 90%+ of the town was without power and our town was no different than others in NJ. The towns closer to the coast and on the coast got it much worse as you probably saw in the news.
At this point we are looking at a minimum of 7-10 days without power which is a problem for people like me who get anxious after 7-10 minutes without power.
As the day progressed, things got both better and worse. It got better in the sense that everyone, including those outside the area, expressed concern and understanding to the devastation in NJ. It got worse in the sense that my fears of 7-10 days were confirmed as a best case scenario on a conference call with state officials. Essentially, there were over 20,000 sites within the utility infrastructure (down poles, trees on lines, blown transformers, etc.) that needed attention and only 1200 crews available to do the work. Because the work is very dangerous, there are limits to what volunteers could do to without training - this is something that I am going to follow up with Governor Christie on.
TJ and Sarah were doing OK. TJ stayed in New Brunswick and his power came back on in the late afternoon. Sarah hung out with her friends. There was rumors that Rutgers would cancel classes for the whole week.
After I hung up the from the conference call with the utility company, the Chief called me and said the there was a steakhouse in Flemington open. So I called Vicki and said I would come by and pick her and Heather up for dinner. On my way home, I drove through both Somerville and Flemington and there were a few gas stations open. The lines were about 50-75 cars at each place - power was not going to be the problem - it would be supply. After I picked up Vicki and Heather and drove by the same gas station - they were out.
The wait at the restaurant was about hour and we hung at the bar. Normally, we would balk at such a wait. Not tonight - we could hang at the bar and watch the news and we did. The news highlights showed the highlights of the devastation around NJ and the images were generally worse than anything that I saw in person today. So no matter how bad we had it, others had it worse.
We will go to bed early tonight and get up to see what another day holds.
Tony Rumjog
posted by Tony Rumjog @ 8:50 PM
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