Our Bishop asked us to write down our experience with Hurricane Irene for a meeting our ward is going to have this month. Everyone is going to submit their stories and we are going to talk about what we all learned. I decided to write our story down here. Maybe it will help someone else someday.
When we first heard she was coming I do admit it was exciting. I went to Walmart one day to get the essentials, and all the essentials were gone. People were getting frantic. Some people in our ward kept telling us it wasn't going to be a big deal. Long Island would protect us. But then the news started reporting that they were worried the Sound would fill up with water, and that is exactly what happened. Homes just floated away along the beach. Our stake has spent many weekends since the storm doing Mormon Helping Hands. The damage along the beaches was indescribable.
We didn't know we would loose water when we lost our power until the day before the storm. Luckily the Relief Society President of our Ward called us to make sure we had filled up our bath tub. Why you ask? Because people have private wells out here instead of city water. If there isn't power to run the well, there isn't water. If there isn't water, there is no toilet:) So we filled our bath tub. Unfortunately our bath tub drained in the night. Luckily John had a feeling in the beginning of the summer to start storing water. We had been filling every empty juice or milk carton all summer. That water lasted us a few days and our friends who live in an apartment with city water let us get water from them. Oh, and we had our neighbors pool. Can't forget that. We started flushing the toilet with the pool water towards the end.
Now the tree on the house. We heard it fall at about 3 am. We were asleep and when it crashed onto the house we about hit the roof. John and I jumped out of bed so fast. We had been really worried about the trees in front of our house but never thought about the ones behind the house. I went to the windows and looked out front. There was nothing. I walked around the house trying to figure out what had happened but never found anything. I opened the doors to the kids bedrooms. They were all sleeping soundly. It never dawned on me to check the back of the house. I never went back to sleep. I was so scared. I told John that I was scared, he said he was scared too, but fell back to sleep almost instantly - Men!!! When it started to get light I went out to the living room and turned on the TV. Mei followed me. After awhile she went to the bathroom. When she returned she told me there was a tree in the bathroom. I ran to check, and there it was. A tree folded up against the bathroom window. I ran into the kitchen. I cannot even describe to you what it looked like. Pictures don't due it justice. I woke up John and we checked the boys room. If you looked at it through the boys window it looked like it had just curled up. Before we went to sleep the night before we prayed as a family that we would stay safe from the trees. I know that tree curled up for a reason. Elliot and Wells would not be here if it hadn't.
We decided to go down to the basement after we saw the tree. The emergency sirens were going off on the TV for tornado's, storm surge, & flooding. I think their was like seven alerts on my phone. The power went out after we went downstairs. We stayed down there until the eye had gone over us.
We didn't have water or power for four days. We were actually the lucky ones. There were family's in our ward who didn't have water or power for over a week. We got to know our neighbors, and other ward members really well. One night we were suppose to go over to a friends house to take a cold shower and have dinner. John informed me on the way over that he had found a shower at the hospital that we could use. We told our friends we were going to go to the hospital instead. John did not tell me where the shower was until we were near the hospital. He had been on his autopsy rotation so the shower was in the morgue. We tried not to touch anything and worked supper fast to get everyone cleaned up. The night the power came back on we were going to go back to the morgue for another shower (thank goodness we didn't have to go back). We danced around and cheered when the power came on. Our neighbors are a Italian couple in their late fifty's-early sixty's. The kids ran over to celebrate with them too. We all danced for Joy!
Church had been cancelled the day of the storm of course. And the following Sunday we didn't know if we would be able to go to church because the building was still without power and trees and power lines were still down in the area. Saturday night we found out the power was restored and the area was safe for us to attend church. That Sunday was one of the best Sundays I have ever had. The stories of service were remarkable. I will never forget that.
It looked like we lived in a war zone for awhile. It took them almost a month to get the tree off the house. The other large tree down in the back is still there. I don't know when it will be cleaned up.
If I were to say what we learned, I think the first one would be the water. I will save and store water now until the day I die. That was the hardest. I did everything they recommended on the news channels. I gassed up our cars, had flashlights and batteries ready to go. We had plenty of food and drinking water. We took out cash from an ATM. Being without power wasn't that bad. Maybe the water situation took all the attention, so the loss of power seemed easier. John had to keep working that week, so I was on my own. I think that was the other great lesson. It was a good thing I had been to girls camp every year and have been taught supper camping and survival skills from my family since the day was born. In my family girls are no exception. You work hard no matter who you are. I am so grateful I knew how to start a fire, and cook in the dutch oven. My girls will know these skills for sure.
I don't ever want to go through something like that again. But if we do, I know we will be a little more prepared. A generator and solar shower are on my Christmas list this year:)
My mom came to visit last summer. A friend of mine who lives in the city offered us a place to stay so we could "experience the city". I really love and admire her. Some day if I am ever rich I hope to be like her. She is so generous. But back to my story....
Then the day turned into this. We were on one of those red bus tours (lots of fun. the kids especially loved it in the rain. i liked it better the following day when it was blue sky's). My camera was in my diaper bag pocket next to me on the seat. This is the last picture I took. Half way through the tour we decided to get off and get a taxi to take us home. When we got home the pocket where my camera was hiding was full of water. My camera floating in the water. Goodbye camera.
So to make a long story short we finally got a new, fabulous, beautiful, wonderful camera. I am still out of the habit of actually taking pictures. Not having one for a while will do that to you. But I have high hopes. We got our new camera about the same time that my family came to visit for Thanksgiving. We took them to The Breakers in Newport, RI on our way to Cape Cod. My sister Kate and I had already seen the inside so we stayed outside with the little ones. We decided to try out the new camera with jumping pictures. So, so funny. Now I just need to learn to use the camera. I want to take some classes. John told me to just by a book and read it. This coming from the person who carries around huge text books where ever we go. Maybe he forgot who he is married to. I am going to have to figure something else out. But now that we have this camera I am hoping to better about our blog. HOPING is the key word. 
