Hurricane Sandy

These pictures are just the tip of the iceberg of the damage that can be seen from really anywhere on Long Island right now. Around every corner there are more trees down, more power cords hanging, and more and more debris. And..ahem..from what you can see these are not small trees. I was driving today and a power post was snapped hanging over,  but hadn't fallen, and cars were just driving by, and I thought "Jeez, that looks like it could give any moment." 

This is our second hurricane since being here in Long Island. The first was built up for a least week, and I caught wind (ha) of Sandy just a couple days prior to it hitting. I was worried, more worried this time than before. I also wanted to feel more prepared than I was before. Though, Hurricane Irene was very built up- it left us without power for 4 days. I kept wondering "are they just building this one up again?" But, the more I learned about it the less I thought that was the case. I am also not meteorologist, I guess I am better off taking their word for it. So I got some much stronger tape than last time-gorilla tape, and we taped up all our windows, moved around the furniture especially the boys room so Kaj would not be sleeping under any windows, I started compiling packs. Packs of updated clothing, packs of warms clothes, bags of food, all that could be easily accessible, and the diaper bag with just diapers filled to the brim, all in the event that if we needed to leave quickly, we could do so. I found myself making sandwiches?..it seemed like a good idea. I made a bread loaf's full of peanut butter and jam sandwiches, in case we needed to leave, also if we didn't have power they would be easy to just take out, and something Kaj would always eat. We got all our water ready, all of our flashlights, headlamps, matches and candles at the ready, also turned our fridge down to the coldest setting...and just..waited. It is a weird thing waiting for the inevitable storm. We were thankful for technology today that would  allow people to prep, otherwise we wouldn't be waiting, we would just be hit.  

So Monday, the day of the hurricane around 2 in the afternoon we lost power. It was still light enough in the house that it wasn't too bad for the boys, and we didn't have to use up our other lights. We moved a bunch of food to the cooler. And, since the real brunt of the storm wasn't supposed to hit till around 6 that night we knew we were still just waiting to see what happened. So we continued being hunkered down. We had a soup on the stove, and suddenly at around 4:30 the lights all turned back on. "No way." Was Sam's reaction. We thought, of course, it was only a matter of time, till we lost power again, but like a miracle. We did not. We streamed the live footage of the storm, were aware of when it had struck land, we could hear the angry winds, and a couple times are lights flickered, but honestly there was calm in our house. I was no longer worried, I know Sam was not worried, because he doesn't get worried like I do, and as long we acted excited about the wind to Kaj "Oohh wow do you hear the wind! Whoa!" he was not scared of anything either. 

As we looked around our neighborhood the following day, it seemed even more amazing that we hadn't lost power. Later we found out that 90% of the island was without...Needless to say, we said a lot of prayers of thanksgiving that day for the tender mercies of Lord to allow us to have power. We helped other people in the ward, and extended our home out to anyone for their power needs. We are still in the thick of recovery from the storm. There are only some gas stations that are up and running, and the ones that have been working are assurely running out of fuel. The lines to get gas are that of an amusement park ride, and is definitely not as fun when you are finally to the end. There are also schools and stores, that have shut down, and it is not yet known when they will open back up. The stocks of food at stores that are open are slowly running out of food as well. 

We are thankful for family and friends that expressed their love and concern for us, and we definitely are grateful for all the prayers. Long Islanders seem to be wanting to lend a helping hand to others, which is a lovely thing to see. We officially made it through hurricane #2, Hurricane Sandy.