Powerless.

10-31-12 VERMONT: Sandy turned out to be a true horror and a killer. The storm surge, 14 feet in NYC, was the worst yet recorded and caused most of the damage, especially to shore front communities in NJ, along the Hudson River, on the Long Island south shore as well as the Sound shores. The high winds contributed to the shore damage and did much mischief in towns like Short Hills where hundreds of trees came down, bringing down all the wires as well. Most of New Jersey is without power, as were we. NYC below 42nd Street and Long Island are also black. Val’s family in Brooklyn Heights never lost power. There was probably no more than a half inch of rain, our sump pump never ran, even before we lost power.

We spent two days in the dark, literally and figuratively, using candles, flashlights, the fireplace, listening to news on the car radio and using the cell phone. We had no TV, Internet, home phone, power, but did have hot and cold running water, like 1950’s motels used to advertise. Cell phones were unreliable because of damage to their towers. The experience was a taste of post-apocalyptic life.

Kings Super Market, open on Tuesday morning [!], had a sign in the window this morning saying, ‘No Ice, Batteries, Bread or Matches’. We saw gas lines with 20 or 30 cars, and decided to flee the scene. Feeling a bit like traitors, we drove to Vermont, which we had just left on Sunday. North of Hartford there was no sign of storm damage. Here there was rain, but no power outages, in a place where one outage a week is good electric service. So, we are orphans of the storm, but must return by Tuesday to exercise another type of power, voting.


Still some nice color in VT.