A Storm to Remember

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The last few days have been an absolutely whirlwind with Hurricane Sandy hitting us. In all the years we have lived here, we have never experienced anything like it or its aftermath.

If you were lucky enough to not be in its path and/or have never experienced a Hurricane, I can't begin to explain to you how eerie it sounds. Throw in watching the crazy wind outside your window along with rain -- it's scary. Times a million.

At the height of the storm, two trees were knocked down in our backyard. One, at the back of our backyard (our neighbors tree fell into our backyard) following a loud (and terrifying) bang.

Under that fallen tree, is what to used to be our shed (that was collapsed by the tree).

The other: terrifyingly close to our patio door in our family room where we were sitting riding out the storm. Watching this tree sway uncontrollably and knowing it was inevitable was insane. Worse was not knowing what direction it would fall in.

Luckily, it barely missed our house:

Terrifyingly close, but so grateful.

Tuesday morning we took a drive around our area to see the aftermath, and it was devastating:  fallen trees along with downed wires everywhere that were quite hazardous. A couple of houses had trees fall on them (hopefully no one was injured inside!).

We were lucky enough to not lose power until about 8 PM on Monday right at the height of the storm as it was hitting land (others lost it as early as that afternoon). Altogether, we lost power for 40 hours before it was restored in the early afternoon on Wednesday.

In all honestly, the worst part of the power outage was the lack of heating. I am usually always cold on a normal day, so it was especially trying for me (wearing multiple layers and sleeping with just many over me got me through it along with hand warmers).

While this 40 hours of no electricity was no fun and very trying in many ways, it was a good reminder of how much we take for granted on a daily basis. Multiples times I had to remind myself that it is the norm for so many around the world to be without electricity and lack of resources on a regular basis. We have so much to be thankful for, yet we take it for granted. It's been a humbling experience for sure.

Just in this experience alone: we were so fortunate to not too much rain, and therefore flooding wasn't an issue. With Hurricane Irene last year (which was weaker than this storm), we had flooding as a major issue in our area (and in our basement). To see the devastation with the flooding in some areas with Hurricane Sandy, it is hard to fathom what would have happened if we had more rain. A combination of more rain and the downed wires would have been a recipe for disaster.

I was also positively surprised that PSE&G was able to restore our power after just 40 hours. While the 40 hours seemed incredibly long, in the grand scheme of things -- it was barely anything -- especially considering how massive and widespread the storm hit.

I've said it over and again in the last few days: Hurricane Sandy was barely a Category One when it hit us. I can't begin to fathom the aftermath and destruction of anything more, let alone Category Five storms.

Something to smile about:

After all the devastation that hit our area, look at that nest that is still in tact after the storm in our neighbor's yard.