Hurricane Sandy

The first hurricane I went through was while living in Houston, Texas in 1983. This was Hurricane Alicia. I remember the high winds which caused our trees to lay nearly flat to the ground. Our electricity went out that day, but the old phone lines of the Bell System stayed open throughout the storm. Hurricane Sandy is my second experience.

Prior to the Storm

We knew the hurricane was going to make landfall somewhere on the east coast. As we were told it would make landfall on Monday night, I went to Syracuse to visit friends of Elizabeth on Friday night. I stayed with Kathy and Hal, and on Sunday I visited with the Crabtree family.

On Saturday, Kathy, Hal and I went to Utica, New York to the FX Matz Brewing Company. When we got there, they were experiencing a power failure, so the tour was called off. However, we were invited to the bar upstairs to sample the "brews" manufactured at this site. At some point they announced that there was a special on beer downstairs: buy one case of beer and get two cases free. I couldn't turn down that offer.

Terry and Hal at the Brewery	The "deal of the day". Saranac varieties.

 

The Gas Lines

The night of the hurricane's landfall on the Jersey coast was very windy. For those of us living north of the hurricane's center, we had only a few inches of rainfall. The families living South of its center had 6-12 inches of rain. I had electricity through most of the night, but when I awoke in the morning I had lost electricity.

Fortunately I had a generator and 10 gallons of gas. This allowed me to have lights, TV, an active refrigerator and heat for the next day and a half. But when the gas was gone, I began to search for gas in earnest. The roads were full of cars and reminded me of the congestion you see around the weekends preceeding the Christmas holidays. Everyone was looking for gas, but with no electricity to make the pumps work, few gas stations were open. When they did open, cars lined up for miles, and they continued to pump until the gas was gone. The police would then tell all those still waiting to leave as the gas was gone. On my second attempt to get into a gas line, I was fortunate. I decided to park my car when I saw a station open...grabbed my 5 gallon container...and stood in line.

These are some of the pictures of this experience.

The first line I waited in. I was so close... before the police said, "no gas left."
A picture of my family room. I had the radio, TV, heater, coffee pot, refrigerator and lights connected to the generator. At some point, I had quite a few extension cords laying on the floor.

 

I was fortunate. My electricity came on before it really got cold. I feel sorry for all those who are still waiting. At this time there are about 1.5 million New Jersey residents without power. They may not get power until later next week.