My previous post on Cardboard History ended up being a first, and hopefully a last as well. It was published without power.. Hurricane Isaias hit the Hudson Valley hard, and we didn't escape damage. Power was out for more than 25 hours, costing us the entire contents of our fridge. A neighbor's tree snapped in half an ended up in our yard...and being without power so long, I missed an entire day of Topps Now NHL stickers. (I had scheduled the previous post, by the way)
This is my yard during the storm.
My mom and I were sitting in the car- power was already out by this point, and it was cooler outside, and brighter too, so I went out there to read. We heard a loud cracking and it turned out the tree in the yard behind us had snapped clear in half.
I had actually been up where it fell taking pictures only about 10 minutes before. When it fell the storm had already moved on, it was no longer raining and the wind had almost died down completely.
With no power the stars seemed brighter...the entire area was blacked out so no light pollution whatsoever. This is the moon, my camera doesn't have the capability to capture stars very well.
This is taken the next morning, still without power, already starting to wilt.
So, since with my health problems I can't deal with the heat, we ended up at a local Holiday Inn. They had some interesting stuff, like a nightlight in the bathroom plug,
a giant TV
And a really weird light.
The bathroom mirror had the lights built into it! Never saw that before. And it was in two panels on two walls.
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Here's me with the downed tree, to give it some scale.
Our spare fence piece blew down in the storm, and when I flipped it back upright several crickets came hopping out from under it. You can see one in the photo, on the second plank from the bottom.
The dual hook hanger that our bird feeder is on was supporting the entire weight of the tree.
During the outage, I read this entire book cover to cover.
The owner of the yard behind us, who owned the tree, hired a small family run tree company to remove it, and they were fast and efficient! We were so happy with them we are going to higher them to do some stuff ourselves.
It only took them about 25-30 minutes to clear it totally.
Here it is now...
like nothing ever happened. We may have lost our suet feeder (or it may have just knocked it down when it fell, forgot to check) but we got off fairly well with yard damage.
It turned out to be the second longest power outage of my life, at more than 25 hours. Really not fun, but at least it's in the past now.
Billy, you're lucky your neighbor had the people come to your yard and take care of the tree. When we had the macroburst 2 years ago, when we contacted our insuarnce company, they told us the law is that we were responsible for the trees in our yard, but not the ones in other yards. So our neighbor's tree in our yard - our responsibility. Our trees in the State's (Downstate) property, their responsibility. And that right there was probably $500-$1,000 worth of work. Sorry about your food, been there before too. We dodged this one, somehow. I have co-workers in Westchester that are still w/o power. Crazy!
ReplyDeleteI guess it evens out, because we missed that microburst totally...even though trees were down pretty close to us.
DeleteCrazy adventure and awesome neighbors. Having been to Pompei, it is quite the place. So cool to explore and walk the streets! Glad you are safe!
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid if I ever go to Italy I'll never come back. So much history to explore.
DeleteGlad to hear you're safe and you've got your power back. My house has been without power for three and a half days now and ConEd puts the ETA for the power returning at 11 PM on Monday. SMH.
ReplyDeleteWow, that's awful. I hope it came back for you sooner than they expected.
DeleteHappy you are safe and that your health wasn't too affected by the storm!
ReplyDeleteMe too, thanks!
DeleteGlad to hear you got thru the hurricane with minor damage/losses. As you know, it could've been much worse. Love the pictures.
ReplyDeleteThanks! Yes, could have been much worse.
DeleteGlad to hear all is well!
ReplyDeleteThanks!
DeleteI know people who live down that way. All they got was wind and some rain. Weird.
ReplyDeleteI spent eight days without power in January during the '98 ice storm. Every time the power threatens to go out up here in the winter I say, "why can't it be summer when this happens?" So, there's that, I guess.
Eight days? Yikes. The last time we had to leave from a storm was a snowstorm in 2010, we were without power for only three days with that one. The rain we got wasn't too bad...not as much as they predicted. The wind wasn't horrible but it took down a bunch of power lines.
DeleteGlad to hear that your family is safe. That's a shame that you guys had to throw out the contents of your fridge. Hopefully you were able to salvage some things. Your trip to the Holiday Inn reminds me of a summer here a few years ago. It was so hot and my AC unit hadn't been replaced, so I started looking around for local hotels/motels. When I discovered it was going to set me back triple digits, it was a sign that I needed to finally get off my butt and replace the unit. It's the most expensive thing I've purchased in the last decade or so... but one of my favorite purchases. That's how much I dislike the heat.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I'd be alive anymore if we didn't have AC. I don't just dislike the heat- it gives me trouble breathing, which has gotten worse as I have gotten older. We got our first AC unit in 2000, it really may be a lifesaver.
DeleteWow. Glad nobody was hurt and the tree was far enough away from houses to do any damage there. Glad to see that your neighbors could get a service to come and take care of the fallen tree quickly.
ReplyDeleteThat's true...there was an even taller tree next to it that was taken down a couple of years ago, because the owner was afraid it would fall and hit houses...mine or my neighbor's depending on which way the wind was blowing the day it went down.
DeleteGlad you all made it through safely, Billy. And hey, you got a hotel stay out of it. That's not so bad, right?
ReplyDeleteI'm not a huge hotel person, but we got T.G.I. Friday's out of it...first time in over a decade! And that was great. They now have my favorite mashed potatoes ever.
DeleteMashed potatoes are great! I'm happy you and the family are safe. And that the folks next door had someone on the tree quickly.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't believe how fast they took care of it. We expected it to be a problem, but it was great.
DeleteWow I'm really surprised that tree didn't take out your chain link fence. Glad your house was spared!
ReplyDelete