November 2, 2012

Speechless

This past week has been a crazy one for our family - while Hurricane Sandy didn't affect us too greatly here in Massachusetts, it has impacted our home in Connecticut and our home in NJ where my husband's family has had a place for over 75 years.

We had 15-18 trees fall around our house in CT...miraculously only 1 hit the house and it only hit a deck railing.  The local tree guys have told our tenants that it is the worst destruction they have seen on a single piece of property.  These photos don't even begin to show what happened.  Had the wind from a different direction, a whole stand of trees that fell would have hit our house.






















Our house in NJ is situated between the Ocean and Barnegat Bay.  The water was up over the railing of the front porch.  It looks okay from the outside but we have yet to see the damage to the inside as there was 2 feet of water inside our neighbor's house and we're expecting the same for our home.  Our neighbor said their first floor is filled with sand, silt, mud and smell.















This is what it looks like down our street looking towards the ocean:















We can't get to the NJ house right now as we wouldn't be able to gas up to come home and we can't stay with any family or friends on the way back as they don't have power.  We hope in the next few weeks we can go down, have a good cry, and figure out what needs to happen.

It's sad for so many - there are so many who lost their homes entirely.  I feel lucky as things could have been so much worse.  I'm thankful for our neighbors in CT who brought over chainsaws and helped our tenants get out of the driveway.  I'm thankful for our neighbors in NJ who survived the storm and could keep us updated.  Tears have flowed a lot around here...sadness and joy and relief and frustration.

Thanks for listening and if you have a chance, reach out to someone who needs a hand...this storm leaves me speechless at times.

PS after seeing the Hurricane Sandy concert on NBC, have to add: You can also go to www.redcross.org or call 1-800-HELPNOW, 1-800-435-7669.

1 comment:

Millie said...

I'm glad to hear you and your family are safe and the destruction is minimal compared to
what happened elsewhere.

I have been wondering about Jennifer (Major Knitter) also, and Sally in D.C. (She's one of the Rainey Sisters).

Here in East Central Ohio we were very lucky; we just got days of heavy, cold rain.

Millie