More Hurricane Sandy Reflections

Sadly, Hurricane Sandy paralyzed our area and the entire upper East coast of the U.S. and left over 30 people dead. We were without electricity in our neighborhood until after 1:00 this afternoon. When the power came back up and we were able to turn the TV on again, the full impact of the hurricane was apparent. One of the first images I saw that struck me was on one of the local networks, and it was a house that is only a few blocks from my own. Here is the house at it appears on Google.

And here is the house at it appeared at 3:15 this afternoon.

The tree uprooted and fell onto the house. The vehicle in the Google image was not there, so I hope this means it was not there when the tree fell. And I hope that no one inside the house was injured.

When I drove by and saw that devastation just a few bock away, I could not help but think, "There but for the grace of God go I." It could easily have been my house, my yard, my tree. I took this snapshot yesterday as the wind blew so strongly that it made the windsocks stand straight out, parallel to the ground, for sustained periods of time.

We only lost a few small branches, mere twigs in comparison to the monstrous losses that others sustained. I am grateful to God for protecting my family, our house, and all those in Northern Virginia. We were lucky. And we should all be grateful.

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Hurricane Sandy Brings Families Closer Together

We are in the midst of Hurricane Sandy, or at least what is left of her. All day it has been raining here in Arlington, Virginia. Around 4:00 it started getting really windy. It is continuing to blow hard, with rain interspersed.

My mother-in-law is visiting from Texas, so we had a nice dinner together tonight. Then we started playing Dominoes. We took a break after the 4th round to have cake and ice cream, and that's when the electricity went out. So, the game was suspended, and we are now sitting in the living room with candles burning all around. I am actually the only one still awake. The others have all fallen asleep-- two on the love seat, one on the sofa, and the youngest went downstairs to her makeshift room in the basement since Grandma is using her room. 

The public high school on the other side of the fence from our yard has generators, so the lights are on in most of the windows. The light that is being cast is eerie, almost like a horror movie with a foreboding sense.

It is not likely that we will regain power tonight, as unions will not approve public service workers going out in the rain and storm to fix downed power lines. We will just make sure we have extra blankets on stand by and curl up for a good nights rest. I just hope the food in the fridge stays cold enough. Especially that big pot of chilli that I cooked today in anticipation of just such an occurrence.

Did I mention that the federal government and all local state (MD, DC, VA) offices are closed tomorrow? Yes, once again we get a day at  home. I do not know what is going to happen with my planned trip to Dallas on Wednesday. Airlines have cancelled flights into and out of Reagan National and Dulles until further notice. I am flying out of BWI, so I have not been notified of any cancellation at this point. As far as I know I am still on for the flight.

I am going to wake up my crew and get them off to bed in their appropriate quarters. That's my job. And I have to fulfill my mission. Good night.

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