Adventures in Hurricaning

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In case anyone was wondering where Sarah and I were:

Hurricane Isabel hit Virginia on Thursday afternoon. Sarah left work at noon and I left at one, going to the grocery store first to get some soup and bottled water and various other stuff. Then we got comfortable in the apartment and waited for the shit to hit. There was heavy rain and wind. Power went out at 3:00 on Thursday. We read until it was too dark, then we lit a shitload of candles and played Trivial Pursuit, which I won handily. Tried to read by candlelight. Decided to sleep in the living room instead of the bedroom to avoid any possible tree intrusion. Scary trees swinging violently in the back yard. So I slept on the floor and S slept on the couch.

Woke up Friday to sunny skies and many felled trees and scattered branches. Got dressed, walked around in the sunshine. Talked to neighbors and strangers, saw cars crushed by heavy trees but not much house damage in our neighborhood fortunately. My cell phone finally worked and there was a message saying work was cancelled. Boo-yah. Sarah didn't know if she was supposed to go in and couldn't get in touch with her boss but decided to stay home. Still no power. Read like 300 pages of my book. Played Scrabble, which was close, but Sarah won. We decided to go out on a driving adventure to see if anything was open. Went to a gas station, got yelled at by an extremely pissed-off woman for accidently butting in line. Drove up the main drag, nothing was open, billows of smoke on the horizon from what we retrospectively discovered was a flaming Shoneys. Turned around drove home. Went to Sarah's mom's house to stay the night because she had power. Our power came back on around 10:00 PM while we were out. Lots of people still don't have power and we're not supposed to drink the tapwater.

My work still didn't have power this morning, it came back on about an hour ago. We had to drive up to Kinkos to make copies and use flashlights to navigate the office. It was weird. The office fridge smelled bad but we had been meaning to defrost anyways.

Overall, a fairly positive experience. No property damage, an extra 1 1/2 days of weekend, though they were kind of boring.

Any other good hurricane stories? Is everyone OK?

― NA (Nick A.), Monday, 22 September 2003 15:11 (twenty-two years ago)

Pretty much the same for me, except in MD and w/o power loss on our part.

...

As similar as that is.

― Girolamo Savonarola, Monday, 22 September 2003 15:14 (twenty-two years ago)

Life without electricity is odd and kind of dull. I hate not even being able to read.

― NA (Nick A.), Monday, 22 September 2003 15:18 (twenty-two years ago)

I often feel that way about life with electricity. (Gee, I'm fun, aren't I?)

― Girolamo Savonarola, Monday, 22 September 2003 15:24 (twenty-two years ago)

Any pictures?

― s1utsky (slutsky), Monday, 22 September 2003 15:34 (twenty-two years ago)

(PS glad you dudes are OK)

― s1utsky (slutsky), Monday, 22 September 2003 15:34 (twenty-two years ago)

No, we should have brought one on our survey of the disaster walk on Fri. morning, there were great uprooted trees and flattened cars, but we stupidly forgot.

― NA (Nick A.), Monday, 22 September 2003 15:36 (twenty-two years ago)

Glad y'all are okay. I dig storm days.

― luna (luna.c), Monday, 22 September 2003 15:38 (twenty-two years ago)

By "one," I meant a camera.

― NA (Nick A.), Monday, 22 September 2003 15:39 (twenty-two years ago)

On the Vineyard for it, had 10 foot waves. No rain.

― Chris V. (Chris V), Monday, 22 September 2003 15:42 (twenty-two years ago)

OK, now I want you guys to move to Portland so I can play board games with you.

Was this your first hurricane? (As opposed to, I guess, "Was this your first hurricane together? Aw, how romantic!")

― Chris P (Chris P), Monday, 22 September 2003 15:54 (twenty-two years ago)

I was in a hurricane in Trinidad & Tobago when I was 16. I was staying with a friend's huge extended family by the beach. We split into two groups and hunkered down, mattresses over windows, couches upturned. It was a lot more scary then. Plus, the women in charge of my group kept saying the rosary aloud and occasionally praying, "Please don't let Sarah Johnson die. We don't want to have to tell her parents."

This one was overall pretty fun. I'm ready for another vacation.

― Sarah McLUsky (coco), Monday, 22 September 2003 19:59 (twenty-two years ago)

"Please don't let Sarah Johnson die. We don't want to have to tell her parents."

So if you had died, but they didn't have to tell your parents for one reason or another, it's okay?

― Girolamo Savonarola, Monday, 22 September 2003 20:04 (twenty-two years ago)

I am tremendously grateful you guys are ok and that things are slowly returning to normal. Sucks about the property damage and whatnot, but it's nice to hear an update from you guys. Thank you!

― Legendary Nothingness (Dee the Lurker), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 01:15 (twenty-two years ago)

I've lived throught this so many times it ain't funny. It's never fun, but a category 2 hurricane could be a lot lot worse, too. Remember that.

And jeez, will the media remember that, too, plz? I'm bitter about the amount of press Isabel got. No one gave half a shit about all the hurricanes that hit me!

Glad you two are ok, as well. And unsurprised.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 01:29 (twenty-two years ago)

I have to say, I've always had fun during hurricanes.

― Chris P (Chris P), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 01:32 (twenty-two years ago)

Yay, I am glad you two are ok, as I was beginning to wonder where you had got to, like the big old worry head I am!! Still, good to have you both back safe & sound.

― Pinkpanther (Pinkpanther), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 07:40 (twenty-two years ago)

Quite a few people still don't have power at home. You can tell who they are because they are going a bit crazy with boredome at this point and going to the grocery store excites them.

I wouldn't have been as scared about the storm had my mom not been freaking out all week and sending me long email lists of things I absolutely must have or do lest I blow away in the hurricane. Then she scolded me via cell phone Friday morning for not having a transistor radio.

Most of the stoplights are still out so it feels a bit like anarchy.

― Sarah McLUsky (coco), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 12:10 (twenty-two years ago)

So is it chaos or has normality been restored?

― Pinkpanther (Pinkpanther), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 12:17 (twenty-two years ago)

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