Waiting for Hurricane Sandy. SJ Dodgson. MJoTA 2012 v6n2 1030
Wed Oct 24 2012
I drove supplies to my son Allister at Richard Stockton College near Atlantic City. He told me that he was rowing on Oct 27, and that the college was extremely concerned about the impending hurricane and "Frankenstorm".
I spent the evening trying to find a flight to Sydney leaving Oct 31. I realized rapidly that if the storm was anything like its predictions, a flight ticket on Oct 31 was useless, I would not even be able to get to New York City even if the planes were flying.
Richard Stockton College click here.
Sun Oct 28
2pm Philadelphia. I arrived at church, at the Tansi Igbo mass at St Cyprian's Church. The congregation was half the usual size, but the choir was complete and the music was wonderful as always. The Harvest Festival and Bazaar scheduled was cancelled because of the impending storm, but the priest Father Kiernan decided that the food that had been made had to be eaten, so after church we all trooped down to the basement.
Ah, the basement. During a memorial service in June, the basement floor was under 3 inches of water, and so I mopped and mopped and mopped. Seeing a woman in African clothes stand around and do nothing would have been a bad example. Some of the women followed me and helped, a lot of the women are nurses and have young children and get little sleep: they sat around dazed with their babies and some of the men, waiting for the floors to be cleared. I am thinking the basement will be under 6 inches of water tonight.
Father Kieran click here.
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Above and below, Newton Lake Park, Camden County, New Jersey after Hurricane Irene in Aug 2011.
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Mon
Oct 29 2012
Tens of millions of residents have been evacuated and I am looking at pictures of flooded streets in coastal towns from Virginia to New Jersey. The sea water is high already in New York City, and that is really worrying the officials in New York.
12.25pm South Jersey. The trees are moving slightly, gray day,
drizzling rain. My contractor got bored at his home, made 2 attempts to
drive from his house to mine but the cops stopped him; third time he
made it and is happily spackling and listening to music on the radio.
2.52pm South Jersey.
I have heard from my daughter at Drexel University. She is catching up
on homework and studying since classes and rowing are cancelled fro 2
days. She is going to have to make a mad dash to a campus shop for some
essential supplies. I haven't heard from any of my 3 sons, or from a
Haitian who is important to me. Are the phone lines down in New York City?
Haiti click here.
Rain, rain and more rain. Not heavy but not stopping.
10pm
South Jersey. Hurricane Sandy made landfall in Atlantic City at 8pm.
Atlantic City is 50 miles to my east; enough distance to stop the trees
doing anything but wave happily in the wind.
Richard Stockton
College, 9 miles from Atlantic City and with a huge lake in the middle
of campus, is flooded, and I have not yet heard ether the solar panels
in the parking lots have survived.
Where I am, we miss all
extreme weather, all terrorism, all danger. Everything just blows over
the top of Haddonfield and drowns Philadelphia, New York.
My son Angus in Edgewater New Jersey, which is across the Hudson River from Harlem: no power. My son Allister is camping out in Haddonfield while his college mops up the mess at Richard Stockton College. My son Miles in Baltimore: he seems to have ignored the storm and has kept building robots. My daughter Patience is still doing homework in Philadelphia in the Drexel dormitories.
I
finally heard from my Haitian friend in Manhattan: last night, after
speaking with me, he nipped out to NYC's JFK airport last night and
decamped to Chicago.
A few trees are still waving at me, but nothing is loud, nothing flickered, nothing has fallen.
Cold
and dreary, and the police stopping all cars: we are all in prison. But
a good prison, getting ready to fly to Oz on Monday for 20 days.
But
100 miles north in New york City: my goodness, shelters are filled,
forced evacuations, flooded streets, no power, street furniture and
trees have fallen down all over the city.
Tues Oct 30 2012
Press release from New York City: "Notification issued 10/30/12 at 2:00 PM. All NYC East River bridges are
open but please stay off the roads and allow emergency personnel the
opportunity to restore essential city services. All MTA bridges except
the ones in the Rockaways are open.
NYC public parks will be closed until further notice."
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