What a difference a year makes

Today is he anniversary of Hurricane Sandy. I am sure that many people in the northeast are reminiscing the events of the day.

Reminiscing? Really?

Who are we kidding? Most of us are are probably reliving the horror of that day. At the height of the storm, I hovered in my stairwell as tree limb (the one that ripped out my neighbor's power line), after tree (the one that fell in my backyard), after tree (the one that crushed my car and tore down my power line) crashed to the ground. The blast of my chimney exploding apart. The wind. I don't ever want to hear wind like that again.

My daughter evacuated her basement apartment and was staying at the apartment of a friend who lived on the third floor. She watched the water pour into the first floor of that building. She wondered if she would have an apartment to go back to.

But the storm ended. The next day came. The damage was done.

The police were in my driveway at 8am on Tuesday. They filled out a report and advised me that the first thing I needed to do was to get the tree off of my car.

My sister came and rescued me. She was one of the few in the northeast that had electricity. I was able to start my insurance claims, find a tree company to come and cut the tree off my car and get a rental car all that same day. I started the process of moving things along.

This was my house the day after the storm.

This is my house today.

Over the last year I have made a few changes to hopefully be better prepared for the next storm.

I had 3 large trees cut down in front of my house. I could not get them down fast enough. Every time the wind blew a little too hard, I was convinced they would come crashing down. Traumatized? Just a little.

I had a wood burning stove installed so I would always have a source of heat when the power goes out. Paranoid? Absolutely!

I no longer stock pile food in my freezer. I am tired of putting in claims for lost food due to lack of electricity.

I no longer park under trees of any kind, even on the sunniest of days. 

I have not gotten a generator like most of the neighborhood because they scare me a bit.

Somehow though, throughout the entire ordeal I found myself grateful. Grateful that it was only my car that got damaged, grateful that I was only without power for 4 days, grateful that I was able to find people to help me.

And today? I am grateful that the sun is shining and with no storm in sight.

Until next time...