60 Hours, Day Four

Tuesday, Nov. 1. Still no power. Crawled out of bed, quickly dressed, put on boots and checked the water level in the basement. Yikes! Now eight inches and getting very close to an electrical socket on the basement wall.

I called our electrician to ask whether it would be dangerous if the water reached that socket, only a few inches away. He didn't think so, which wasn't a very comforting answer.

As we were having breakfast at about 10:15 a.m., THE LIGHTS CAME BACK ON! Hallelujah! The best thing was the heat started coming up and the sump pump began working. We turned off all the unnecessary lights but just as we were getting warm THE LIGHTS WENT OUT AGAIN!

We were crushed; visions of more powerless hours raced through our minds. But wait: THE POWER CAME ON AGAIN AND THIS TIME IT STAYED. It was 10:30 a.m., 60 hours after the blackout.

What about the basement? With the pump working again, the surface water drained off within an hour, leaving only a wet floor. We could deal with that. BUT, the water heater was still out of commission. That meant another day without hot water until our plumber could check it tomorrow.

Meantime, my wife called our insurance company and they could not have been more accommodating. A representative arrived that afternoon, surveyed our basement and back yard and scheduled a visit from a cleanup crew also for Wednesday, Nov. 2, which promised to be a busy day.

Looking ahead, we're expecting an adjuster on Monday, Nov. 7 to tell us what we can expect in the way of an insurance claim. Our electrician also will be here Monday to repair exterior power lines and replace a number of old outlets in the house.

In the meantime, the Verona Public Works Department has done a fantastic job clearing the streets of debris. We still have to weave around downed limbs as we drive through town but we CAN get through.

We feel for those elsewhere who still don't have power and we wish them well. For the moment, however, we're good to go.
Tomorrow will be a busy day. Stay tuned.

60 Hours, Day Three

Monday, October 31: first thing I did was check the water level in the basement. Sunday morning it was two inches. Now it was four inches and rising along with our anxiety level. Nothing we could do since our electricity-driven sump pump was not working.

We had been nursing our remaining hot water for two full days so we thought we'd try showering. Two quick showers and that was the end of the hot water.

Earlier, town work crews came through and pushed fallen tree limbs out of the street and onto our lawns. It was the first time we could venture safely out of the driveway.

Now able to move about, I went shopping for ice to salvage what we could of our perishables. The first shopping area I went to was closed. No power. Ditto my doctor's offices elsewhere in the neighborhood (I needed a copy of a report; not an emergency).

Forewarned, I called ahead to my car dealer two towns over to see if they could fix my auto's remote control. They were open for business and fixed the remote quickly. As it happened, I was near the supermarket we normally frequent so I buzzed over there to find they, too, were closed for lack of power.

Came home and reviewed our options. We needed that ice to keep the freezer chilled and save any foodstuffs that needed refrigeration. A Foodtown supermarket in Cedar Grove, one town over, had not lost power and they had ice. We bought three bags.

We have friends in Cedar Grove who also had power as well as a huge tree in front of their house, blocking their driveway and front door. We offered to share our “threatened” flank steak with them in exchange for dinner and a few hours of warmth. To get there, we walked through snow-covered grass to their back door. Greeted by Max, their friendly, rather large mixed- breed-mostly-shepherd dog.

Our gracious hosts had another “powerless” couple seeking refuge with them so the six of us had delicious grilled flank steak. Our hosts provided the trimmings along with a welcome glass of wine.

After warming up for a couple of hours we went home to another night in a dark and cold house, where a bag of 150 pieces of candy sat waiting for the trick-or-treaters who were canceled by Mother Nature's freak Halloween snow storm.

If you think this story is endless, think how we felt living it.

(To be continued, really)

60 Hours, Day Two

Sunday, October 30, dawned cold and clear. Mostly cold since we still had no electricity and thus no heat or hot water. We found Rosanne huddled in the corner of our den closest to the gas-fired space heater, the only source of warmth in the house.

Ira soon joined us for a breakfast of stove-top-cooked oatmeal and cold cereal. Much to my surprise our New York Times was delivered despite the storm. Reading the paper would help pass the time since there wasn't much else to do.

Whenever you lose power, one of the first things you think about is saving the food in the refrigerator and freezer. We had just bought meat for hamburgers and a flank steak, all of which were in the freezer.

I couldn't get to my patio grill because a large tree limb had fallen diagonally in front of it. So we cooked four hamburgers in a large frying pan on the stove. They weren’t the greatest but no one complained. We decided we could save the flank steak for at least one more day.

Rosanne and Ira made a quick trip to their house down the block but were back soon because they had no source of warmth at all. Ira came back with a load of magazines which he read while I spent the afternoon with The Times. It was the first time in a long time I actually read the Sunday paper on Sunday.

Enough was enough, we agreed. Let's go out for dinner. We called around and found a local diner was open for business. And what a business they were doing. It didn't take long before we were sharing storm stories with folks at a neighboring table.

Dinner was a welcome break from the cold and dark. Afterward, Rosanne and Ira decided to sleep at home, despite their cold house. We went our separate ways hoping Monday would bring some relief.

(To be continued)

60 Hours

In case you haven't noticed I haven't blogged for a while. One night I got lazy. However, for the last 60 hours we were without power thanks to the October snowstorm that slogged the Northeast. So no blogging. Too busy trying to keep warm and worrying about the water rising steadily in the basement.

(Before you start telling me that if I had a Smart Phone with satellite service I could bore you minute- by-minute with the details of our plight. Stop. Not interested. Neither would you be.)

Now we have some idea of how folks feel when hit by tornadoes and floods and hurricanes. At least we still have our house, the heat is back on and the water, which reached a depth of eight inches, has receded from the basement, leaving a minor mess.

I say minor because Hurricane Irene taught us a lesson. After Irene we emptied our basement of important papers (that was the shredding blog) and a lot of stuff we thought we should get rid of anyway. The water damaged some paneling and maybe the water heater, washer and dryer. We'll know more after the plumber checks things out tomorrow morning.

Meanwhile, driving around town we were amazed at the number of streets closed by fallen trees. In fact, we were lucky to get home Saturday night while the storm was raging.

With our friends, Rosanne and Ira, we had tickets to a show Saturday in New Brunswick which is about an hour from Verona. Ignoring all the warnings about the weather, we went. Rosanne is an excellent driver and got us there in time to have a cup of coffee before curtain time.

After the theater, Rosanne drove us to a nice restaurant in nearby Caldwell where the four of us had a leisurely dinner and then headed home. That's when the adventure began. Driving from Caldwell to Verona, we noticed the lights were out along Bloomfield Ave. As we approached Verona, we saw street lights and our spirits rose.

However, once we got off the main road and into our side streets, darkness prevailed. Not only that, but several routes to our street (we live on the same street) were blocked. We got one house away from Rosanne's driveway and had to stop there. She saw wires in front of her house and the police told her not to go into her house. So we all we walked up to our house and couldn't believe we had lights.

That didn't last long. Within 10 minutes our power also went out. So we brought out the flashlights, lit some candles and all went to bed in our house.

End of day one.

(To be continued)