JohnyMac and I have been communicating, because he is one of our brothers affected by Hurricane Irene... Here is his commentary. Be safe brother.
Hurricane Irene, D-Day plus 2:
I have received many phone calls, text messages and e-mails from friends, family and folks on this forum- Thank you for all of your concern. 505th asked me to write a short article on our experiences in the storm so here goes.
Thursday August 25, 2011
My wife and I had been keeping an eye on Hurricane Irene for several days as we live on the Sakonnet River which is the east side of Aquidneck Island. Narragansett Bay is on the west side of the island which most of you folks are more familiar with.
I had scheduled a trip to our BOL [AKA the Camp or the Cabin] earlier in the week- I was scheduled to leave this day. I really didn?t need to go other then wanted to do some pre-fall preparation and meet up with my brother and two other friends. One of which is retired Army veteran who helps my brother and I with our training.
Based on the information available, my wife and I decided it was OK I go but we would keep an eye towards the weather. If things deteriorated I would come home with tools and supplies currently at camp, e.g. circular saw, plywood, 2X4?s, generator, etc; prep the house and weather out the storm at my mom?s.
About 45 minutes into my drive to camp I received a phone call from the boat yard that stores my boat in the winter. The owner of the yard told me that I had to bring over my boat to him this morning or he would not pull it before the storm. So I drove back home; then moved my boat to the yard. Lousy start to a five hour drive to the cabin.
Friday August 26, 2011
The local weather was beautiful and after a quick breakfast of coffee and home made corn bread we got to work on the few chores we had to do, e.g. paint the molding around the exterior windows, put up a run of gutters pre-varnish the tongue & groove going up on the ceiling, etc. We made short order of the chores and did a three hour patrol on a section of the mountain that we had not investigated as yet.
That evening I called my wife and we both agreed that the storm was going to pass about 200 miles west of our house and there was no reason for me to come home early.
Later that evening my wife called me to tell me that our neighbor told her that he had just spoke with a friend of his who is a Coast Guard meteorologist. He was predicting an 8 to 15 foot surge where we lived. We knew that we were expecting a ?new tide? this weekend which was going to be 5 feet high. If you add the predicted 8 to 15 feet to the unusual high tide of 5 feet and we were looking at 10 to 20 foot wall of surging water. We decided that it would be best for us to execute our plan.
Saturday August 27, 2011
With the help of my brother and our two friends at the cabin we loaded up my truck with plywood, 2x4?s, the cabins short wave radio and two chain saws. I decided not to bring our generator as my two neighbors each had one back home.
As I left the camp I called my wife to let her know that I was on the way home. She told me that taped to our door this morning was an announcement issued by the town for a mandatory evacuation. I told her that I would be home by 3:00PM and I asked her to buy several things while she still could. They were:
> 30#?s of ice from the ice company next to the fishing pier
> Go to U-Haul and buy a dozen medium boxes approximately 18?x18?x18?
> Buy a case of Sam Adams Summer fest beer, and
> Retrieve $100- from the ATM.
Then I called my Rhode Island hunting buddy and asked if he was free around 3:00PM- He was. So I told him I would call him when I was one hour away from home. I also called my mom who lives on Cape Cod about one hour from our home to let them know that the plan had been executed and we would be staying with her for at least two days.
At 2:30PM I was at the one hour from home mark and gave my hunting buddy a call. I also called my wife to check in. I could tell in her voice she was very nervous and her lack of concern for the storm had changed to very concerned. I asked her to gather her clothes, food for the cats and then last put the cats in their carrying cases.
Traffic was terrible from the time I hit the Massachusetts border. The cause was in part to the convoys of Apulach tree removal trucks, Electric trucks from Indiana and Missouri, military convoys, a lot of New York & Connecticut cars and early bands of rain from the storm.
Well I got home at 3:30PM and my buddy was there with his family in tow. His wife and daughter went into the house and helped my wife pack up things from the first floor while he and I started on the boarding of the windows. By 6:15PM the boarding of the house had been completed and our first floor possessions wrapped and boxed.
We thanked my hunting buddy and his family and they left for home. We all had gotten about 90% of the prep done and the rest I could do.
I loaded up the truck with four, 5 gallon containers of gas, one 5 gallon of kerosene and six 5 gallon empty water containers which I would fill once I got to my mom?s. My truck was already loaded with the stuff from my cabin weekend, e.g. chain saws, guns, clothes, etc. I loaded my wife?s cloths, the cat?s food and some other food to bring to my mom?s. I put the cats in my wife?s car and had her leave for my mom?s house at 7:00PM.
Once she was gone I started moving to the second floor our boxed possessions and finished the final preparations before I left at 9:30PM.
Sunday August 28, 2011 D-Day
We woke to wind in the 25 MPH range with gusts to 35 MPH or so and rain. I received a text message from my neighbor who reported ?all is well and the first high tide of the day plus surge, was better then we expected.?
At 2:00PM the electricity went out at my mom?s house. We had no worries as she had plenty of kerosene lamps and a gas stove that does not need electric to operate.
We turned on the cabin?s short wave radio to catch up on what was happening in the world. We heard that New Jersey and New York were getting pretty beat up. My brother who lives just north of Philadelphia called my cell phone to let me know he had gone home from camp Saturday afternoon and what normally is a 2 ? hour ride for him took four hours. He had a similar story about the convoys of tree service folks, electric contractors and military convoys coupled with sever weather.
He told me he still had electricity but his friend about one mile away did not and that his basement was filling up with water as his sump pump was not operating. My brother shared with me he had wished he had taken the generator from the camp to keep his sump pump operating if the electricity went out. It turned out that his electric never did go out.
At 9:30PM I received a text message from my neighbor who told me that although the water was high it only was about 6-7? up my boarded up windows that face the river. He also let me know that although the electricity was out earlier, it was back on.
Monday August 29, 2011 D-Day plus 1
We left my mom?s house at about 11:00AM for the one hour trip home. She still didn?t have any electric however as we left her house we saw several crews working on the downed lines.
Got home a little after noon and all was well. There were quite a few trees down as we drove through town but that was all of the damage we could see.
By 5:00PM almost every thing was back to normal at the house.
Tuesday August 30, 2011 D-day plus 2
Electricity is still out in much of western part of the state. Only about half of the folks on Aquidneck Island have electricity this morning though.
Here is what we did right and wrong:
Positive; We had a plan and executed to the plan pretty closely.
Positive; Friends and good neighbors are great to have. Although there was a high level of
concern in the neighborhood their was no panicking.
Positive; Since my mom is in her early 80?s we are glad we decided earlier to bunk up with her.
It was a load off of our minds being there in case something went wrong.
Negative; Our plan was not written down consequently several things did not happen
as smoothly as it could have. I have on my computer several plans for: Hurricanes,
WROL, snow storms, etc. but they are on my computer not in a three ring binder like
they should be for my wife to use in my absence.
Negative; We waited to long to buy the few things we needed consequently we could only get
the last two 10# blocks of ice from the ice company, the liquor store was closed so no
cold beer, the boxes my wife picked up from U-Haul were too big. My wife told me
that the large boxes she bought was all that was left.
Negative; Based on experience my wife and I thought the storm wouldn?t be that bad for our
location. However, due to the barrage of media input and the evacuation notice we
allowed others to influence our decision.
Negative; Since my wife didn?t have a written list of what to pack and bring with us to my mom?s
she forgot a few items. Luckily my mom had some of the things that we forgot.
All in all we thank god for overseeing our family, and for good neighbors & friends. We wish the best for the folks who live in North Carolina, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey and New York. Plus the folks in Vermont and New Hampshire who also got hammered as Irene went up the Hudson and Connecticut Valley?s into Canada.
