Hurricane Sandy

The Chatterton family has weathered their first hurricane.  We were very lucky as our neighborhood is filled with giant beautiful trees which fell all around us.  South of us there was major flooding and significant damage, many people suffered total losses of their homes.  

We lost power Monday and it finally came back on Friday which was a blessing since it was supposed to get very cold over the weekend, the food in our fridge had gone bad, we were low on firewood and we had just enough gas to make it to Forrest Hills but not back again.  Only to have it go out again on Wednesday when the Nor'easter snow storm hit and again the following Saturday when a transformer blew.  

The kids are finally back in school after two weeks.  Our district was one of the last to go back.  When power was finally restored from the hurricane our community was hard hit by the Nor'easter with 7 inches of wet, heavy snow knocking down power to several schools again.  

Gas was very hard to find after the storm.  80% of the gas stations did not have power and a major refinery was flooded.  Mom and the kids sat in two different gas lines for an hour and a half each on Friday and still wasn't able to get gas.  Finally on Monday morning we sat in a line for three hours and were able to buy $50 which was about a quarter tank on the Land Cruiser.  A lot of Hurricane Sesame Street was watched in the car during this time.   Months later Hank still asks frequently how much gas we have.  

House on Hawthorne Street, 3 blocks south of us.  

Stuart Street, 3 blocks North.

Stuart Street, 3 blocks North.

Stuart Street, 3 blocks North.

Candelight dinners 

Brrrrr keeping warm by the fire.  

Killing time in the gas line. 

Nor'easter

More trees down.