I want to be clear: I am not being flippant. I know these storms are serious, especially in a place like Louisiana, where the effects are serious and the memories of Betsy, Katrina, Rita, Isaac are all very present and real every day. I just also wanted to be clear that the sensationalism of the Weather Channel is uncalled for, as Karen drifts eastward with slower winds than the average nor'easter.
We did a little bit of storm prep-- bought candles, filled the freezer with extra containers of water to freeze, to help insulate our food if we should lose power, filled extra jugs and bottles of water, stocked up on peanut butter, jelly, bread, and canned veggies. I was determined not to lose my head though. As my dad says about football players who make it to their end zone, "Act like you've been there before." Be cool.
I have been there before, twice in the past three years. First was Irene, who ruined what might have been the best day of my life, with Josh Ritter and Dispatch playing nearly back to back at a music festival on Governor's Island. That *!@#%.
I was at camp. Irene passed through overnight, knocking out the power well in advance of knocking down quite a few trees and flooding a few lower spots on site.
The skies were nearly clear when I woke up the next morning, and was promptly invited out to play football by the few international staff members who were still around for camp's post season.
We were without power for a week, with limited water, food and phone service. There wasn't much work we could do in the dark buildings, so we cleared fallen trees and tried to clean up the pool. It was an interesting way to bond, enjoying eclectic feasts together before everything went bad. All in all, could have been way worse.
Sandy was another story, exacerbated by a wicked nor'easter the following week. My family fared well in Toms River, being the only house for what seemed like forever with power. We welcomed quite a few people who didn't have power, as well as quite a few animals...
It was actually really hard to have electricity, and to see the mess on the news. We couldn't look away. And then I took care of the 11 year old daughter of some friends for a week, which was good because I was paying less attention to the news in favor of making sure she wasn't being traumatized by anything aside from trick-or-treating being cancelled nearly everywhere in the state. It was bad because it made me bottle up a lot of angst. But we made it through just fine. Jersey strong and whatnot.
I was still working part time at camp, which lost power for two weeks. I went to visit my friends there with the 11 year old, and borrow a couple of their kids to go explore some of the trees thrown by the storm (we did a soil lab together for my class!).
So here we are, sitting in New Orleans, which was a little bit breezier than usual today, but otherwise pretty unfazed. I try to be realistic about this stuff-- I hate the hype. But I'm also very thankful for the sake of the entire east and gulf coasts that it's been a pretty calm year for this stuff (knocking furiously on wood with less than a month to go in hurricane season).
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