Rahway and the Siege of Sandy

 

They are calling it Super Storm Sandy. I’ve been calling it the siege, because that is what it feels like. We have been without power since Monday and it feels weird. We’ve lost familiar things, and we’ve lost our daily routines. In place of our comfortable existence, we have found ways to survive and even have fun. Our family and friends have pulled together, and we have found the comfort of community.

Sandy hit Rahway on Monday and it didn’t start out that bad. We had a few high wind gusts, but very little rain. Then the wind hit big time. Between 6 PM and midnight the winds gusted up to 80 MPH. We knew we were in trouble when we started to see weird lights in the sky. At first I thought it was lightning, but then we realized that it was the power transformers exploding as the trees hit the power lines. We lost power around 7 PM and watched the spent the rest of the night watching the sky light up all around us. Sandy turned out to be a very bad girl.

Tuesday dawned and we got a big hint that the damage was extensive. A tree fell on our neighbors house and totaled it. Our neighbors are fine, but the house is destroyed. We don’t know where they have gone, and we feel so bad for them.

Two big trees fell in front of our church. They fell away from the building, but they took out the power lines. On Thursday they cut the trees up and piled them on the side of the road. The power company hasn’t started work on the lines. There are 13 crews working in Rahway and I’m sure they are working their way to us. But it seems like it will be a while before they take care of our electric lines.

The church survived. We have some damage on our Sunday School building. They flat roof got partially peeled away. There is a picture of the damage to the right. We are appealing for help financially (hint, hint) so take a look at the blurb to the right of this article if you want to help. However, we are going to have a thanksgiving service on Sunday regardless of whether we have power or not. It will be a little cold, but we’ll just bundle up. If that big tree fell towards our church and hit us we would be in big trouble. So on Sunday we’re going to give God a big thank you.

I was a nervous wreck on Tuesday. I spent most of the day raking leaves. Weird I know, but I needed to do something with my hands. I was so out of sorts because my routine was interrupted. I walked around town, and raked leaves. I didn’t know what else to do.

Family life has settled into a good routine. We are long time campers and so we broke out the camping equipment; propane stove and grill, charcoal grill, flashlights and lanterns. We have plenty of wood and a wonderful fireplace, so we have one room to keep warm in. That has forced us to spend a lot of time together. We have been playing games; Monopoly, Life, Yahtzee, and so many other games. My son set up his poker table in the middle of the living room. Aside from the disruption of our lives, we are having a good time.

On Tuesday my kids watched movies on their laptops until they burned out their batteries. Not the smartest move in retrospect.

Our food situation is ok. We have a frozen turkey in our freezer that is still solid. Our freezer is now our fridge. So far we are good with our food supply. Betsy is using the opportunity to clean out our pantry and freezer.

The estimate is we could be out of power until sometime next week. I am posting this from my friend’s house. I will write updates every day until we are back up.

God bless you, Pastor Bill