Waiting for a storm
I don't remember when the last time was that I waited for a storm. Oh wait....it was this past winter when I told my parents I was getting married. But that's not the kind of storm I mean today. Today I'm waiting for Hurricane Irene. She's visiting folks down in North Carolina right now but I imagine she'll be arriving in the next 12 hours. She'll be stopping by my friends in the DC area before she moves on up to my friends in the Delaware area before she comes here to the New York City, Long Island area. Quite a visit.
It's quite a big deal considering there hasn't been a hurricane up this far in years. And I personally have never had to weather one. I remember way back in college there was supposed to be a hurricane heading for New Orleans but it downgraded or veered off its predicted course - I can't remember which one. Still we got the outer bands of the hurricane and boy was it a torrential downpour. I remember wading through the quad, the water thigh-high as I was trying to get back to my dorm. I saw students out in the other quads playing touch football and shuddered as I tried not to be out in the open with all the lightning flashing about. What was I doing out at that hour? I was on a mission to get back to my roommate who sounded pretty scared on the phone when I called her from another friend's dorm, wondering if she was alright as I proceeded to tell her that I might stay put. I finally made it back, drenched from head to toe, but glad to be back in my room with my roommate. We huddled by candlelight, or maybe it was flashlight, with our RA who lived in the same suite, and we waited till it ended. Who can remember how it ended. All I remember was that it just did, and it became another one for the memory books.
So here I am, years and years later, in New York, unbelievably waiting for Irene to visit. I thought blizzards were the only things I had to worry about here but it seems that in the past week I've experienced an earthquake and now what will potentially be a category 1 hurricane. She promises to bring torrential downpours, ocean surges, and crazy winds. And she promises to take away our electricity. I suppose we could all do with a reminder of how we take for granted that one flick of switch or one press of a button will illuminate our homes, bring our machines to life, and connect us with the rest of the world via cyberspace. I was reminded of this when in Malawi a few summers ago, regularly expecting power outages at around 6:30 to 7 p.m. and I told myself that I was really spoiled to be living in the U.S. But of course, shortly after I returned, those instances were memories of the past and I was back to expecting 100% electricity all the time.
But I digress. I'm talking about waiting for this storm. It's quite a helpless feeling. I don't know if I'm adequately prepared or not prepared at all. And I don't know what is really going to come in the next 12 hours. Every receptacle that can hold water is holding water right now - from drinking water to washing water. I went to the store (Target) yesterday to buy a few things and saw that there was absolutely no water, no bread, and virtually no toilet paper. And all canned goods, except for some tuna and a majority of the soup, were gone as well. And virtually every register was open to take people; I've never seen almost all those numbers above the cash registers lit before. Lines to gas stations were fairly long and my fiance said that he saw a lot of gas stations were sold out of most gas except the premium. Thankfully he filled up earlier and I didn't need any gas.
I have some perishable food that needs to be eaten first and then the nonperishables for later. Thankfully, my landlord has a generator he will hook up when the power goes out tomorrow so that the refrigerator doesn't thaw out. I bought a bag of Cheetos to keep me company and periodically check to see if my cat's okay (she won't hang out with me because she can't be bothered to stay awake, so she's sleeping in her bed). I text my friends further south along the East Coast from time to time to check on them. I think it's time to text my fiance who is at work on this crazy day....And then I'll check the hurricane tracking page provided by the NY Times. You can check it too, right here . And then it's just a waiting game.
It's quite different than preparing for an earthquake. Most earthquakes don't notify you days before that it's coming for a visit, not like hurricanes anyway. But I guess both need the same amount of preparedness. Except how do you know when to evacuate? The things that one thinks about while waiting for a storm. If you're on the east coast of the U.S. and you're waiting for Irene, I hope that you are safe and that everything will be okay with you come Monday when Irene has gone. Peace be with you, and with us all.
It's quite a big deal considering there hasn't been a hurricane up this far in years. And I personally have never had to weather one. I remember way back in college there was supposed to be a hurricane heading for New Orleans but it downgraded or veered off its predicted course - I can't remember which one. Still we got the outer bands of the hurricane and boy was it a torrential downpour. I remember wading through the quad, the water thigh-high as I was trying to get back to my dorm. I saw students out in the other quads playing touch football and shuddered as I tried not to be out in the open with all the lightning flashing about. What was I doing out at that hour? I was on a mission to get back to my roommate who sounded pretty scared on the phone when I called her from another friend's dorm, wondering if she was alright as I proceeded to tell her that I might stay put. I finally made it back, drenched from head to toe, but glad to be back in my room with my roommate. We huddled by candlelight, or maybe it was flashlight, with our RA who lived in the same suite, and we waited till it ended. Who can remember how it ended. All I remember was that it just did, and it became another one for the memory books.
So here I am, years and years later, in New York, unbelievably waiting for Irene to visit. I thought blizzards were the only things I had to worry about here but it seems that in the past week I've experienced an earthquake and now what will potentially be a category 1 hurricane. She promises to bring torrential downpours, ocean surges, and crazy winds. And she promises to take away our electricity. I suppose we could all do with a reminder of how we take for granted that one flick of switch or one press of a button will illuminate our homes, bring our machines to life, and connect us with the rest of the world via cyberspace. I was reminded of this when in Malawi a few summers ago, regularly expecting power outages at around 6:30 to 7 p.m. and I told myself that I was really spoiled to be living in the U.S. But of course, shortly after I returned, those instances were memories of the past and I was back to expecting 100% electricity all the time.
But I digress. I'm talking about waiting for this storm. It's quite a helpless feeling. I don't know if I'm adequately prepared or not prepared at all. And I don't know what is really going to come in the next 12 hours. Every receptacle that can hold water is holding water right now - from drinking water to washing water. I went to the store (Target) yesterday to buy a few things and saw that there was absolutely no water, no bread, and virtually no toilet paper. And all canned goods, except for some tuna and a majority of the soup, were gone as well. And virtually every register was open to take people; I've never seen almost all those numbers above the cash registers lit before. Lines to gas stations were fairly long and my fiance said that he saw a lot of gas stations were sold out of most gas except the premium. Thankfully he filled up earlier and I didn't need any gas.
I have some perishable food that needs to be eaten first and then the nonperishables for later. Thankfully, my landlord has a generator he will hook up when the power goes out tomorrow so that the refrigerator doesn't thaw out. I bought a bag of Cheetos to keep me company and periodically check to see if my cat's okay (she won't hang out with me because she can't be bothered to stay awake, so she's sleeping in her bed). I text my friends further south along the East Coast from time to time to check on them. I think it's time to text my fiance who is at work on this crazy day....And then I'll check the hurricane tracking page provided by the NY Times. You can check it too, right here . And then it's just a waiting game.
It's quite different than preparing for an earthquake. Most earthquakes don't notify you days before that it's coming for a visit, not like hurricanes anyway. But I guess both need the same amount of preparedness. Except how do you know when to evacuate? The things that one thinks about while waiting for a storm. If you're on the east coast of the U.S. and you're waiting for Irene, I hope that you are safe and that everything will be okay with you come Monday when Irene has gone. Peace be with you, and with us all.
Comments