Weathering the Storm

Isabel has done her worst, and around here at least, she wasn't another Hazel. She might not even have been another Floyd, but not all the damage reports are in yet. The Viking and I lost power and therefore water for about 18 hours, but we were overprepared (two 5-gallon priming tanks, two 6.5-gallon carboys, two 5-gallon solar showers, and the bathtub were filled with water, the oil lamps were filled with two extra bottles of lamp oil in reserve, and a spare gallon and a half of denatured alcohol for the stove) and aside from some boredom hitting about 3 o'clock this afternoon, we were fine. It will probably take a little longer for the county water supply to be back up and running. This is one time when I am absurdly pleased to have a well.

We took a walk this morning with Orion and saw several big limbs and perhaps 4-5 trees down in the neighbourhood, but considerably less damage than there could have been. The community boat ramp was flooded by about 12-15 feet, but the boats docked there looked OK. As we were walking down the hill toward the ramp, I heard a thwackada-thwackada-thwackada sound which turned out to be coming from a boat docked on the other side of Deep Creek. The idio -- I mean, people -- who own it apparently hadn't removed the roller-furled jib, which had been shredded in the winds yesterday. The thwackada noises were coming from the shreds of the sail hitting the shrouds. An expensive mistake, that.

Maman never lost power at all, possibly because she lives near the site of the old hospital (i.e. the site the county hospital occupied before they renamed it a 'medical centre' and moved it out of town in the name of 'cost efficiency') and she loaned us space in her big freezer and the use of her hot running water this morning.

I hear from a friend in south county that he has been flooded out completely which is unfortunate and unfun. Fortunately his mother lives nearby and is not flooded, so he has a comfortable place to go. We'd have taken him in here in a heartbeat, of course, but his mother probably has more comfortable guest arrangements than we do.

The bay bridge has been reopened, so Grandpapa's funeral can go on as scheduled, which is a relief. We are at the point where we need closure, and postponing the funeral for a week would not be a good thing.

verso - recto