Hurricane Sandy: In Photos and StorytellingI live about 8 miles from the coast in South-Eastern Connecticut. Weather sites predicted that we would be roughly 30 - 75 miles outside of the eye of the storm, reaching wind speeds of around 40 - 50 mph with gusts up to 80. I took a predictably lazy approach to the storm, thinking it would be similar to last year's Irene (stocked up, didn't lose power, spend a grueling 6 hours playing trivial pursuit and wondering where my life went wrong).

I moved the lawn furniture and recycling bins into the garage, turned the wrought iron bar chairs onto their side, and covered up the grill. I filled a few aluminum bottles with water and put them in the fridge, and filled the brita filter. Bou...

Hurricane Sandy: In Photos and StorytellingI live about 8 miles from the coast in South-Eastern Connecticut. Weather sites predicted that we would be roughly 30 - 75 miles outside of the eye of the storm, reaching wind speeds of around 40 - 50 mph with gusts up to 80. I took a predictably lazy approach to the storm, thinking it would be similar to last year's Irene (stocked up, didn't lose power, spend a grueling 6 hours playing trivial pursuit and wondering where my life went wrong).

I moved the lawn furniture and recycling bins into the garage, turned the wrought iron bar chairs onto their side, and covered up the grill. I filled a few aluminum bottles with water and put them in the fridge, and filled the brita filter. Bought cat food, chips, and a case of beer.
Good, I think to myself, look at me. I'm an adult. I prepared for the storm.

I hope you're prepared for a story.

I wake up on Monday morning and it's bone dry outside, and barely windy at all. I thought murder to myself while getting dressed for work because I don't want to go. At 8:17, the store decides to shut down. Someone tapes X's over all the glass windows and doors, and places sandbags against all the exits. I get in my car to go home. The wind is blowing so hard that I risk toppling over at every curve. The highway is a parking lot and I get off the first exit and weave through route 1 and the backroads to try to get home (which takes me almost an hour).

For the first few hours, it can't decide whether to rain or not. It drizzles. It pours. It stops abruptly and the sun comes back out. But all the while, the wind is raging and that's what, it turns out, is so damn dangerous about hurricanes and tropical storms. We play WoW for several hours. I nap. I wake up and make dino nuggets, pour a glass of wine, and we smoke a little from our new tiny bong. We start playing WoW again. It's about 4:48. My mom calls and we converse a little. Abruptly, I hear a little click, and everything shuts off.
We lost power. I hang up with my mom, realizing I did not charge my phone at all and pandora had been open and I was at 21% battery. Amazing.
I hear a very loud thump. I peek out the back door to see this


Sandy, you vile whore.
It hit my car and rolled off the front into the garage. Took out our little garbage can fence too. Rude.


My poor car.

There's nothing I can do. I waste some more phone battery to call my mom and tell her.

We bump around the house and light candles. We get our DS's (which I mercifully remembered to charge that morning) and play pokemon for a few hours. We eat some chips. I open the fridge for a few brief moments to retrieve a can of dip, a bottle of soda, a bottle of water, and 4 bottles of beer. We talk for many hours. I get a book and try to read while holding a candle in my hand. I burn my fingers like 6 times and give up. I get bored and drink 3 of the beers very quickly. I stayed up looking out the window watching the sky flash like bombs going off - transformers blowing. Crazy shit. I get too drunk and go upstairs to bed at 10:30.

We wake up. Still no power.Fuck.

The storm is, however, not as scary right now. We get dressed and go outside to see if there's an obvious reason we have no power. Lucky us - about 5 houses down........





This motherfucker cracked in half and took down at least 2 lines. There were 3 but I think one of them was just a cable line.
We walked by later that day and the neighbors had hacksaws and clippers and were tearing the tree apart and stacking it on the curb in the hopes of getting UI out to look at the line quicker.


just look at this bullshit.

But wait! There's more!

We tried to drive just out by Best Buy to see how it fared.


It was impossible


to get fucking anywhere

We had to go all the way down the road, cross over on like the one street that didn't have downed trees, and come all the way back up. I didn't get pictures but an enormous tree fell and ripped down powerlines on both sides of the street, and another fell and took out two lines and blew a transformer on the other street. The entire area is still without power as of this writing.

We go home and move the tree off my car.



took out my butterfLY BUSHES FUCK


inspecting the ripped gutter, how nice

The day passes slowly and shittily. We go out and get food. We go to the Danbury Best Buy with a friend. I buy the professor layton game. I go home to play it and the gameboy dies within 45 minutes. The house grows steadily colder. I light candles again and we walk to a deli on main street that has power back for some food.
(Now that I remember, I put half the sandwich in the freezer because the fridge wasn't cold anymore. It's probably still in there. Frozen cheese. Fantastic.)

We go to bed around 9 for lack of something to do. I lay in bed being irritated at missing a day of headless horseman for a good 2 hours.

The next morning, still no power omfg. My car is functioning though and the storm is well over. I get dressed with a flashlight and go to work. When I get home at like 4:15, there is a cherrypicker working on the line!!!
I sit on the curb and eat my boston market. I cheer with everyone else when all the lights suddenly come on in our homes.