NOW PLAYING: Well, Blow Me Down!

16 September, 1999
We dodged a big bullet last night. Hurricane Floyd blew on by our place, but we were expecting the wind and rain to be a whole lot worse than they were.

Earlier in the day the projected path of the storm looked as though it was headed directly at us. Luckily for us, ol' Floyd veered off to the northeast and we were spared the more intense winds.

We did get a bunch of rain -- for a while, we were essentially trapped in our local area, since the bridges on all the roads nearby were flooded. Part of a levee failed at a lake nearby which unleashed some flood waters, and a mill pond about a half mile away flooded out two or three houses near it.

There were a lot of trees down, some across power lines, a few landing on houses or other buildings. As we drove around the area this afternoon, we realized just how lucky we had been; the major structural "damage" we had to deal with was a couple pieces of the tin roof on our pumphouse that had peeled up. But they were fixed with several nails in no time.

We had other company besides the uninvited Floyd -- The Wife's brother had to go to work (even though almost every other business had been closed down), and his wife and two munchkins came to stay with us.

The Wife and I spent a restless night in the living room on the couch and the oversized chair. (There was a tree that we feared might crash in on the bedroom and really ruin our evening.) Every now and then one of us would wake up and peer out a window at the gale, watching the sheets of rain come down, praying that the wind-dance the trees were performing wouldn't end in disaster for the house or the barn.

I was amazed that our power remained on all night -- after flickering on and off a bit, it finally went out for good about 7 a.m. At least it was getting light out then. Eventually, things started calming down outside and we were all hungry for breakfast. One of the Munchkins wanted French Toast, and so we said we'd make that along with some eggs and sausage.

"How are you going to do that? The power's out!" the Munchkin inquired.

Ah, well, our backpacking gear saves the day again -- we produced the Coleman and MSR Whisperlite stoves, and breakfast was on! We had no idea how long the power might be off, and the sausage and eggs in the 'fridge had to be used in case it was going to be a while. Actually, our power returned for good about 6 p.m., though there are still people in the area who are without electricity.

As the day passed, the rain died off along with the wind and we began the cleanup of the debris in the yard. And with the passing of Floyd came the hope that Gert wouldn't put the hurt on us in the next few days.

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