Hurricane Juan
Hurricane Juan, it was amazing to watch... of course, I didn’t do all my watching from my balcony.
My day started as such... at about 2pm, I unplugged my computer (after shutting it down) and headed off to work. You see, there was no real set time as to when Hurricane Juan was set to hit our shores, some new stations were saying around 7 or 8 in the evening, and others were saying it could come in as late as 11pm on the High Tide. I wasn’t supposed to get off work until 8pm, so I just wanted to be safe, make sure everything was turned off... that sort of thing.
Well... I stepped into work at around 2:30, I wasn’t supposed to start till 3, and got accosted by one of my supervisors... ‘Will you start early please?’ You see... 7 people didn’t bother to even show up (3 didn’t even call). So I started right way... hell, extra money for me... good thing... and we were so swamped, I stayed until 9:30. So I got an extra two hours, which is good. Oh... my McDonalds, closed it’s doors for the first time in 4 years that night. We closed at 11pm, and didn’t open again until today.
Now here is where I start to get stupid... it’s already starting to rain... and the wind has almost taken me off my feet twice... but I decide to go to the bar. I didn’t get there until almost 10 and spent half the time there, dancing in the rain in the middle of the street. I was soaked! And loving it... it was great out there. The power started flickering around 11:30 (boy was I glad I turned my computer off), and at about midnight, it went altogether. [laughing] By this point, both bridges to Dartmouth were closed (not that it affected me, but it did affect several people who were trying to get home), the Bedford Bason (one of the highways) the Magazine Hill (another highway) and several of the coastal & downtown areas were evacuated. And here I was dancing in the rain. Actually more like standing with my arms out, facing the rain and letting it pound down on me.
At midnight, I was in a friend’s car, and we were starting the long, normally 5-minute trip, back to my place. I got home by about 12:30 and it was insane. You could not see five feet in front of the car. We were not going any faster than 10 km an hour. However, it was stunning. The sky was just lit up from the chain lightening, there were trees down EVERYWHERE and I stepped out of the car into ankle deep water.
I spent the next two hours on the deck with my roommates and the neighbors watching this storm.
Of course, there was that pesky incident where the hammock blew away and we had to go rescue it from the back parking lot... and the tree in the backyard crushing three cars... or maybe the tree across the street falling and blocking the entire street... The funny thing is, every tree that I saw down was at least 75-100 years old, I did not see any saplings uprooted. [shrugs]
I finally fell asleep around 2:30 in the morning, on the couch, and woke up at around ten after four, to the eye of the storm. I have never experienced silence as I did right then. I went outside, and there was nothing. No crickets, no wind, no cars, no normal city sounds, nothing... It was a moment that I will never forget. I stood out there for about half an hour, and then finally headed down to bed. I didn’t wake up until late the next day, however, from what I hear, the eye didn’t finish passing until about 7:30 that morning, at which point we got more rain and wind, but nothing like we had the night before.
The entire city and most of the outlying areas were out of power, no phones (if you were with Eastlink) and not supposed to drink the water because the sewers had backed up. We still had running water, so we could use the washroom in the city, but we were warned against washing anything or drinking the water. There wasn’t even a boil order in effect as it would be useless. It’s going to be a little bit before we get our water back. At least in the city.
In our area, we only got our power back late Tuesday night, but some areas of our city won’t have power until Thursday or even the weekend. I feel really bad for them... I was going crazy after two days... and had to leave the city and come out to my parents place (which is where I am at right now) to take a shower and get HOT food. You have no idea how much I missed hot food... or just being able to open the fridge to get something cold to drink...
Yeah, a lot of our food had to be thrown out... especially the food that wasn’t in the deep freeze, but in the main freezer above the fridge. It all melted. I’m really glad I bought that deep freeze though, everything that was in it, is still frozen solid. YES! Tei made a good buy... [dances in her seat] People told me I was crazy to spend the money on something like that, but I wanted a good appliance that I could take with me from place to place, that was my very own, and I did not owe a penny on. I love my deep freeze. I can fill that thing and feed two people (one being pregnant) for three months.
Back to the storm though...
Monday during the day, I went though a 4 block radius of my home, and took pictures of the downed trees, the signs, the ripped up cement and side walks, houses with trees though them... all that sort of stuff. If I had a digital camera... I’d show you all what is there now, but I don’t. I have to wait to get it developed (though I might ask dad to borrow his for a few days).
We spent Monday night sitting around the kitchen table playing crib (and teaching a friend how to play it) with an oil lantern going, and telling stories. We had a great time.
It’s nice to have the power back... and I really hope it stays on.
So those of you who were wondering where I disappeared to, that’s what happened. We all made it out safe and sound, and we are getting everything put back in their proper places.
Oh... my roommate is making up a list of things that were done differently between the states and here for getting ready for the Hurricane, when she gets it done, I’ll share it. It’s really funny.
PS - for those of you who don't know, it was supposed to be a Class One Hurricane by the time it hit the coast of Nova Scotia... no... it was a Class Two, with winds peeking at the low end of a Class Three Hurricane, when it touched land. I'm not sure I want to be in one again... but it was amazing to be a part of.
Ok... I'm signing off now... I just had to tell you all about the past few days.
My day started as such... at about 2pm, I unplugged my computer (after shutting it down) and headed off to work. You see, there was no real set time as to when Hurricane Juan was set to hit our shores, some new stations were saying around 7 or 8 in the evening, and others were saying it could come in as late as 11pm on the High Tide. I wasn’t supposed to get off work until 8pm, so I just wanted to be safe, make sure everything was turned off... that sort of thing.
Well... I stepped into work at around 2:30, I wasn’t supposed to start till 3, and got accosted by one of my supervisors... ‘Will you start early please?’ You see... 7 people didn’t bother to even show up (3 didn’t even call). So I started right way... hell, extra money for me... good thing... and we were so swamped, I stayed until 9:30. So I got an extra two hours, which is good. Oh... my McDonalds, closed it’s doors for the first time in 4 years that night. We closed at 11pm, and didn’t open again until today.
Now here is where I start to get stupid... it’s already starting to rain... and the wind has almost taken me off my feet twice... but I decide to go to the bar. I didn’t get there until almost 10 and spent half the time there, dancing in the rain in the middle of the street. I was soaked! And loving it... it was great out there. The power started flickering around 11:30 (boy was I glad I turned my computer off), and at about midnight, it went altogether. [laughing] By this point, both bridges to Dartmouth were closed (not that it affected me, but it did affect several people who were trying to get home), the Bedford Bason (one of the highways) the Magazine Hill (another highway) and several of the coastal & downtown areas were evacuated. And here I was dancing in the rain. Actually more like standing with my arms out, facing the rain and letting it pound down on me.
At midnight, I was in a friend’s car, and we were starting the long, normally 5-minute trip, back to my place. I got home by about 12:30 and it was insane. You could not see five feet in front of the car. We were not going any faster than 10 km an hour. However, it was stunning. The sky was just lit up from the chain lightening, there were trees down EVERYWHERE and I stepped out of the car into ankle deep water.
I spent the next two hours on the deck with my roommates and the neighbors watching this storm.
Of course, there was that pesky incident where the hammock blew away and we had to go rescue it from the back parking lot... and the tree in the backyard crushing three cars... or maybe the tree across the street falling and blocking the entire street... The funny thing is, every tree that I saw down was at least 75-100 years old, I did not see any saplings uprooted. [shrugs]
I finally fell asleep around 2:30 in the morning, on the couch, and woke up at around ten after four, to the eye of the storm. I have never experienced silence as I did right then. I went outside, and there was nothing. No crickets, no wind, no cars, no normal city sounds, nothing... It was a moment that I will never forget. I stood out there for about half an hour, and then finally headed down to bed. I didn’t wake up until late the next day, however, from what I hear, the eye didn’t finish passing until about 7:30 that morning, at which point we got more rain and wind, but nothing like we had the night before.
The entire city and most of the outlying areas were out of power, no phones (if you were with Eastlink) and not supposed to drink the water because the sewers had backed up. We still had running water, so we could use the washroom in the city, but we were warned against washing anything or drinking the water. There wasn’t even a boil order in effect as it would be useless. It’s going to be a little bit before we get our water back. At least in the city.
In our area, we only got our power back late Tuesday night, but some areas of our city won’t have power until Thursday or even the weekend. I feel really bad for them... I was going crazy after two days... and had to leave the city and come out to my parents place (which is where I am at right now) to take a shower and get HOT food. You have no idea how much I missed hot food... or just being able to open the fridge to get something cold to drink...
Yeah, a lot of our food had to be thrown out... especially the food that wasn’t in the deep freeze, but in the main freezer above the fridge. It all melted. I’m really glad I bought that deep freeze though, everything that was in it, is still frozen solid. YES! Tei made a good buy... [dances in her seat] People told me I was crazy to spend the money on something like that, but I wanted a good appliance that I could take with me from place to place, that was my very own, and I did not owe a penny on. I love my deep freeze. I can fill that thing and feed two people (one being pregnant) for three months.
Back to the storm though...
Monday during the day, I went though a 4 block radius of my home, and took pictures of the downed trees, the signs, the ripped up cement and side walks, houses with trees though them... all that sort of stuff. If I had a digital camera... I’d show you all what is there now, but I don’t. I have to wait to get it developed (though I might ask dad to borrow his for a few days).
We spent Monday night sitting around the kitchen table playing crib (and teaching a friend how to play it) with an oil lantern going, and telling stories. We had a great time.
It’s nice to have the power back... and I really hope it stays on.
So those of you who were wondering where I disappeared to, that’s what happened. We all made it out safe and sound, and we are getting everything put back in their proper places.
Oh... my roommate is making up a list of things that were done differently between the states and here for getting ready for the Hurricane, when she gets it done, I’ll share it. It’s really funny.
PS - for those of you who don't know, it was supposed to be a Class One Hurricane by the time it hit the coast of Nova Scotia... no... it was a Class Two, with winds peeking at the low end of a Class Three Hurricane, when it touched land. I'm not sure I want to be in one again... but it was amazing to be a part of.
Ok... I'm signing off now... I just had to tell you all about the past few days.