Sandy’s Wake…

November 15, 2012

I wasn’t sure if I should post the following.  You’ve all seen so much on the news.   Then yesterday I was driving around and I just couldn’t believe it.

I live in a little coastal community called Old Greenwich, which is part of Greenwich, Connecticut.  We’re about a 50-minute train ride to New York City, where The Running Man commutes every day.

This little coastal community was hit hard by Sandy.  Not to the extent that New Jersey or even parts of New York were hit, but still, HARD.

We were given a mandatory evacuation notice and we left to stay at a friends house in Central Greenwich.  Our house is high (at 27 feet, that’s high by Old Greenwich standards), but the roads out of our little community could flood, not allowing us an exit.  So we heeded the notice and enjoyed ourselves with friends at their beautiful home.

We came home 2 days later to find that our house had suffered no damage.  We were out of power for 1 week, and considered ourselves mighty lucky.  We already had planned to visit Disney World, so we handed our house over to a family that couldn’t move back into their own home and went on vacation.  Thus we missed the ensuing Nor’easter.  I just couldn’t believe we could get a major snow storm while people were recovering from the hurricane.

We came from Florida and I drove around in shock on Wednesday afternoon to see the following – these were taken 2 weeks after Sandy hit.

Several homes have Demolition signs in front now.  If a home had water damage, its often not worth it to repair it if it sits below the flood levels.  Thus if a home sat below the 14-17 foot storm surge, they most likely had flooding.

I couldn’t possibly count the number of dumpsters like these, filled to the brim, all over town.

This waterfront house suffered an inordinate amount of damage, but it looks like they are already rebuilding and adding a wing onto the left side here.  That’s quick, which makes me wonder if they started before the storm and perhaps I didn’t notice??

This looks like storm damage though.

I would guesstimate that there are more than 1000 trees that have fallen all over Greenwich alone.  There is limb debris and trunks on literally every street, and some streets have several.  If you need firewood, come here!

This was abominably sad to me: this waterfront home was one of my favorites.  They had a fire, which jumped and destroyed 2 neighboring homes.  Fire fighters couldn’t get there due to the storm surge.

It’s just a pile of rubble now.

This was the neighboring home and it turns out a friend of a friend lives there.   The owners sent an email out letting everyone know they were just fine.  The home was insured (and, they mentioned, upgradable, which made me feel inexplicably better) so they wanted everyone to keep their loss in perspective with regards to all other tragedies in Sandy’s wake.  They went back to the house looking for a folder of all birth certificates and passports, and their computer, which contained all their family photos.  Thank goodness for miracles because they found BOTH (!) under a heavy solid oak desk.  They took the computer to a repair shop and they were able to retrieve the photos.  Isn’t that just awesome?  They also mentioned their kids were loving the pool at the Hyatt where they and seemingly all their friends were living.

I’m not sure how to end this, but know that Old Greenwich is alive and while many are displaced, I’ll have happy news to report in a month or two after this all gets sorted out.  There will be plenty to be grateful for come Thanksgiving!

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Category: Random and Fun
Tags: Coastal Connecticut hurricane, Sandy storm |