Hurricane Sandy Comes to New Rochelle

Hurricane Sandy Comes to New Rochelle

We did our pre-storm prep on Saturday and Sunday and hunkered down on Sunday nite, expecting Sandy's arrival overnite.

She didn't show up, and except for the schools and our mission office being closed, it was a pretty normal morning here, and we went out for our usual Masses except the one at Villa Maria, which the sisters canceled.  But the clouds were evidently gathering and the wind picking up.  By 1:15 our 2 employees who'd come to work had headed home.

Rain came in mid-afternoon, but not as much as we'd expected.  The wind was all that was predicted, tho.  We watched what we could see from our windows--there were white caps in the inlet between our ball field and Five Islands Park, not to mention what was going on out in Echo Bay and Long Island Sound.

At 7:10 p.m. the power went out in about half the house:  most of the basement level, half the 1st floor, part of the 2d floor, all of the 3d floor.  I lit up 3 camping lanterns for 2 of the hallways and my room, and I went to bed earlier than usual.

On Tuesday a.m. the worst apparently was over.  We rigged up extension cords to get light in chapel and, later, to keep the refrigerators cold.  Power was out at the mission office but apparently not at the high school.  Around 11:00 p.m. we got our power back--far luckier than most people.  I wonder whether being across the street from the sewage treatment plant had anything to do with that?

Some of us went out to see the damage:  a large old maple down at the school's picnic-pool area (photo above), lying across the driveway; our grand old cherry tree along Lefevre Lane, down; large limbs scattered in many places.  But no major damage, thank God.

The cherry tree tell into the batting cage of the ball field, and an adjacent tree (not sure what variety--probably another cherry)--fell across Lefevre Lane

The tide had come perhaps 50 feet into center field and left a line of debris stretching across to right field.  Beyond the outfield fence there was another, deeper line of leaves, twigs, plastic, a dustpan and broom, and more.  The water came up nearly to the mission office parking lot at the other side of the property, again leaving a trail of debris, including bits of cord wood and a plastic tricycle.

A line of debris stretching across the outfield of Salesian HS's baseball field--no danger to any of our buildings from the surge

The surge had to rise really, really high to carry all this flotsam up to the verge of the mission office parking lot (out of sight to the right)

After lunch Bro. Andy went out with a chain saw and begun cutting up the fallen maple.  Then he fired up an ancient wood chipper, and Fr. John and I fed it steadily until it ran out of gas, while Bro. Andy kept fiddling with the machinery to keep it chugging along.

Meanwhile, numerous visitors came to our property, apparently walking thru to Five Islands Park (whose gate on Lefevre Lane was shut) to see what there was to see from that vantage point.  One family came by while we were setting up the wood chipper and asked whether they could have the main parts of the tree for firewood.  We said sure!  So they came back with a pick-up truck and their own chain saw, and by late afternoon most of the tree was gone, to their benefit as well as ours.  Too bad no one mentioned the cherry tree to them.  (Readers?  Need some good firewood?)

Bro. Andy with chain saw (left) and Fr. John take on the maple

School remained shut thru Wednesday.  Our house employees returned to work, and so did many of the mission office staff.  Transportation all over the area was a mess, with trees and wires down, some traffic lights out, etc.  Few gas stations were open (no power), causing long lines at those that were open, including our local station (a few blocks east on Main St).  Thus the traffic on Main St was non-stop in the eastbound right lane, making entry and exit from our property a challenge.  

Bro. Andy had to keep fiddling with the chpper to keep it running

On Saturday I got in line for gas at 5:40 a.m. with one of our cars that was down to 1/8 tank.  It took me an hour to reach the pumps--most of the time consisting of waiting for the station to open at 6:15.

As of midday today, about 6,000 households and businesses in N.R. were still without electric power, according to a recorded message from Mayor Bransom.  The emergency shelter in the city's north end was still open.

But around here it's nothing like what they're dealing with in Lower Manhattan, south shore of LI, and Jersey Shore.  God was very good to us, and we pray for those who lost so much and are going thru many days in the cold and dark.

We became a refugee camp for some SDBs:  Fr. Jerry Sesto was brought over from Elizabeth, N.J., on Wednesday afternoon because they didn't have heat or light at the rectory, and the prenovices and Bro. Tom Dion came come down from Port Chester to sleep Wednesday nite because of same.  But P.C. got their power back on Thursday, so that was a one-nite stand!  Fr. Jerry stayed with us till Saturday afternoon.

Conditions at the airports affected confreres who were away.  One was kept away with his family for an extra day, and Fr. Provincial was stranded in Rosemead, Calif. (poor guy!) till Friday instead of Tuesday.  We're sure the novices were glad to have his presence a couple of extra days.

One of the 2 gents who cut up the maple and hauled off the firewood

Jackie Kraft, treasurer of Troop 40, belongs to the New Rochelle Rowing Club.  She advised me to go to Hudson Park and see what Sandy did to the Club--wiped out the 1st floor, leaving the 2d floor and attic standing on posts and a couple of cement block walls at the back.  And a sailboat leaning up against one side of what's left of the first floor (and another sailboat perched against the rocks on the other side of the parking lot).

Harbor-facing front of the New Rochelle Rowing Club, with the side walls of its bottom story washed away and its fence destroyed

One sailboat leaning against the rear of the Rowing Club, and another stranded in Hudson Park's parking lot

 

Looking up Lefevre La. toward Main St. from our gate. The lower part of the street was awash during the storm surge, which seems to have carried a loose tire well up the street, where it still lay well into Tuesday (you should be able to spot it). The Honda dealer's lot at left is usually jammed full of new cars, but as you can see, a large portion of the lot was evacuated before the storm. Good thing!

Can you believe there was that much greenery still on our maple, oak, and other trees on October 30?

 

[With the original post:] You'd like to see photos, wouldn't you?  Well, that's another issue, unrelated to Sandy.  On Monday the mother board of my computer gave up the ghost.  Since Thursday evening I've been working with a temp CPU.  It won't work with my printer, and I'm afraid it won't work with the camera either.  Eventually I'll find out about that.

[Update:]  As it turned out, the USB from camera to temp computer worked fine.  It just took me till Nov. 21 to add the pix to the blog post.