The Yankee Weathers Sandy

For the second year in a row the Northeast got slammed by a major storm at Halloween. Sandy, however, caused more widespread damage than the freak snowstorm of 2011. It continues to cause trouble further inland.

Here in the DC area Sandy seems not to have hit us as hard as expected. The number of people who lost power was lower than estimated and restoration is proceeding much more quickly than it did after the Derecho at the end of June. The Metro, which they shut down yesterday, opened again today at 2:00 p.m. And so far flooding appears not to have been out of the ordinary.

I spent yesterday afternoon making sure the Guest Houses were secure and filling tubs, so we'd have water, if we needed it. After dinner students gathered in dorm common rooms and Scott Lounge where we lit fires in both fireplaces. They cancelled classes and shut the whole Seminary both yesterday and today. The power finally went out last night at about 10:30. I say finally because it flickered off and on for about six hours prior to staying off. The winds pretty much died down by midnight, and even the gusts were not particularly strong.

That's not to say we didn't have any damage here. Three trees came down, which surprised us. Not because they came down, but because so few came down. The closest call was this one that came down by one of the dorms. It fell against the wind. Several basements in faculty homes and dorms were flooded. Most of them were pumped out by dinner.

After getting up this morning I walked into the living room and thought, "What an interesting reflection on the wall. I wonder where it's coming from." I put on my glasses and realized it wasn't a reflection. It was the larger of two water bubbles. I did a quick inspection of the rest of the Guest Houses and found water damage in one other room. This is nowhere near the level of the Great Water Disaster of 2008 where I had water coming through the ceiling throughout most of the apartment. Looks like maintenance will be having the roofers back and then repainting some walls.

We were lucky. It could have been worse. It is worse further north and east. Pray for those who have been affected by Sandy.