11:12 a.m. - 04 October 2003
After the storms
We're okay.
That's the most important thing.
Actually, it turned out to not be too bad. We spent most of the weekend and the Monday and Tuesday before the storm getting ready. It took us that long to get the boards ready to put on the windows and to figure out exactly how we were going to attach the boards to the brick exterior of the house. We ended up getting up at 6:30 a.m. on Wednesday to put them up; I was thinking it would only take a couple of hours and I'd be able to work most of the day.
Around 12:30 p.m., when we finally finished, I called my boss to check in, and he told me not to even bother coming in. He knew I was planning to leave, so he gave me permission to go ahead and go and not to worry about anything. I told him I'd check in on Friday, when things should be a bit calmed down.
Lee stayed at the house. He ended up going to work for a few hours on Wednesday afternoon, but I left for my sister's place. I got there several hours before she did, so I had plenty of time to watch the Weather Channel and worry. We ordered a pizza for supper that night and just generally caught up. I called Lee to let him know I'd arrived, and I'm pretty I talked to Mom that night, too.
Tricia went to work Thursday morning, and I continued my Weather Channel vigil. I talked to Lee around noon, and he said that the power had gone out around 7 a.m. He said it was raining and blowing, but the winds were mostly coming from the north, so he had the door in the study open (it faces south) for some light to read by. He said he was fine so far; he was drinking a soda that was still cool, reading about the fall of the Ottoman Empire, and watching a rabbit that was supremely unconcerned about the weather warnings.
I didn't talk to him again for another 55 hours.
The next time I tried to call him was 7 p.m., but the phone was out. It stayed out until well after I got home. I attempted not to worry and cooked supper for Tricia and I.
Friday morning I called my boss and left him a message (the hospital was running on generator power); their phones never went out. He called a couple of hours later and said that downtown had been hit hard -- the water was four feet deep in places. There were enough trees down that it was estimated the power would be out for a week. The hospital was full of people who wanted somewhere to stay; the cafeteria was pretty much the only place in town serving hot food, and it was being limited to employees and family only. He said he'd keep an eye out for Lee and have him call me if possible.
I kept checking my email, and a little before one had something from Lee: he was fine. He told me that he'd already taken down all the boards from the windows (mostly so that it wouldn't be dark in the house); that the fig tree had fallen over; that we had a large number of branches from the pine trees down; that a couple of the trees in the front were leaning over pretty far; that the screen door was destroyed and part of the screening on the porch was damaged; and that he'd come to the hospital to check email and try to call his parents (who declined to come give him some help). I tried to call him and to send him another email, but I'd apparently just missed him.
Tricia was home early that night, but she and her (estranged -- hopefully temporarily) husband went out to dinner. The two of them had words in the parking lot; and after she came back into the apartment, they continued to have words by phone. I still hadn't eaten, so when she calmed down, the two of us went to IHOP and then to Wal-Mart, where I stocked up on non-perishable foods, candles, water, batteries, and other sundries. I was so tired we ended up wandering around aimlessly for a while without really finding what we needed. We got home and I crashed.
I left her apartment early the next morning; I let Mom know that I was leaving and that she probably wouldn't hear from me for a while, since our phone was still out and the cell phone probably wouldn't work if the power was still out. Traffic wasn't too bad, and it wasn't until I was about an hour and a half from home that I really started to see damage. I stopped there to get ice and to try to get something to eat, but the line was just too long at McDonald's, so I ate crackers in the car. I got home around 1:30 or so to find Lee wasn't there. I didn't know when he'd be back, nor where he'd gone, so I got the food that was in the freezer on ice (most of it was still at least partially frozen) and did some cleaning in the back yard. Lee got home a little before 7; he'd gone to see his parents and borrow a chainsaw and chipper from them. There was still a curfew in effect from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., so he'd gotten home just in time.
Not long after he'd gotten everything put away, the power came back on. He'd stopped for some fast food, so we were able to nuke it and eat in the kitchen. We left the windows open, though; we didn't want to stress things out by turning the AC on. Our bedroom, though, is one of the hottest rooms in the house, so we slept on the pull-out sofa down in the dungeon -- what we call the garage that was closed in.
We got up early and started working on getting cleaned up: I gathered up the debris into piles while Lee went to work on the fig tree and some of the larger branches with the chainsaw. We got the back of the truck full of branches and stuff, but weren't sure where to take it. Around noon, we noticed that the cable was back on, so we had internet access again, and by 1 p.m. the phone was back. I tossed out everything that was in the fridge, moved the frozen foods back into the fridge, and we tried to find out where to take the branches. We finally got directions to the landfill and headed out there, but they were closed (even though they were supposed to be open until 7).
We spent most of last week hauling off branches (the landfill was only open until 7, and it's far enough away that we could only take one load off per night). We just managed to right one of the trees that's leaning in the front yard last night, and the other one will require some assistance from the neighbors. We've fixed the screen on the porch, but the screen door was apparently an odd size, so we're still trying to figure out how to fix that.
We have a ton of non-perishables left, although Lee says he'll never eat Spam again (he ate it straight out of the can and said it left a nasty aftertaste for two days). We've got enough candles to last us for quite a while, and batteries galore. We also know that we could really use a chainsaw -- the chipper wasn't very helpful since it was all pine branches, and most of them were small enough that it wasn't worth the hassle to get them into the hopper.
But mostly, we're grateful that it wasn't any worse. Any one of those pines in the back could have fallen on the house or the garage, and they didn't. We didn't lose any shingles. Our power came back on relatively quickly (although there were four houses on our street who were without power for a week). Nothing flooded. I was able to get home safely. Lee was able to get home after going to see his parents. Yes, we lost all the meat that was in the freezer (we couldn't eat it fast enough) and a not insignificant portion of what was in the fridge (our grocery bill this week was staggering). But we're okay.
My mom called Tuesday night. We were dealing with getting the Saturn fixed (I love the car, but the only dealer is an hour away, so we had to drive up there two nights in a row to drop it off and pick it up) and the cell phone needed charging, so I didn't get her message until we got home. I called her to find out what was going on, and she told me that my dad was unemployed and my niece has head lice. What a day.
My dad has worked for the same company for thirty years -- they hired him right after he earned his Associate's degree in Forest Technology. That's not what he does now, but it's how he started out. Now he's an information technology guru; I couldn't tell you exactly what he does, but he sits in an office surrounded by computers all day. But they are closing his office -- completely. Everyone got their walking papers. They're getting two weeks pay for each year of service, paid in one lump sum, and they'll be paid for any unused vacation time.
I talked to him last night, and he seemed to be handling it well. He sort of suspected it, since it was no secret his company was about to lay off 3000 employees, mostly salaried. There will be a couple of positions opening up in Savannah, and he thinks he has a reasonable shot and getting one of them. This is in no small part to his current boss asking him to write the job description, but it's no guarantee.
My mom is still working on her bachelor's degree (she started working on her associate's during my senior year of high school; my ten-year reunion was this summer), so it's entirely possible that she will stay put until it's finished. My sister and niece will probably stay in the area, at least in part due to custody issues. Dad also had the option of applying for a couple positions in Memphis, but has already decided that he will not -- partly because he doesn't care for Memphis, and partly because it's a long way from all his family. My grandmother has Alzheimer's, and is not in particularly stellar health, and Memphis is just too far -- not to mention that Lee and I could only get there by flying, which would mean a lot fewer visits.
To make all of this even more special, there were layoffs here at the hospital yesterday. I suspect that I dodged a very large bullet: the person who replaced me in my previous position was let go. As were several other administrative support personnel, and one of the managers in my current department. Eighteen people total were let go, all directors, managers, or support, including one vice president. I suspect my workload will be changing drastically. I haven't had a chance to sit down and speak directly with my boss, but I plan to do that as soon as I can. I was one scared puppy all that afternoon, that's for sure.
