Maggie's Farm

Here's what I've seen and experienced:
My town is listed as one of the worst, by PSE&G.  So we will get no electrical power until all other "easier" areas are cleared up first.  I know this from the one crew which passed by, clearing the main street and putting those poles up.  About 1/2 my town has power, my half does not and given the damage around me, I doubt we will get it anytime soon.

As I wrote, I have no heat so the fireplace is going 24/7.  I'm running low on wood though, so if this goes past tomorrow, I'm out of luck for any heat.  There is no wood to be found unless you want to burn green stuff on the side of the road.

I don't have a generator and it wouldn't matter if I did.  No gas to be had - well, let me rephrase that.  There's plenty of gas, but you need to find an open station and wait in line for an hour and half with disgruntled, angry, and some armed people.  This is not my style. 

Luckily, my gym now has power and has opened up its doors to let us charge machines, use wi-fi, shower and eat at their cafe.  Several restaurants are open and have wi-fi and are letting people in to communicate and charge up.  Food is not but nobody is 'gouging' (though I wouldn't care if they did).

Without many crews in town, what amazes me is the work people are doing.  Everyone is stepping up.  People are working to do what little they can to clear yards, roads (as long as wires aren't down) and offering help to those in need.  I saw several homes with hot chocolate and coffee urns out front saying "free coffee", and several homes with extension cords set up charging stations for all to use.

People with wi-fi have, in some cases, turned off their passwords to allow others to piggyback.

We do not have it "bad".  We are the least badly hit, in relative terms.  But we can't last much longer without power because food has to be eaten today or go bad (if it was frozen), and it's just cold enough to keep stuff from the refrigerator cold by leaving it out, though there isn't much left and supermarkets are jammed.

Then there's the nor'easter headed our way....and the need for laundry facilities...and heat and cooking facilities for people with babies.  Our neighbor had a child a week prior to the storm, and has just left their house because, while they had a generator, there is no gas to be had in any reasonable way.  They have moved to a friends' house who has power.

My father lives by Atlantic City, and he made out fine with limited damage.  However, he says the barrier islands are a mess and many people are homeless.  Again, it appears homes and businesses have opened up to help and do what they can in those cases which are the worst off.

I said I wouldn't get too political, so I won't, but here is my view.  We do need an emergency organization like FEMA - though I agree with Romney's view that it's better at a state rather than a national level.  And clearly, if you look at how businesses and individuals are stepping up, privatization of this process is already happening.  So I don't disagree with him there.  But I'd vote for Obama if he did one thing.  Look presidential.  Given his recent campaigning after doing what little any politician can do (and I don't expect politicians to do much, quite honestly they are in it for themselves), he took off and started campaigning again.  In Vegas among other stops.  Give me a break.  The best campaign he could run is to look presidential and lead.

Sorry I can't post on the site, I've got limited power and access.  Everything is very slow and going to Maggie's just isn't happening right now.  My current job is getting laundry done, cleaning out the house after 4 days of being more or less cooped up and/or tracking in dirt from cleaning the yard of post-storm mess, and figuring out how I'll get to work on Monday.

To our friend Bulldog:

Welcome to the club. Lots of us are cold and in the dark literally and figuratively. It's not all that bad, really, justr uncomfortable and highly inconvenient. At least we don't live in a flood plain and have our house float away. A nasty Nor'easter or hurricane or whatever it turned into. However, we should not be surprised. These things happen regularly, and the Northeast has a long history of highly-annoying storms. We cannot expect government or power companies to fix everything right away. It's a huge mess to deal with, with many moving parts. My road is littered with broken utility poles and fallen trees, but low-density areas come last on the list. FEMA has nothing to do with this, nor does Obama.  It's a local task, mainly, and even the Gov can't do much. Heck, Florida has these things all the time. We used to have them all the time in New England, at least annually, but in the past decade we had a reprieve.

My advice: burn that green wood. Get a good hot fire going and it will burn just fine. That's what I am doing. Esp. the White Pine, but anything else. I get the heat up in there by throwing in a couple of charcoal briquets. I don't stoke the fireplaces at night, since it's only getting down to the low 40s now. My parents are in their 80s and have been without heat or power since Monday, and don't seem to mind it all that much. My Mom calls me on her cell phone worried about whether I'm cold! She's thankful no tree fell on their house.

Winter underwear and long johns are great for bedtime. I have woken up many mornings at the uninsulated farm with snow on my blankets, blown in through cracks in the old windowsills, and felt fine as long as I stayed under the covers.

Whence am I posting this? Public library today. They are extending their hours too until 9 pm. It has heat, light, and plenty of broadband machines (albeit there are lines to use them). When I think about our storm challenges, I feel grateful that these are our worst difficulties.