Noreaster and Power Outages
Hurricane Sandy continues her wrath, even after her winds are long gone. Many in our area suffer power outages: Highland Park, New Brunswick, Piscataway, East Brunswick. Power was restored to some after a week, only to be “taken away” after the latest noreaster (storm of a bit of snow and wind that otherwise would just be a bothersome pain) showed up.
A few photos from the past week:
A unmarked vehicle guards the house on Abbott Street with the tree wrapped with lives wires.
Previously, the trucks would be regular PSE&G vans. But it seems for guarding live wires, they need the vans elsewhere, so now we get these unmarked cars instead. Do you think they will change that motto about ‘Worry Free’? Worry full seems more like a proper description for our area. For the last two days we had a water boil advisory as well and a threat of losing water completely; that one got lifted earlier today.
Here’s another photo of the tree on the top of the house on Abbott which seems to causing many problems in our area. Our library and high school are closed, and too many house have no power.
Lots of yellow police tape when you look down Abbott. The live wires are supposedly quite dangerous, so you don’t want to walk near them.
Other parts of our borough still have no power, like North Tenth. If you think we don’t have first responders like police and fire showing up, you are wrong – they have been very on site and helpful. Problem is they can’t fix live wires. Nor can tree people.
A tree fell on this house on North Ninth Avenue. When I walked by later, the tree was gone, and the roof was patched. They are fortunate that the tree hit no wires.
I hope our neighborhood doesn’t continue to look like this much longer. Greetings recently: “Got power?” “Did you lose power (again)?” “Need an outlet, a warm cup of tea or some wifi?” “Got a plug on your porch?”
Ways to help the too many victims of storm (locally in Central New Jersey):
- Highland Park Reformed Church is doing a drive for Jersey Shore (Keyport area)
- RPRY is doing a hurricane relief drive.
- You can donate to Elijah’s Kitchen or to the Highland Park Food Pantry.
- NJ.com: Hurricane Sandy resources: How you can volunteer and donate
I was going to finish this post earlier, but we lost power (again) for an hour. Seems the fixit guys are better at breaking the power than fixing it. Hope I don’t post more about a noreaster and power outages. I did photograph some photos of birds earlier this week – possibly for next week’s Nature Notes.
Robin from Israel says
Hang in there Leora, my thoughts are with all of you. I hope everyone's life is able to return to normal soon, with full power, no live wires, and no more drama for quite a long time.
Leora says
We are managing fine, but others having varying amounts of undue hardship. I highly doubt things will go back to "normal" for quite a few. I do have hopes for normalcy for our own neighborhood, however.
I predict a rise in the development of hand-crank and battery-operated items.
Catarina says
Am not sure if global warmining is man made or not. Scientists I know claim it's not. But regardless of that we really need to take global warming into account and try to minimize it as much as possible. If not, this kind of disasters will increase.
Leora says
Whether it is or it isn't, the frequency of crazy storms is rising as is the sea level. At least we don't have shore homes.
However, we do have 100 year old gigantic trees. Not sure we want to continue to risk having those. The tiny new trees on Raritan Avenue fared much better in this storm.
Where my son is (College Park, MD), all the wires are underground. That helped. However, on the Lower East Side where the wires are underground, the area got soaked and lost power. No easy solution.
Scott Hammond says
I'm from SE Louisiana and lived through Katrina and two multiple day power outages after storms since then so I really feel for you. Glad you are posting and telling your communities story here!
Leora says
We have discussions on Facebook comparing this to Katrina, and many agree: we are so thankful it's NOT as bad as Katrina was. We count our blessings.
Hannah says
Who is supposed to fix live wires? It must be terrible for all the people who still have no power if the weather is as cold as it looks and sounds (snow is never warm).
Leora says
Happily, a crew is fixing them now. The fix it guys came all the way from Florida! Electrical crews in NY and NJ are just way overburdened by this storm. It's unprecedented.
Laura says
Yes, they are working on the tree! I went over with Larry and I saw the Florida crew and I was so happy to see them. And I saw PSEG guys on my block. So exciting! It's like: the cavalry has arrived!
Leora says
Happy to read your enthusiasm, Laura! You and Larry and your families have suffered the worst of the power outages - nothing since Sandy. Hoping it's all over for you by tomorrow morning (though they say by Sunday at latest all should be fixed).
Sherryl Perry says
Leora,
I feel so badly that New Jersey and New York got hit again yesterday. It's unbelievable. Here on the coast of MA, we've been relatively unscathed. We had power outages during Sandy but they were just an inconvenience. I was honestly hoping that this latest storm would hit us hard instead. Your area has been through enough and that was only the first week of November! Thanks for sharing.
Leora says
It seems that Hurricane Sandy left a fragile infrastructure. Hopefully, other than a roof or two needing fixing, no permanent damage will be visible in our area. I know that isn't true of elsewhere, especially towns on the shore. Large parts of the Jersey shore and the NY coastline will never be the same. And the communities in many of those areas are not wealthy.
Susan Cooper says
WOW, It just keeps coming. These are amazing picture that bring it all to life for me. It must feel surreal to you. I do hope things return to normal in the near future. This storm will remain in your memory for a life time. We had a house blow down just before we were able to depart and it is something I will never ever forget. High winds still make me nervous to this day. Stay safe my friend.
Jeri says
Somehow, your pictures make it all seem more real than what I've seen on the news. It's good to hear your family is doing fairly well, but so many are not. All this makes me wonder how many natural disasters will have to strike for more people to believe that global warming is real. Take care.
Rambling Woods says
Oh..it looks like a huge crime scene which I guess it really is..I hope they get to those wires..it has been such a long time...
Leora says
Michelle, happily, it all got fixed this week! I'm too tired and a bit tired from the whole ordeal to write more about the storm. I do have a few fix-it photos.
The house on 6th unfortunately suffered a fair amount of damage, but the rest of us did much better. We had no damage at all (other than I threw out two bags of shredded cheese that had not had proper refrigeration for two days).
Jewaicious says
Your photos and post are an amazing photojournalism piece.
Susan Oakes says
I can only imagine the power and sound of the wind to topple those huge trees Leora. Glad you came through okay. Whether it is global warming or something these changes in weather are real and it is happening around the world.
Please leave a comment! I love to hear from you.