Those Who Fail To Plan, Plan To Fail

Once again as a Nation we are riveted by tragedy 

This time it was Mother Nature and she delivered a most beastly devastation. The tornado in Oklahoma, an EF-5, on a scale to 5, spanned a mile long and wiped out an entire town with catastrophic damage. The Death toll was revised to 24 with 9 of them children.

Our thoughts and prayers are certainly with them. News videos of the complete destruction, and cars twisted and tossed in piles like jigsaw puzzle pieces in the suburban area's remind us that life is so precious and can be fleeting. It seems residents had less than 16 minutes to prepare for the deadly tornado.

What I took from this "nightmare scenario", is that everybody needs a plan. Experts are warning that a global climate change is upon us, and that nobody is safe from violent storms. They predict that Midwest tornados and storms will get stronger and the Northeast will experience more powerful and violent hurricanes. History so far has supported these claims.

So I decided my family, my staff, we all need to have a plan of emergency, one that we can put into action if needed. We are not strangers to extreme weather, especially here on the East Coast and I think it's time to prepare. As climate changes become more severe, we must adapt to the threat of danger and prepare. It's beginning to become cliche, like a TV sitcom episode about an emergency preparedness drill gone awry. But there's nothing funny about any of this.

This isn't an episode of "Happy Days". In fact these aren't Happy Days at all.

Honey, I Ain't A Scared Of A Little Snow

Bring it on beeyotches....

Up And Running.....

No more than 30 minutes ago, I joined the real world again. My power was finally restored and I'm grateful that we survived with barely a scratch. My town was very hard hit with wind, leaving in it's wake power outages and lots of downed trees all over the place, but now that the power is restored I feel anew. I can hardly complain. After three days of no power, I was finally able to put a TV back on and see what happened around me.

Look at New York City and New Jersey. Oh my.

NYU was clobbered and almost all of the dormitories were evacuated due to power outages and flooding. The school will remain closed until Saturday and classes will resume on Monday. Frick is fine, thank God. She and her roommates took the train on Sunday to New Jersey, hours before the rails were closed for the storm (inland not the Shore) to stay at one of the roommate's home. The family has 2 generators, and while they lost power and are still powerless, Frick reports to having generator power and having a ball. They are being treated like Queens and last night she text me, "Porkchops on the grill and macaroni and cheese! Can't get much better than this." I am eternally grateful to that family for watching over my baby girl during the Hurricane.

Frack is pumped...
Day three and no school and I'm thinking that he is liking this. The downside is that Frack's super excellent Golf team was scheduled to play in the State Championships on Monday, but that has been postponed until next Monday, which gives him a few more days to get prepared. GO WILDCATS!

My store never lost power, My Guy's office never lost power and all is well here in the aftermath. Driving to work, I see more and more fences, trees and power lines down, and I'm grateful that my home survived quite well. I'm thinking we are on the road to normal. That new normal I told you about.

Sandy's Not So Dandy

It seems I can remember a time when I thought living on the East Coast was truly a weather blessing. Sure, we get belted with snow in the long and hard winters on the East Coast, but if you live here, that's what you sign up for. We also get glorious, sweltering summers, like the one I am looking at in the rearview mirror right about now. I also remember, years ago listening to National news reports about frequent earthquakes on the West Coast and severe storms, twisters and flooding in the Midwestern parts of the country. I used to think that stuff only happened to other people. The ones out there. Not us here in the East.

But over the past couple of years our luck has run out. It's like payback for all that good weather karma, and we really are making up for lost time, fast. In the past two years alone, our region has been hit with devastating, severe storms, tornadoes (virtually unheard of in these parts) and ice storms more frequently than  previous history will tell. I, myself, have been affected by long lasting power outages at least three times to date. Last week we even had a "4.5  on the Richter Scale" earthquake.

So it should be of no surprise to me that yesterday, it seemed like there were millions of "Chicken Little's" running around the area, cleaning out the Home Depots of batteries and water in preparation for today's Tropical Storm Sandy. I was one of them. Gone is the warm and cozy feeling of hunkering down for a day off with family watching the storm. The fun has been replaced with worry and aggravation over the prospect of long lasting storm effects and the costly damage to homes. And I'd rather not even think about people's safety. It's not so fun anymore.

Preparing for severe weather has become a competitive sport around here and some become the envy of the neighborhood with their storm prowess. Personally, I'd rather be popular in the neighborhood for my grilling prowess, but who's complaining? This has become our "new normal" and I've got to ride it out and say my prayers. Sandy, please spare us all your wrath. These frequent Tropical Storms are messing with our lives and our livelihoods. Last year Halloween was CANCELLED, and if this continues as it's supposed to, this year is not looking promising either. Have you ever? Rescheduling Halloween?

This "new normal" just isn't normal at all. I pray that everyone rides out Sandy's wrath in safety. May the "force" of storm preparedness be with us and not the force of the storm. Please, not the force of the storm.

Really?

Today is a snow day.

Can you believe that I just told you that? Seriously, today is a snow day for all of us because the storm that hit us over the weekend nearly crippled this area and we are AGAIN without power for days. This time both my husband and I cannot go to work because there is no power and it's only halloween. Last time neither of our businesses were effected.

So what ever happened to Global Warming?

Not around here. It's like Armageddon around here and I feel like I just went through this recently.

Because I did just go through this recently. It was two months ago to the day that Irene hit this area with high winds and downed power limes, leaving us powerless for five days.

Today is day two and I'm optimistic that this will be the end. That power will be restored by tonite, and that this was just a minor bump in the road. I can't ever remember being without power for this long, ever.

I'm moving to Florida....