Irene.

As I type this post we've just passed the 36 hour mark since our power went out. 10:10pm on Saturday night. The storm was just starting up, we were sitting in the family room watching a movie, and then all hell broke loose! It's been a very, very, very long 36hrs since...

When the lights went out we sprung into action and got some candles lit so we could move around without banging into things.  I was surprised it had gone out so early, but hey, nothing we could do now. From what we could tell though, this was a very localized outage.  Everyone around us, save for a few houses, still had the lights on.  I have no idea how the neighborhood is wired, but it doesn't make much sense to me.  One house is on, the very next one isn't

I decided to head down to the basements to check on the two sump pumps.  That's when I realized we were in real trouble.  The basin in the back, finished basement, was filling up very fast.  We needed to start bailing it out, and bailing it out fast!  I'm actually pissed/dissapointed/upset with myself for not realizing this would be a problem.  I mean, I knew that the sump pumps wouldn't work without power, I guess I just didn't realize a: just how quickly they'd fill up and b: how long the power would be out.  Needless to say, I'll be investigating battery back-ups and/or generators this week.  [any tips you have would be greatly appreciated!]

So back to our story.  The water was rising and it wasn't looking good.  Just about this time Kelly was walking past the couch and noticed a big wet spot on it  Great...now the ceiling was leaking.  The wind was driving the rain so hard that it was coming in the siding and then trickling through the ceiling and out one of the recessed lights.  We moved the couch and put a bucket there to catch the drips.  Back to the sump pump.

The pump in the front of the house, the unfinished basement, wasn't filing too fast, and it's unfinished there, so I didn't mind if water got in.  We had everything off the ground already, so no big deal. 

In the back I had two 5 gallon Home Depot buckets and I kept filling them up with a big measuring cup.  It felt like I made 100 bailing trips...quickly realizing it was a losing battle.  I jokingly said to Kel, I wish I had an extension cord long enough to run to the neighbors house! 

Enter Patrick to the rescue!  Kel was on the phone with him and he said that he had a few long cords we could borrow.  Awesome.  We told him to hurry.  I kept bailing until he arrived and then passed the operation off to Kel while Patrick and I went outside.  Both the guy in the back and the lady to the side had juice...which was closer? The lady on the side seemed a bit closer, and it turns out she had an outdoor receptacle near the pool.  Bingo. 

I was wading through about a foot of ponding water in the pitch dark and in the middle of a hurricane trying to get the cord plugged in.  I felt like Doc Brown in Back to the Future trying to get the plug connected before the lightning struck to send Marty McFly back to 1988!  The entire time Kelly is screaming out the back door to hurry every time she dumped another bucket.  The water kept rising and rising and was just about to overflow the sump basin.  I pulled the cord tight and was short about 2 feet...luckily there was still some slack in the basement and we managed to make the connection.  A minute later and we would have been in big trouble!  I got both sumps connected and they were pumping away. 

The back pump actually wasn't working as good as I thought it should...seemed a bit clogged. I had my hands down there fiddling with and somehow disconnected the PVC pipe that takes that water away, so the pump just started shooting water everywhere.  I was already soaked from being outside, so I didn't mind too much.  Just made for more of an epic evening!

With the leak and the sumps taken care of I figured we were in good shape.  Nope.  All of a sudden we had to deal with both the security alarm and the smoke detectors.  The alarm was letting us know the power was out [gee thanks!] with its incessant beeping and the smoke detector on the 3rd floor also had a low battery, and in turn set off every single detector in the house.  Took us 30 minutes to figure out which one was causing it.  My ears were now ringing!

Not knowing if the rest of the neighborhood would still have power [and keep our sumps going], we figured it was probably best to get everything out of the finished basement.  It was only around midnight now and they said the storm would really kick in around 2am.  So we spent the next 2 hrs carrying all my computer stuff, camera gear, and books out of there.  We were exhausted and sore, but we got it done.  Everything was now piled in the dining room and living room [and is still there as we speak!]

We tried to get some shut eye, I slept on the back couch, but it was of no use.  I kept watching the lights of the neighbors, hoping they'd stay on, and thankfully they did!

Buy the time the sun came up an d the worst of the storm was passed I set out of handle the next issue.  We needed ice for all of our stuff in the fridges and freezers [we have 2].  I made the rounds to a number of stores that were open, but nothing.  They had already been cleared out.  Enter Patrick to the rescue again...his good buddy owns a bar not too far away and of course they have an industrial sized ice maker.  Bingo again.  We took over two massive storage bins and filled them to the brim with ice.   

  

We got all the ice home and put all of the frozen stuff into two bins and all of the refrigerated stuff into another two bins.  That should last us a good while we figured. Later in the day we borrowed extension cords from Kel's other brother, Tommy, and ran a line from the guy in the back to power one of the fridges.  So with the sumps and the fridge running we were at least getting by! [and still are]

Below are a few photos we snapped during the ordeal. Like my sweaty, no-sleep, headlamp look?

     

     

     

     
     
     
  

While I had been out searching for ice earlier Kelly called me to tell that the downed wire, which had caused our outage, was now sparking and smoking.  I figured, hey, call 911 and let them know.  I didn't want the guys house to catch and I figured it might get us a faster response from PSE&G.  The fire department came, had a look, put up some yellow caution tape and moved along.  That was it.  I guess they had bigger fish to fry. This was at about 7am and throughout the day we had various fire officials and PSE&G guys all come back to have a look.  They'd stay a few hours and then leave. 

The wire finally smoked and sparked enough that it split and fell into the street.  I had actually asked the firefighter about that earlier and he told me "that wire will never break".  Hmm...guess not pal.  Well it actually fell into the middle of the street, which is a somewhat major road.  Again I thought...pefect, now we'll get it fixed since they can't have a live wire laying in the middle of a road like this, and again, I was wrong.  More guys game, they looked around, and just like the others, they left.  One PSE&G guy even told me "I'm with the gas division, I don't even know anything about electrical".  What a waste of time and money sending him, right? 

Two more guys showed up around 7pm and told us that the bucket trucks were coming and that they should have things up and running soon.  The fix would only take about an hour to do.  So these two guys just stood and waited with the rest of us til around 10pm.  Wating and waiting.  Finally they got a call and were told to pack it up, the line was dead, and they should just leave.  It wasn'ting getting fixed! 

For the life of me I can't figure out why they would keep sending guys who couldn't do anything.  Why waste time and money on that? and why get the customers hopes up? I certainly understand that there are lots of folks without power, but it seems like PSE&G has no clue how to handle and communicate repairs. 

  
  

So that's where we currently stand.  I've been online and the not-so-helpful PSE&G website says that we should have power back by 8pm on Sept 4th!  That's a full week away, if you're counting along at home with us. Again...a huge thanks to everyone that lent us a hand.  Things could have been much, much worse.

Earthquake, hurricane...what's next?  A little wildfire or maybe a mudslide?  

[I have a number of photos to add to this post, but I need a more robust internet connection to do it. Check back later ]

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UPDATE: Tuesday, August 30

The cavalry arrived yesterday afternoon and had the juice back on within about an hour.  Felt so good to be back to normal.  Now we just need to put everything away in the house and clean up the yard from all the downed branches.

  
  

 

Comments

[Andrew S]

Wow, that sucks guys. Good luck!

[Melissa Flaherty]

Yuck, that does not sound like fun. I grew up in a 100 year old house and flooding and wierd electrical issues sound very familiar! My parents live on a tidal river and had 7 feet of water in their basement during Isabel. (A window broke and the whole thing filled up like a bowl. Plus, the sump pump shorted out.) Since Isabel, mom and had have purchased throw-in submersible pumps. They have two and those things have been a life-saver for my parents through two more recent storms. You can run them off of a generator or off of one of those rechargeable car battery packs.

Good luck with the power. We've been out of power for up to 15 days after a hurricane. It is no fun. Sp glad to hear that you saved the basement. When my parents finally got the water out after Isabel they had the joy of cleaning up rotting river fish, jellyfish, crabs, a melted wedding cake that had been in the freezer, and asbestos that had fallen off of the old pipes. I think the clean-up shortened their life-span by 20 years. :)

[MarilynL]

Your saga makes our 24 hours without power a piece of cake (just got it back an hour ago). Isn't home ownership wonderful! It definitely has a steep learning curve. How did Wildwood make out?

[Papple Dankin]

This Patrick guy sounds like a real hero!

[A. Maccio]

that is some story. By the way Doc Brown was sending Marty back to 1985, not 1988. :)

[kathy]

So 33 Lawrence is still without power--past 48 hours! Be sure and call USAA- told we can put in for spoiled food without meeting the deductible! No water issues in our new home, thank goodness. Hoping for resolution soon! Good luck with the rest of your cleanup!
Kathy S

[kathy]

PS- Can I assume you had permission to plug into your neighbors and you will reward them with a nice gift or compensation for their higher electric bill!!