A PTSD Weather Moment

We've been listening to the news about Hurricane Henri this afternoon.

We are coming up on the 10th anniversary of our flood of 2011, the flood that put my neighborhood on the cover of a commemorative book about the flood published by the local newspaper.  Since then, climate change has added to the risk.

Our flooding was caused by two tropical storms, once hurricanes, Irene and Lee, which dumped massive amounts of rain on upstate New York.  Irene was an active weather system from August 21 to August 28, 2011.  Today?  August 21.

You never forget.   Once, the sound of rain was pleasurable.  Since September of 2011, the sound of heavy rain makes me anxious.

And now, Henri.  The weather models at 11pm last night had us, at one point, in the 5-8 inch range of rain, and, an hour to the east of us, 12-18 inches.   I don't know what we would have done if those predictions came true.

I don't want this kind of flashback.  I don't ever want to see a tent put up by the Salvation Army cooking meals for people in walking distance ever again.  We were so fortunate, the water stopped literally feet from our house, but our basement was flooded and some of our first floor flooring also had to be replaced because of the water sitting there for several days.   But several blocks away, it was worse.  And we all dealt with the smell, the mud, and more.

Nor will I forget when singer Maureen McGovern toured "that" part of our neighborhood, because a fan asked her to come.  What a class act.

The truth is, it is what it is.  My friends and relatives in Florida have this to deal with every summer, not once every 10 years.  This isn't the west with its wild fires and droughts.  This isn't the Pacific Northwest, with the heat wave that killed hundreds.

But still.

Maybe it's our turn.

And maybe it's not.

We'll know by tomorrow.

The End of the Beginning

Last night, Johnson City, NY had its traditional Labor Day fireworks, to celebrate the end of its annual Field Days.  Ironic in a way, as two years ago, Johnson City voted on whether to dissolve (it didn't.).  Last year, right after Field Days, the floods came to the site of the Field Days and our entire area.  We lived through it and, in a way, we had a new beginning.

This week, on and off, I will commemorate the first anniversary of the floods our part of upstate NY (along with other parts of upstate NY, the Northern Tier of Pennsylvania and some other areas) experienced from Tropical Storm Lee.

I will still have my Wednesday Blooms tomorrow and it will be a nice one, I promise.  But as we approach the September 7-8-9-10-11 anniversary of "The Flood" (as it is called here, without explanation) and its immediate aftermath, and its personal impact on me and my family, I may delay or reschedule several weekly features.  It is time to look back one last time, and then continue forward.

In a way, this anniversary is a "deja vu all over again" situation, as we are now facing rains from the remnants of Hurricane Isaac.  It shouldn't be serious.  But, on September 4, 2011 we had no idea what was going to befall us here in the Binghamton, New York part of the Southern Tier of New York State.


Instead, the action was on the Gulf Coast, as Hurricane Lee made landfall on the Louisiana coast.

In the meantime, our part of upstate NY had been spared a direct hit from Tropical Storm Irene, itself a former hurricane, but we had  received a lot of rain.  Rivers and creeks were running high.  The ground was soggy and saturated.  Previous to that we had the wettest year on record. 

But that is in the past, and last night we celebrated with fireworks.

Music is the Best Revenge

 I am still unable to upload any photos to my blog, thanks to my internet woes. 

Sunday before last I my spouse and I attended a music festival at Rec Park in Binghamton, New York, the park featured in some of the Twilight Zone TV show episodes. Instead of some photos, I'd like to offer some You Tube videos, which I had uploaded in draft before my connection troubles started.

The first video above is of a band called Dirt Farm, which plays Americana and similar musical styles.

The second band (below), the Brian Wolff Band, played a song called Strong, which was a fund raising song for flood relief.  (You knew I was going to sneak our flood of last September into one or two more blog posts before the 1 year anniversary next month, didn't you?)  This is the official video for the song.

Brian Wolff is moving to Austin, Texas in October and I wish him luck.

The last video (below) is of a group called Bad Weather Blues.  Speaking of  Bad Weather, we are just about at the one year anniversary of Tropical Storm Irene hitting upstate New York.  I may blog about that more tomorrow, if I still can't post pictures.

This weekend, at the same park, there will be another music festival accompanying the Chris Thater Memorial.  I hope to blog about that this weekend, if the Internet Deities permit.

Music is the best revenge when you are trying to recover from disaster.  It lifts spirits and allows people to get together, express their sorrow, and work for a happier tomorrow.

And it gets your toes to tapping and your heart to dancing.

What could be better?

If you are in the area, please stop by this weekend and watch some awesome bicycle racing through the neighborhood Rod Serling grew up in.  Calling all Twilight Zone fans!)

The Fellowship of the Flood

Earth Day has been cancelled in Binghamton, NY.

No, really, it was cancelled.  There was an Earth Day celebration at our zoo, true.  But the Earth Day celebration that would have taken place at MacArthur School in Binghamton was cancelled due to our September flood.  The flood destroyed the school.  (It may never reopen - this is still up in the air.)  There wasn't enough time to find another site. 

Just another something cancelled by the flood. The Binghamton Earth Day was always fun - we got tree seedlings, Frito Lay samples (there is a local Frito Lay plant), free seeds, plus got the chance to browse exhibits, for a very minimal admission charge.

So what we ended up doing was going up to Ithaca, which is about an hours drive from where we live near Johnson City, New York.  We visited the Farmers Market and went to the Danby Green Homes Tour, which I will blog about in the near future.  At the Tour (15 "green" houses open for touring by their owners - or at least the green energy parts) we ran into a Danby woman who was, apparently, on the same "track" as we were.

We got to talking.

Amazingly, not only was this woman familiar with our neighborhood (Westover, one of the flooded neighborhoods of the Triple Cities), but she had volunteered for the flood cleanup in Owego, one of the worst hit towns.  She told her story to us, explaining she was compelled to help.

With another woman driving, she first stopped at house after house in Candor, which is between Ithaca and Owego, offering bottled water, and whatever help she could give.   Eventually, she helped in Owego. (I blogged some about their flood recovery in November and December of last year.)  I told her about the volunteers who showed up "just because" in our neighborhood, going door to door to offer help in the worse hit parts.

And, one of the houses on the Green Tour had some flooding, too.  It's sometimes hard to remember that the floods of Irene and Lee (ours was from Lee) hit so many people in upstate NY and other parts of the Northeast.   With other flooded communities we are part of what I call The Fellowship of the Flood.

My spouse and I, living in Westover, are part of the Fellowship of the Flood.  My childho od friend in Brooklyn, battling cancer for the second time, is also a member of the Fellowship of the Flood.  Her mother lives in rural Delaware County and as of February, the closest supermarket to her house still hadn't reopened. (that village, Margaretville, was very hard hit.  And if you want to see worse, look up a village called "Prattsville".) So either my friend or another family member had to bring food, or someone had to go to the next nearest supermarket, some 20 miles away.

Nearly eight months after the flood, thinking about it can still, under certain circumstances, bring up some pretty raw emotions.  But not when talking to another member of the Fellowship of the Flood.  I get a lot of comfort from talking to other Fellows.  They understand.  They've been there.  And a lot of them had it so much worse than we did.

So much to be grateful for, as we spent a gloomy April day in Ithaca.

No Comment

Yesterday I blogged about storm chasing contractors who arrived in my neighborhood in the Binghamton, NY area, with a brightly decorated mobile home and pickup truck, all ready to give the homeowners free estimates - and claiming that "We have determined that the complete cost of [their] services in your neighborhood will be, in most cases, fully covered by homeowners insurance".

Today, I came home from work and signed onto Facebook (the Ultimate Blog Challenge page) and found that several people had tried to comment - and were unable to.  I want to thank them for their time, and for taking more time to post on the Ultimate Blogger page.

One person said in part " However, what those people don't say is that if you use the services, even if the deductible is waived, your insurance costs can go up phenomenally. That's the real cost."  I think that, and a comment that did get onto my blog, cut to the heart of the matter.

What I now want to report is what I learned when I spoke to my insurance agent today.  My homeowners insurance is with a major national company.  My agent said my company does not have any such arrangement with anybody to have deductibles waived if I have such company do storm repair work on my house.  She said the firm I wrote about yesterday might be legit, but she suggested I might want to call the police.


Today, when I came home from work, the mobile home and the pickup truck I saw yesterday were not there.


So now I know I did not overreact.  I'm glad I had good instincts in this matter - and that many people out there experienced what I experienced yesterday.  Irene has been a good teacher.


And, for a minute, I want to address the commenting issue with Blogger.

 I could write an entire series on my trials and tribulations with Blogger.  Let's see, there was the couple of days no one could post, right in the middle of a blogging Blogathon requiring you to post each day.  There was the upgrade to Firefox where I had to switch to a different browser to post. There was the couple of days I couldn't upload photos.  Those - they only inconvenienced me.   But this time I am very embarrassed.  My readers were inconvenienced.  I had people who wanted to communicate with me, and they couldn't.

Commenting is the lifeblood of a blog.  It's the possibility of two-way communication with readers that makes blogging special. (and yes, it does make you feel good - well, usually.)  I'm not sure I solved the commenting problem but it seems a couple of comments have been able to get through.  And I was able to post on my blog after signing out.  If you tried to post yesterday, please see the apology I put in yesterday's commenting section.

The Storm Damage Contractors Arrive

When we got home tonight there was a mobile home parked in front of a neighbor's house, and a pickup truck parked across the street.  Both vehicles were very brightly painted announcing that they belonged to something called (without the asterisks or the double quotes) ""THI*Storm*Damage*Repair"".

On our doorknob was a brochure.  It said, in part "Over the next day and weeks you will notice [our trucks] working in your neighborhood.  Our company uses highly sophisticated storm tracking software which determined your neighborhood was among the hardest hit by the storms."

Oh really?  I hate to minimize what any of my neighbors may have suffered but I know areas way more heavily hit.  For example, eastern Broome County.  Villages in the Catskills.  And, oh yes, Vermont.  And Westchester County in NY (more on that below).  But I digress.

The brochure went on to offer a free no obligation inspection of our home since "...[their] employees performed a free no obligation inspection of your neighbors homes and found many had sustained damage from the storm.  The damage ranged from roof and shingle damage to window and siding damage."  And even further "We have determined that the complete cost of [their] services in your neighborhood will be, in most cases, fully covered by homeowners insurance".

Well, I would be very tempted to call my insurance agent and ask them if they have ever dealt with these people and if it was true that they would waive a deductible if these people performed the repairs.  The reason why I am really concerned about this is that I have an elderly relative (in her 90's) downstate, in Westchester County, who suffered a partial roof collapse.   If these people arrive in her neighborhood, will she or her son be tempted to use their services?

I did an Internet search and couldn't find anything much, which could be good. They have a A+ BBB rating but I have recently read that that isn't automatically an endorsement of a business.  On the other hand they are not local but rather from Pennsylvania. This area is hard hit economically.  In my humble opinion it is best, if you need repairs, to use local businesses using local employees. You can check them out by asking your neighbors.

So many things people in storm hit areas have to worry about.  Now, maybe, comes one more.  It's interesting that I did not see these people in my neighborhood after the Binghamton flood of 2006.  Portions of my neighborhood were flooded and evacuated.  Hmmmm...could it be because regular homeowners insurance doesn't normally cover flood damage?

If I am wrongfully suspicious - well, it is better to be suspicious, isn't it?   Due diligence.
 

Hurricane Irene and People with Autism - The Saga Continues

Last Friday I had blogged about the coming of Irene, and the fact that I have a brother in law with a developmental disability called autism.  I wondered how he would cope.  Like many people with autism, he finds it hard to communicate.  And, like most people with autism, he does not like disruptions in his routine.  None of us would want to evacuate, but for him, I thought it would be very difficult.

The reality is:  "it's complicated."

Saturday, my sister in law brought my mother in law and my brother in law up here to Binghamton (about 150 miles from the NYC area).  My MIL and BIL stayed with one family member and my SIL with us.  The couple of times our brother in law was over here, he did seem anxious but it was under control.  I don't know how long it will stay that way.

This was in his favor:
1.  He was with family, people he knew, at all times.
2.  He knew Irene was coming - so it wasn't unexpected.

3.  He's been up here before, and he has stayed in the house where is he sleeping before. 
4.  This may be speculation, but his previous visits were on weekends.  And this trip to safety was on a Saturday.  So in a way it was part of a routine - a routine that only occurs once or twice a year, but a routine nevertheless.
5.  (this one is important, I think.)  He was able to have privacy. And quiet. He is more or less left alone to watch TV. Again, that is part of a routine from when he visits up here.

Of course none of that would have happened in a shelter-especially the quiet, and the privacy. And, indeed, anybody with autism who has to end up in a shelter has a nightmare ahead of them.  My brother in law, frankly, lucked out.

But the routine of his normal visits up here won't last past today, because he normally leaves on Monday afternoon.  And here we are at Monday evening.

He won't be going to work at the sheltered workshop (the last I knew, he worked Tuesday and Thursday) tomorrow.   What happens when the week drags on?  Because the reality is, MIL's house downstate is still without power.   We got hold of a neighbor, who says conditions are pretty bad down there.  Trees down, roads out, things you would expect.  It would seem that at one point the center of Irene passed right over the village where she lives.  And, we can't take her back (the family member who brought them up had to leave) until the weekend.  We better hope she has power by then.

On top of everything, my brother in law has a cold and so he can't be feeling his best.

Over the weekend, many of us in the family were showing anxiety.  But now the storm is over, the sun is out, (in fact it is quite gorgeous) and we hope to get brother in law out tomorrow.

And, by the way, we all are safe.  No flooding. We never lost power.
We were lucky.

Civil War Sunday - Hurricanes, Earthquakes, and the Civil War

I was going to write about something totally different - but I am putting this up yesterday (Saturday) as by tomorrow we will be in the "fringe" areas of Irene and perhaps without power.  And my sister in law (and faithful reader of my blog) who evacuated from the NYC suburbs will be visiting our house in the Binghamton, NY area shortly.  So, this will have to be short in between getting ready for her visit.

I got to wondering, did any hurricanes affect military activities during the Civil War?  And the answer, of course, is "yes".

This National Geographic article talks about the "hurricanes of history" including a hurricane that disrupted Civil War naval operations in November of 1861.  As all those who follow the weather know, November is pretty late for a hurricane.

And, back to the present, a 150th anniversary Civil War event on Hatteras Island in North Carolina has been postponed to October - when a hurricane will be unlikely.

Unless the same thing happens that happened in 1861.....just showing how we are still just as much at the mercy of the weather as we were during the Civil War.

And not only that, what about earthquakes?  We had one earlier this week, with an epicenter in Virginia. Were there any during the Civil War?  Yes, and apparently it was centered in Virginia, too.  (this same site gives more information regarding hurricanes during the Civil War.)

What a difference (or not) 150 years makes.

Hurricane Irene Insomnia

The heavy rain woke me up this morning so a short post.  I am near Binghamton, NY (upstate NY) away from the shore, but we are receiving rain from Hurricane Irene now.  We will be getting heavy wind later this morning and that is the point where we would be in danger of losing our power.

My sister in law from downstate is here and I hope she is sleeping better than I am.  According to the Weather Channel, all the major highways in her area:  the Saw Mill, the Taconic-are closed.  I know that they had announced closings a couple of days ago of the Bronx River Parkway.  I feel for her, because she won't know what she is coming home to (home being a suburb of New York City) until she arrives home.  Same for my mother in law and brother in law, who are staying with another relative in this area.

When daylight comes (less than an hour) we will awaken to an interesting world.

We are under a wind advisory until 8pm and under a flood watch through "late tonight".  Our forecast:  tropical storm conditions possible.  Windy, etc.   Right now it is 66 degrees with gusts up to 31 miles per hour.

I am going to post this, and my Civil War post (already written) now.  If we still have power, I will try to post again sometime today.  If I can talk my sister in law into writing a guest blog for posting in early September (she is a blogger, too) I think that would be fun.  Otherwise, we have a lot of books in the house. 

Be well and safe, all my readers in the Irene zone!

Uncertainty in the Coming of Irene

Right now it sounds like the weather is going to be deteriorating faster for us than was first forecast. We are not in the hurricane zone itself but are under a flood watch, and the rain is going to be here tonight.  The good news is that my mother in law, and brother in law with autism who live in a suburb of NYC are being brought up here by my sister in law.  They will be staying with another relative locally. 

Now let's hope we don't lose power.

Ironically, Monday and Tuesday are supposed to be beautiful.

And, I have a cousin in law driving on I-95 right now from Rhode Island to NJ, so I hope she stays safe.

To all my readers in the hurricane zone, be safe.

Hurricane Irene and People with Autism

As my regular readers know, I have a brother in law with autism.  He lives with my elderly mother in law in the NY Metropolitan area.  Although he is obsessed with the weather and watches the Weather Channel continuously, he is also terrified of heavy rain, thunderstorms, and other forms of extreme weather.

And Hurricane Irene is on the way.

People with autism suffer greatly from natural disasters for a number of reasons.  People with autism (and these are generalities - I don't like to stereotype but I feel I need to here) tend to be very anxious.  They do not adapt well to any change in their routine.  A hurricane-well that is a big change from routine.  Many (not all) find it very hard to communicate - some, in fact, are not verbal.  My brother in law is verbal, but many of his thoughts are locked up inside of him.  And people with autism can be very sensitive to sensory stimulation - hearing, smell, vision.  Combine this with a hurricane, which would provide almost anyone with sensory overload, and you have a recipe for autism disaster.

At this point in time we are hoping a family member who lives a lot closer than we do will be able to stay with my mother in law and brother in law.

Some people with autism can communicate in writing, and do via blogs.  I found this blog post by a person with autism on Hurricane Irene (and this week's earthquake.)  It's interesting.

I don't think my brother in law would say it any better, if only he could.