… There are times in a single gals life where she feels more alone than usual. As a fairly independent person, it is not often I feel alone; but in the face of adversity, new challenges or tragedy, I feel more alone than usual and it is during these times that I often wish I had a partner.
This week hurricane IRENE hit the east coast with a vigilance of a storm that I myself had not experienced in my adult life. As a teenager, I had experienced hurricane Gloria, where we lost power in my parents home in Connecticut for 13 days, and after the horrifying coverage of Katrina in New Orleans, I could only imagine what a destructive hurricane storm could be like. Until this past week…
I, like many others, live on the Connecticut Shoreline buffered by Long Island and the sound. The home in which I live is the first house I have owned, and I purchased it almost 7 years ago. It resides on a peninsula that protrudes into the marshy canals, and I absolutely love my neighborhood and home. Over the past several years, I have put every extra penny I have earned back into improvements on this house and have enjoyed many a social gathering with friends and family within it’s walls. Very simply put, I love this house! So as you can imagine the idea of leaving this dwelling was the first time in a long time, that I could not make a decision. I am often very decisive at work and in my personal life, but this decision was different. And so ….you may understand that when the first selectman of our town only recommended a voluntary evacuation, I packed some pet supplies and a suitcase in preparation for the potential mandatory evacuation, but decided I would stay with my beloved home, along with my pets, until I was instructed to leave.
I consulted with many, including my mother who had said, “Maybe you should think about coming here” (only 7 miles away from my house a little further away from the coast) and I actually considered leaving until 11 PM the evening prior to the storm hitting our state. IRENE was expected to hit the Connecticut coastline the following morning; however, after watching the progression of the storm on television and seeing it was downgraded to a CAT 1-2/Tropical Storm when it would potentially hit the Connecticut Shore, I decided to stay with my home unless a mandatory evacuation was implemented.
I confirmed with my neighbors that they were all staying and so I did not feel as alone. I fell asleep around midnight in the lower floor den and was awakened around 4:30 am to a falling tree branch and high winds. I texted a friend to see if he was awake and he too had been just woken up by the wind. We were on the phone at 5:10 am when the power at my house went out and I stayed on the phone with him until I got the candles lit and then I signed off to conserve my phone battery. I listened to my portable radio and tried to sleep and probably dozed off a few times in the first few hours of the storm.
The next 7 hours seemed to either fly by, or at times seemed to last forever, I still cannot decide… and I was thankful for when it was finally light outside. There were times I was a little panicked with the rising waters and storm surge behind my neighbors’ house, knowing high tide was still hours away. But in the end I fared well. I saw many trees come down, near and around my house, my neighbor had 5 trees on their house and a hole in the roof, and some flooding in the part of the neighborhood where we lived, but in the end we were all okay. And as I drove around later that day I realized how fortunate I was. The CT shoreline got hit pretty bad by this CAT 1/Tropical storm. I cannot even imagine if it had been a CAT2 or higher. I talked with a friend in East Haven, who did not heed the mandatory evacuations, and heard horrifying stories of houses being taken out to sea, or knocked off their foundation, and at times he was fearful about his choice to stay and if he would make it, and I felt extremely thankful to “just” be out of power.
It is currently our fifth day without power, and most of Connecticut should have power in 7 to 14 days. I actual like the simplicity of it all, cooking on the grill, visiting neighbors, going to bed early (not so fond of the cold showers) but I have running city water and waited in line to secure a generator. I feel lucky, and none of this bothers me, because I know my house and family and friends are fine and that it could have been worse.
Through all of this, what message came through to me the most is that even though I was physically alone in my house, weathering out the storm, I never felt alone! From the texts of my friend who still had power to give me storm updates from the TV, to the calls and texts from another friend who kept me calm during the storm, to the local radio station DJs who made the hours pass by with updates from all over the state, to the calls to (and from) my mom to see if I should still leave (during the height of the storm due to the rising water) and her calming me down, to the neighbor who told me to use his shower whenever I wanted since he had a generator wired to the house, to countless other friends who invited me over for dinners and showers, to the friend who picked up all the piles of branches and debris in my yard and hauled it away [when I only asked to borrow the truck], to the neighbors who ran a line from their generator to my house for a little light and to the neighbors who set up my new generator for me and showed me how to actually use it.
Through all these acts of kindness, I realized something. I may be single and not married or in a relationship, but that does not mean I am alone. And through the chaos of this storm, I actually realized the difference, that just because you are not married, does NOT mean you are alone…. and for this I am most thankful!
