Good Night Irene, I Survived Another Storm
Posted: Wednesday, September 07, 2011
by Jack H. Schick
Hyped up meteorologists on every TV station you can think of tried to scare me with a hurricane recently. It didn’t work. I don’t scare that easily, anymore. Sometimes the weather peoples’ histrionics are justified; but, other times it seems like they’re just trying to get overtime pay, or, more likely, trying to satisfy some deep seated, perversity. I’m sure that half of the people in the studio sincerely envy the on-the-scene reporter who gets to stand out on the beach and lean into the wind and surf spray in front of a rain pelted camera lens. Other times, though, I’m convinced they’re just trying to scare people--because they can; or, they’re trying to boost the economy by getting viewers to run out and buy all the bread, milk and flashlight batteries in sight.
I live right next to a creek so the mortgage company makes me buy flood insurance. I have to pay about $100 a month on top of my homeowners’ insurance. It was the cheapest policy I could get. I read through it a few weeks back, when the renewal bill came. It doesn’t cover anything in the basement or on the first floor. It doesn’t cover any household items at all. If the once-in-a-thousand-years flood comes and knocks the place down it will help me rebuild, though. In bad storms the creek gets way up into the yard, but never real close to the house. My unfinished basement isn’t well constructed and is always a little wet, but it’s never gotten more than a couple feet of water down there. That was when the power was out and the sump pump didn’t work.
I’m too cheap to get a generator. I argue, “They lived without electricity for thousands of years. I’m certainly tough enough to do it for a little while if I have to” (besides, the basement’s wet all the time anyway). “People today are too dependent on modern services. They aren’t survivors,” I decry. If a comet exploded in the atmosphere and sent out an electro-magnetic pulse, or if there was a nuclear blast or something, our power grids and satellites would be shut down for months. Even with a generator you’d be out of fuel by then, and think of the carbon footprint you’d leave.
I didn’t do nothing, though. I threw a few jugs of water in the freezer, to give us a little more time before the food started to rot if we did lose power. We’d just have to quick eat all the ice-cream. We’d manage that fine. Just incase, I dug out my propane lantern and stove, and brought a box of Christmas candles down from the attic. It was too late to get batteries for my radio, though. Every place I went was sold out already. If I really needed to hear about something, I figured I could go out and listen to the car radio. I’d filled it with gas when my wife sent me out to get bread, milk and batteries.
When Irene finally hit, the one thing I actually was afraid of did happen. I got a call from my boss at 5:00 Sunday morning. He needed me to get to work asap. Wastewater plants don’t often handle hurricanes well. They’re usually along creeks in a low lying area. No matter how much time and money is put into repairs and maintenance, underground pipes leak, water runs in manholes and many ‘customers’ illegally have their sump pumps and roof drains tied into the sanitary sewers. Our flow jumped from about 5 million gallons a day to over 30 million—and, unlike some, our collection system is in pretty good shape.
After battling the storm all night; running every pump and piece of equipment at full speed for hours, piling up sand bags as the creek rose, manning the phones for when customers called to say their toilets were making funny, gurgling noises, the weekend crew was pretty well beat. I had to go in on my day off to relieve them. Getting there was the hard part. It was still dark and raining. I had to take a circuitous route because many roads were flooded. I nearly stalled out a couple of times when I hit a puddle that was deeper than I expected. At least there weren’t many other cars on the road.
Everything went okay at the plant—as well as can be expected with 7 inches of rain in about 18 hours. My wife called once, to (tell-me-so) that the electricity was out. I actually thought about a generator for a few minutes, but she soon called back to say it was on again. The creek got way up in the yard, as usual, but we didn’t flood. Some dead branches broke off trees and fell on the roof and in the yard, so we had as mess to clean up. Otherwise, it wasn’t a scary storm—in my world anyway. From what I saw on the news over the next couple of days, I know some people in Vermont wouldn't agree. I feel sorry for them; but, after all it is the result of an act of God--and where you build your house.
The people at the weather station are starting to get hyped up over the next storm already (I forget the letter). They say there has been more than a 200% increase in the number of named tropical storms in the last hundred years or so. Now, that almost scared me. But, then I realized that a hundred years ago they didn’t even have airplanes, much less weather satellites. These days, if they see a couple of clouds out in the ocean somewhere start to swirl, they call it Mariah (if they’re up to the M’s). If the computers say it might hit something in a week or so, they muster the troops for all night broadcasts, dress up and send out the lucky storm chasers, start drinking too much coffee to achieve the appropriate level of shrillness and start trying to scare me again.
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Top-level comments on this article: (3 total)You hit on the mass hysteria that the networks try to work up, and mostly succeed at - People flock to the stores and buy, buy and buy. I think the newsy types who stand in the wind gusts and look rather stupid, do very little for me. I just know enough to get in out of the rain and gusting winds. I certainly would not be standing on the beach, near the water, if major surges are expected, Duh! But it's the ratings game. None of it would be happening if we, as consumers, weren't tuning in. Some warnings and flurries of warnings, however, are necessary. I like to know what is expected, and the who, what, where, when and why so that we can be prepared. Then it's mostly done with. Periodically we update ourselves and that is mostly to see what the progress is of the storm. Locally, we update ourselves on road conditions. We're way out in the boonies so it's rather necessary here. But false hype and building on peoples' fears seems a mite mean spirited. Even for rating. This one got as much press as it did, Jack, because it was so big. I don't remember Agnes, but I certainly remember Gloria.It's always good to see your face and read your comments, thanksLike reading your work.
You made me laugh, Jack! Ha ha, I also shout at the TV! I agree with you about the media hyping up stories and doing everything they can to present scariest, worst-case scenario. I'm getting really sick of it. And boy do they love predicting the worst, which often never happens. I'm glad the storm wasn't too bad in your area. Thanks for an entertaining read!Thanks, as always, for reading and commenting
Are you guys still getting those awful rains? I always enjoy your articles, Jack.Yep. The flood this week was much worse than Irene was.
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