There's a storm a-brewin'

Dear friends,

It's been quite the hectic day here. I got an early morning call for a substitute day (yay!) and spent the day teaching Art at my favourite school. Work wise, it was a great day. However, there is a storm brewing in the Atlantic ocean and it has most of us here in on the peninsula very shaken up.

In just a few short hours Hurricane Leslie is expected to hit us directly. Packing wind of 120 km/h and a warning of 70-100mm of rain, things will not be pretty in my hometown for the next day or two.

Hurricanes don't hit here often. By the time they reach this little neck of the woods (the northern most shores of the Atlantic ocean), hurricanes have normally downgraded to Tropical storms or tropical depressions and their wind and rain is nothing unlike what we see every few weeks. But in 2010, Hurricane Igor struck the peninsula with so much force that it washed out the main roads here in 5 different places, stranding us from the rest of the island of Newfoundland. 129mm of rain fell in 8 hours and while some families struggled to bail out their homes, some struggled to reach each other.

[NOTE: There is some foul language in this video. I post it only to highlight how the hurricane affected the area of Newfoundland where I live.]

No one expected Igor. No one was prepared. The peninsula ran out of gasoline and we soon ran out of certain provisions such as milk. With one road connecting us to the rest of the island, it was impossible to get trucks here with food. A few days after the hurricane, the government was forced to send a boat with provisions to provide us with the goods we needed until the highway could be fixed.

An image of the dam overflowing in my grandmother's community of Lawn, Newfoundland in Sept. 2010. Photo found on thecoaster.ca

And this all could happen again tomorrow. Needless to say, I'm a little stressed out.

I just got home from the grocery store and it was complete madness. All the water was completely sold out. With better warning of what is coming, everyone is better prepared this time. But the panic is new.

As I drove home from the store, the gas station I passed was full, with a line of cars backed up down the street, hoping to get gas before Leslie hit. I am very thankful I had a full tank already.

And now I'm getting ready to prepare the house. With winds in excess of 120km/h the big worry with this storm is not washed out roads, but falling trees and flying debris, so we need to get everything out of the garden and off the deck before the wind picks up. Losing power is also a serious worry. Luckily my sister (who has recently moved home) has emergency preparedness training so she has everything under control. The only thing we are worried about in this household now is the force of mother nature.

So, if you're reading this, please think positive thoughts for us here tonight. We may not have it as bad as we did two years ago, but any good thoughts can't hurt.

I'll post again soon and let you know how we all fair, given that I have power and internet access.