I was going to make my annual “Pumpkin Carving in the 919” post today, but I got completely distracted by all the Hurricane Sandy updates when I got home from work. Instead, I just want to send all my best thoughts out there to everyone who is being affected by this latest natural disaster. My family on Long Island is hanging in there. My parents’ and aunt’s homes experienced power and cable outages, but they’re back up for now. My grandparents, who live 45 minutes closer to NYC than my parents & aunt do, have been without electricity since around 4:30pm. Luckily, everything seemed to bypass Raleigh. We’ve had a ton of wind, rain on and off, and it’s FREEZING outside (seriously, it was 80 last week and it’s 40 right now), but we’ve been really lucky. I hope everyone is taking the warnings to stay inside seriously. I learned after we had that tornado in Raleigh in April 2011 that wind is something you don’t mess around with. Please be safe!
Here’s a picture of a fallen tree in my grandparents’ neighborhood from early this afternoon. Click to enlarge. This is just from the wind. The hurricane was still 4 hours out at the time this picture was taken by my sister, Christie. Please be safe, everyone.
P.S. Here’s a video of a Con Edison plant on E 14th St & FDR Dr in NYC blowing up tonight, causing fires and more people to lose electricity. It’s insane. I’m grateful all my friends and family are accounted for.
