Like most east-coasters, I was more than a little inconvenienced by hurricane Irene barreling through the area this past weekend. This is not something I really ever thought I would have to deal with up here. FL, yes, sure, every year. I had almost twenty years of hurricane preparedness under my belt from my time there, but I never expected to worry about it in NJ. And these past two days have been far worse than anything I remember from down south.
My entire town basically shut down; between 48+ hour (and ongoing) power outages, flood waters surging down Main Street, and last-minute evacuations…my neighbors have had it pretty rough. The people immediately next door to me, who had just done tons of renovations on their house, lost everything. They are the first house on the street and almost right across from the park entrance…a park through which the Raritan river runs right through. So when it floods, it comes right up over the road and down our street! The photo below was taken around noon on Sunday. At the height of the flooding, 4:00 or so, not even the top of this sign could be seen. As a matter of fact, a rescue boat may have zoomed right over it.
The waters came both up our street and the street behind us, inching higher and higher into the front and the back yard. When the flooding appeared to eventually slow down, my upstairs neighbor and I were indescribably relieved… but that was short-lived when we discovered that the ground had become so saturated that the water began seeping up through the floor in the basement! With only our flashlights we began navigating through the murky darkness under the house to unhook her washer and dryer. This was a seriously creepy excursion. I felt like I was trappped in that episode of the X-Files in which some sort of deadly creature gets washed up from the sea during a hurricane somewhere in South FL. I worked quickly because I really did not want to feel a tentacle slither around my ankle and yank me under!
After successfully not being devoured by river-monsters in the basement, I thought I might light some candles and read in bed. Currently I am reading Weird Stories by Charlotte Riddell which coincidentally makes marvelous candle-light reading material…lots of ominous atmosphere, chilling ghosts, and excellent haunted house narratives.
Now that the power is back on and I can piddle around online again, I have put together a new 8tracks mix inspired by dank waters and dark midnights and which can be found here:
Beneath the Silence, in the Dark by ghoulnextdoor on 8tracks.
And no epic flood would be complete without a rainy-day ensemble, now would it? The view from here (8.28.11) by ghoulnextdoor on polyvore.
