Strong Island

We survived our first hurricane. It was a very intense and humbling experience to say the least. God was watching over us and we were so blessed! We had been following the storm on the news several days before it hit and we were starting to get nervous for it. For our area the main concern was losing power for several days so Saturday night we went to the store and stocked up on non perishable food items as well as water, batteries and candles. We are located in Bay Shore on Long Island which is about 45 miles from Manhattan. Manhattan was evacuated Sunday and other areas were evacuated that were located close to water. We are about 3 miles from the bay. We had an emergency place to go if we needed to evacuate at any point. My sister and her husband, Cass and Chris, came to visit on Oct 22 and Chris was scheduled to leave Monday, Oct 29th and Cass on Nov 2nd. Well luckily they were able to get done most of the things they wanted to see and do because the airlines told Chris he had to leave Sat morning or else he wouldn't be able to catch a flight until Nov 2 and he couldn't miss that much work. So, poor Cass was stuck in NY for a hurricane. I was so glad she was here with me but I'm not so sure she felt the same way...haha. Sunday night the wind started to get really strong but there was no rain yet. Monday morning the rain came and the winds were getting stronger and stronger and stronger as the day went on. Monday night was the worst part of the hurricane...the winds were 82 miles per hour! I literally thought our windows were going to shatter!! The power flickered in and out a few times but it was never more than 2 minutes.....we never fully lost power! Through the entire storm we NEVER LOST POWER! I am still amazed by it. By Tuesday morning the worst was over, it was still really windy but the sun was trying to shine through. We were basically in shock that we still had power because 90% of Long Island was without power and we were part of the 10% with power. All the traffic lights were out around our home and the stores and several of our neighbors and friends had no power. On the news they kept saying if you were without power it could be up to 10 days before it gets turned back on because of how huge the outage was. Slowly our area is getting power back but there are still so many people that are without power and the damage is awful. Gas stations are running out of gas and the lines of cars at the gas stations are literally miles long. People are trying to fill up small gas cans for their generators. We drove around a little on Tuesday afternoon and so many trees and power lines are down and all over the place. A lot of homes, especially on or near the water are either totally GONE or severely damaged. The flooding was about 1 1/2 miles south of our home so again, we were so fortunate to have no damage done to our home. A family we know lost their home and are just so positive throughout this whole situation...they are really amazing. So many people called/emailed/text to check up on us and let us know they were thinking about us and praying for us and we are so grateful for all of your thoughts and prayers! Seeing the pictures in New Jersey and seeing first hand here in NY all the damage that was done and hearing about the lives that were lost we just feel so incredibly blessed.

These were just a few pictures of the water and damage we saw:

We kept staring out the windows watching the storm so Taisley wanted to look out the windows too. (this was before I thought the windows were going to shatter)

We were not sure how many people were going to be out trick or treating for Halloween after the storm but there was a few out and about. Taisley was not feeling very good, she had a little fever, but was still so excited to put on her cow costume. We took her to a few houses in our neighborhood. She waived at everyone that opened their door and just wanted to carry the candy around in her hands. It was so cute to see her cruisin down the street as a little cow. It was really fun having Cass here with us during Halloween too! Luckily she was able to catch her flight home this morning. They barely opened the airport back up on Nov 1st. I will post more pics from their trip later. 

Thanks again for all of your thoughts and prayers!!