“So how did you enjoy Hurricane Dorian,” Paddy asked as he put down his coffee and shrugged out of his coat. “You and your wife were still in PEI when it hit weren’t you?”
“We sure were,” I agreed, “and ‘enjoy’ is not a word I would associate with it.”
“Was it a direct hit?” Paddy asked next
“Not quite,” I answered, “Nova Scotia got the direct hit.
“It was only a category one by then though,” Paddy suggested
“No,” I clarified, “it had increased to a category two by the time we got hit. And I have to tell you, Paddy, if that was a two, it’s easy to understand the devastation in the Bahamas where it was a category five.
“You’re a bit of a wordsmith,” he alleged, “describe it in one sentence.”
“Twenty-four hours of abject horror. So I can’t really get my head around what the Bahamians went through.”
“Tell me more,” Paddy urged.
“The rain started and the winds kicked up during the afternoon of Saturday, September 7th. By 8 o’clock it was pretty obvious we were in for a wild night, and even at that early stage it was the strongest wind I’d ever experienced. Little did I know that the worst was still about six or seven hours away.”
Paddy pondered for a few seconds and then opined, “So you were probably watching Bianca and Serena at that time.
“Indeed we were,” I said. “And then the power went off.”
“But you have a generator, don’t you?”
“Yes,” I agreed, and then explained “but it had been declared kaput a couple of weeks before, and our new one wasn’t going to be installed until the week after Dorian.”
“So candles and flashlights,” Paddy prompted.
“Yes,” I acknowledged, “but when we have no power, because we have a well, not a municipal source, we have no water. And because ours is all electric, we have no heat.”
“Filled up a bathtub in order to flush toilets,” Paddy assumed.
I nodded my agreement, and Paddy then asked, “What was it like at its worst?”
“Terrifying,” I told him. “At bedtime, Anne hunkered down in the basement but I went to bed in our bedroom on the second floor. I’m a very sound sleeper, but I was awakened a number of times by various sounds I’d never heard before. The roar of the wind was frightening, and for about four hours the house was vibrating from time to time.” I paused to take a sip of coffee before continuing. “At one point something hit the small window right above our bed, and I kept thinking that if one of the windows breaks there’s going to be nothing I can do and the damage is going to be dreadful.”
“I really had no idea it was that bad,” Paddy admitted. “But, go on with the story.”
“It got bright about six o’clock, the wind had died down somewhat and the rain had diminished to a drizzle, so we got up and I went out to assess the damage. There was practically no damage to the house, just some screens and frames blown out of our porch, but our property suffered a lot of damage. Seven large trees had been uprooted and some others had to be removed later for safety’s sake.”
“So, you were actually pretty lucky,” Paddy suggested. “No structural damage and you and Anne were safe.”
“We were very lucky,” I agreed. “But I was still concerned about the power outage. Our iPhones were our only means of communication and we didn’t know how long they’d last because so many people were getting in touch asking if we were all right, and we had to let them know that we were.”
“How long were you without power?” Paddy asked.
“Again, we were lucky,” I acknowledged. “Some people were without it for almost a week, but ours came back on about 3:00am on Monday the 9th. The first indication we had that the power was back on was the TV blaring in the living room.”
“How long did the clean-up last?” was his next inquiry.
“I’m sure it’s still going on to some degree in some places,” I speculated, “but the main roads were basically cleared of fallen trees very quickly
“Pretty exciting experience,” Paddy offered
“You had to have not been there in order to use that characterization,” I admonished him and then changed the subject.