Blogger Stilled By Falling Trees
Power Outages in New York area
Winds gusting up to 68 mph killed one man and caused commuter havoc Wednesday morning, affecting railroads, bridges, ferries and airports, and leaving thousands in the region without power. Aghogho Emenike, 52, was killed when a tree fell on his car as he was pulling out of his driveway to go to work, said Sal Schiliro, a spokesman for Sound Shore Hospital in New Rochelle.
A tree fell across Metro-North tracks in the Bronx, blocking rush-hour traffic in both directions on the railroad’s Harlem and New Haven lines. A train that left New Haven at 6:23 a.m., and was due at Grand Central at 8:05, hit the tree that was across three of four tracks at East 170th Street, Metro-North said. Winds in the Bronx were gusting to 68 mph at 7:30 a.m., according to the National Weather Service.
More than 10,000 power outages were reported on Long Island, mostly on the north shore of Nassau County. In Rockland County, 5,000 residents were without power, mostly in Clarkstown. About 1,600 Con Edison customers had no power in the Bronx and another 1,400 throughout Westchester.
Power was out at my house all day yesterday. I stayed home to ‘babysit’ the house, the dog, the kids, our tempermental alarm system (nothing ruins your day like firemen chopping through the front door). Details follow.
In the AM, my wife and I left for work as normal. It was very windy and limbs were falling. After a wait at the train station, they announced that a downed tree had fallen across the tracks, suspending service to NYC. I went home. Elaine soon joined me. By now, power was out at home. Most likely this was when then HUGE tree around the corner fell. We listened to the wind-up radio for a while, and when they announced that trains were running, Elaine went to work.
Because of our touchy alarm system, other devices, and general laziness (?) I elected to stay home. I got a message that Anna’s school also lost power, but she stayed there till 3. I read my Evo book, watched the bird feeder, etc. My feeder-watching was rewarded with a melanistic House Sparrow, but I could not get any photos. When the kids got home, we hung out and chatted; but with no distractions, they soon took naps.
By evening, I broke out the candles and flashlights. Elaine was working late still. I took the kids out for dinner, and discovered that spotty power outages persisted. Our block was out. The next block was okay. The area by the train station was fine, but a mile later, a busy commercial street was out. Power on that street was on and off, block-by-block. Eventually we settled on Friday’s, where the guy next to me ordered a bacon cheeseburger, and asked for mayonnaise
with it. OD on FAT.
Now it was night. I picked Elaine up about 9:30. Everyone went to sleep early. Around 11PM, the f*cking alarm system started buzzing its “low temperature” alarm, so we went down to the basement to unplug its batteries. I hate that thing.
That was my powerless, non-blogging day.
Pencil-necked creep
Foreshadowing
Keeping up with my condemnations
Those reliable and accountable bloggers
News and Blogger Tree Update