The rain started on Sunday and was pretty intense by Sunday afternoon. We noticed the yard was turning a bit swampy; we already knew we needed to plant grass, but Mother Nature wanted to remind us why we want to get that grass planted as soon as all this rain slows down!
Next, we noticed a wet spot on the floor... It was actually at the threshold from the kitchen into the first floor bathroom. The picture on the left shows where (top arrow) the water was dripping from and where (bottom arrow) the water was found (and where we put the bucket, obviously). The picture on the right shows the actual crack in the door frame that the drips were coming from. Given that a new roof was just put on and finished about a week before the storm, we were a little upset by this and set out to try to figure out what was going on...We went up onto the balcony to look at the roof over the bathroom. I noticed that the downspout from the main roof came down to the addition's roof and the spout ended only about 4 inches onto that roof. The water was gushing from the main roof's downspout. As far as I could tell, it looked like it was rushing out so fast that some water was going backwards which would allow it to get under the flashing. I realized we needed an extension on that downspout and we needed it that minute. It was just after 3:30pm (on Sunday) at that point and the rain was supposed to be getting really bad around 4pm.
We made an emergency run to Lowe's... The manager was just inside the door, asking if he could help so we told him our issue. He showed us some kind of tubing that would stretch around the downspout to divert the water. Then he said that the better option was this automatic "Drain-Away" downspout extender; the product was to be attached to the end of the downspout and would "unroll" to let the water out when it rains and roll back up when the rain stopped. (Enjoy the wonderful photo of Aaron, to the right, showing our purchases as we drove back to the house! No worries, we were stopped when I took the picture!)
Anyway, we got home and Aaron went out onto the roof. We tied an extension cord around his waist (since we didn't have any rope and something was better than nothing). The instructions said to put the adhesive strip around the downspout, stretch the extender up past the strip, and then put a wire tie on the extender above the strip. First issue: the adhesive strip needs to be applied to a dry downspout - it's hard to have a dry downspout during a hurricane (or pre-hurricane storms). Second issue: the extender isn't so stretchy and the downspout was very tight to the house and roof so it was hard to maneuver something around it. Aaron (God bless him) tried to get the extender on for several minutes; he had to dry the downspout with a towel and keep another towel over it to keep everything dry. Even still, it just was not working. We gave up and I ran down into the yard to get the actual downspout extender (the permanent, made-from-metal kind) off another downspout. I got that up to Aaron and he got it on - he used the wire tie to try to keep the pieces together. By the time we were done, we were both soaked! The "fix" did seem to help but didn't completely stop the dripping. Aaron called the roofer yesterday and he came out in the afternoon to check it out; he said he'll be back when all the rain stops so he can fully check everything out and see what he can do.
The next problem we were enlightened about was the broken latch on the screen door from the kitchen to the patio. We knew the latch wasn't working properly but hadn't had time to check it out or fix it yet. The bar part of the latch (on the door frame) would slide into itself rather than stay out so the hook part of the latch (on the door) could "catch". Without the bar for the hook to "catch", the door can be pushed open without touching the handle. Unfortunately, this means that the door could just open and shut with the gusts of wind. After a few loud bangs, we decided to try to see what we could do... I managed to get the bar out of the latch but the hook would push it back into itself rather than catching. So the solution was to jam a screwdriver behind the bar. This kept the bar from being able to move and, therefore, the hook was able to latch properly and the door would stay shut. This meant removing and replacing the screwdriver each time we wanted to let the dogs out, but that was a small price to pay...
Other than the few issues with the house, we also had to prepare for Hurricane Sandy. We were projected to lose power and would probably lose water as well (because the pumps wouldn't work and because the water treatment plant would be underwater). We found all of our candles and kept them out, along with the lighter. We found all our flashlights and my dad gave us an extra set of flashlights; we kept the flashlights out on the counter with the candles.
Early Monday morning, I went to the grocery store for some basic supplies. I'm not a crazy person that stocks up on everything, but, having just moved, we had very little food to start with! Our local Giant grocery store was out of bottled water and almost out of toilet paper, bread, and milk. I also heard reports that all the local stores were out of D batteries for flashlights... Anyway, I got a bunch of food that didn't need refrigerated: chips and other snacks, fresh fruit and some canned fruit, SnackPack pudding (which doesn't need refrigerated), beef jerky, cereal, etc. I also got some milk for the cereal (in case the power didn't go out... but in case it did, I just got a small thing of milk). At home, I filled up every container we had with water so we'd have drinkable water. (We also had a case of bottled water on hand.) If you look at the picture on the right, you'll see I had an entire shelf of water containers in our fridge! Also, I put everything that could be refrigerated in the fridge (like all the bottles of soda we had, etc.) because the fridge will stay colder for longer if it is full (the cold items will help keep everything else cold).
Finally, I decided that we needed our own hurricane shower... as in clean-yourself-shower rather than the rain-shower going on outside! I wanted to get clean in case we lost water and I couldn't shower for a few days... Who wants to shower in dirty, untreated water? And most likely, you wouldn't even be able to get that for a few days. A sponge bath with cold water didn't sound like fun, so a preemptive shower sounded smart. On a side note, I should mention that I wanted to fill the bathtub up with water if the power went out but we couldn't! The mechanism that plugs the tub doesn't work and we haven't gotten the rubber plug yet. I was worried about the inability to fill the tub because you need water to flush your toilet... (If there's no water, there's nothing to give the pressure to flush - if you have extra water on hand, you can fill your tank and keep flushing. Without extra water, I wasn't sure what we would do! Ewww!)
Anyway, so how did it all go? Besides the issues I noted above, everything went fine. Our power was flickering on and off on Monday night, but nothing substantial - we had it go off for about 30 seconds at one point (of course, it was while we were eating dinner) but it came right back on. In the end, we never lost power. We also never lost water... The wind got really nasty around 2am on Tuesday morning. I got woken up for the first time around 1am but I was wide awake by 2am. The wind was just whipping against the house. The wind was so strong that it managed to open the door from the balcony into the master bedroom!! This is amazing because that door is very hard to open - the carpet pile is too high and the door needs sanded; I have to brace myself and pull hard to open it, so it's incredible that the wind got it open! Anyway, I ended up giving up on sleep and went downstairs to watch TV for a while...
In the morning, I checked around for damage. The house looked fine and there were no other roof leaks. The trees nearby were all still standing, but we had a bunch of branches in the yard and tons of twigs and sticks. I picked up the big stuff and will have to rake the yard once things dry up a bit. All-in-all, we made out it perfectly fine. My heart goes out to all those who didn't fare so well...
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