Delaware River report on Sandy
Fortunately for us on the Delaware River side of NJ, this storm seems to have gone out of its way to avoid doing anything major around here. I know many other people got hit badly. Some house on my block had a tree fall... next to it. I saw one that had a tree land on the porch in Delanco.
There was no flooding at all in the boatyards (except for what usually happens after a steady rain) and nothing fell over. One neighbouring yard dropped a boat through a trailer while moving it (the bunks were too far apart; it was unrelated to the storm). Another yard had a small boat fall over, probably a forlorn one that was not blocked properly to begin with. I saw the angled mast from the street but didn't inspect it.
I was worried sick over the cover on my boat catching enough air to blow it over and added a couple of stands under the hull. Where it sits is usually a swamp (that is to say there is standing water after a rain. Apparently the ground is still very hard, just low). But there was no evidence of stuff even blowing around. (People had just moved out of a house across the street and their cluster of trash was still right where they left it!) One small boat had the cover blow off but it was an elasticized one and we had neglected to tie it down. Anything we tied down survived.
Our estimates of wind (especially mine at the house) were way higher than what we must have actually had. Realistic estimates put it at 50-55. The eye passed right through us-- came at about midnight for about 2 hours-- but by 6 am the trees were barely swaying. According to weather maps the track of the storm went by about 20-30 miles south of us, but it was a very large-sized storm and the frontal swath, though not as strong as we feared, was very wide (175-200 miles).
At hom e we were out of power for 23-1/2 hours. The boatyard's was restored about 6 hours earlier. During the storm you could see lightning in the distance, but it was bluish, not white. One of the yard workers who stayed on his boat told he saw it too-- it was transformers popping. The flashes were visible for a mile or two.
The yard guy reported that the tidal surge rose enough to jam one gangway under a power post on the dock and the motion pushed the gangway off its bulkhead mounts till it was standing 20 feet up on that end. He just jumped over to the bulkhead and went about checking stands. That was at about 2 am. He said most of the windward stands on larger boats were 'floating' --having a gap between stand and boat, due to the wind pushing the boats over onto the leeward ones. But he said that they don't always follow our practice of ensuring every stand has a block or plywood under it; and when I checked our yard we didn't have that problem. I actually relaxed my stands next morning.
We had been threatened with 'major' storm surges; but my cousin Dave was right in that the anticlockwise spin of the storm actually threw water out of the River. The high at 15.43 on Wednesday was only about 30 inches above normal; as Lee said it was average for a full-moon high tide with a little rain added. The yard guy went kayaking in the street on Sunday night (someone got a photo!); but that always floods due to low street drains and the Creek never even crested the lower bridge abutments. Actually we got much more rain on Sunday night and on Monday than during or after the storm.
I am grateful to all those who sent e-mails out of concern. My heart goes out to those at the Shore and those in NYC. Let's see what we can do or pray for them.
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Fortunately for us on the Delaware River side of NJ, this storm seems to have gone out of its way to avoid doing anything major around here. I know many other people got hit badly. Some house on my block had a tree fall... next to it. I saw one that had a tree land on the porch in Delanco.
There was no flooding at all in the boatyards (except for what usually happens after a steady rain) and nothing fell over. One neighbouring yard dropped a boat through a trailer while moving it (the bunks were too far apart; it was unrelated to the storm). Another yard had a small boat fall over, probably a forlorn one that was not blocked properly to begin with. I saw the angled mast from the street but didn't inspect it.
I was worried sick over the cover on my boat catching enough air to blow it over and added a couple of stands under the hull. Where it sits is usually a swamp (that is to say there is standing water after a rain. Apparently the ground is still very hard, just low). But there was no evidence of stuff even blowing around. (People had just moved out of a house across the street and their cluster of trash was still right where they left it!) One small boat had the cover blow off but it was an elasticized one and we had neglected to tie it down. Anything we tied down survived.
Our estimates of wind (especially mine at the house) were way higher than what we must have actually had. Realistic estimates put it at 50-55. The eye passed right through us-- came at about midnight for about 2 hours-- but by 6 am the trees were barely swaying. According to weather maps the track of the storm went by about 20-30 miles south of us, but it was a very large-sized storm and the frontal swath, though not as strong as we feared, was very wide (175-200 miles).
At hom e we were out of power for 23-1/2 hours. The boatyard's was restored about 6 hours earlier. During the storm you could see lightning in the distance, but it was bluish, not white. One of the yard workers who stayed on his boat told he saw it too-- it was transformers popping. The flashes were visible for a mile or two.
The yard guy reported that the tidal surge rose enough to jam one gangway under a power post on the dock and the motion pushed the gangway off its bulkhead mounts till it was standing 20 feet up on that end. He just jumped over to the bulkhead and went about checking stands. That was at about 2 am. He said most of the windward stands on larger boats were 'floating' --having a gap between stand and boat, due to the wind pushing the boats over onto the leeward ones. But he said that they don't always follow our practice of ensuring every stand has a block or plywood under it; and when I checked our yard we didn't have that problem. I actually relaxed my stands next morning.
We had been threatened with 'major' storm surges; but my cousin Dave was right in that the anticlockwise spin of the storm actually threw water out of the River. The high at 15.43 on Wednesday was only about 30 inches above normal; as Lee said it was average for a full-moon high tide with a little rain added. The yard guy went kayaking in the street on Sunday night (someone got a photo!); but that always floods due to low street drains and the Creek never even crested the lower bridge abutments. Actually we got much more rain on Sunday night and on Monday than during or after the storm.
I am grateful to all those who sent e-mails out of concern. My heart goes out to those at the Shore and those in NYC. Let's see what we can do or pray for them.
* * *
