Hurricane Teddy was coming and we were ready. We had flashlights and batteries. Matches and candles. Propane tanks for the BBQ and propane canisters for the camp stove and lantern. Pots and bathtubs were filled with water because, when you live outside the city and are on a well, you have no running water when the power goes out and your pump stops. The full bathtubs in particular play a very important role as this water is used to flush the toilets. Believe me you do not want to go too long without flushing the toilet.
In the past, we have been without power and water for up to ten days after a hurricane. That was hurricane Juan in September 2003. That was when the population of the province of Nova Scotia learned to take hurricane warnings seriously. The Doc and I fared pretty good during Juan because of our BBQ and old camping gear and our wood stove. Last September we lost power for four days after hurricane Dorian. Four days is still a long time to be without power. And the thing I miss the most is running water. So like I said, we were prepared for Teddy.
Teddy arrived on Tuesday morning in the form of heavy rain and strong but not deadly gusts of wind. In general things were pretty normal. The Doc had an appointment to take his car in for service and I was home while the furnace was being cleaned. It was business as usual.
By eleven, when the furnace was finished, the technician noticed that water was running in under the trim above our family room door. Now this was new. In all the years that we have lived here and during all those storms, this had never happened before. The rain was so heavy that it was running down between the deck situated above the door and the vinyl siding where it was flooding the J-track and seeping in above the door jamb. This called for a quick fix, a better fix then me throwing a bunch of old towels on the floor to sop up the flood waters.
The Doc arriving home a few minutes later, jumped into action. (OK maybe not jumped, I do recall him taking a few minutes to check something on his phone first.) Anyway with his trusty drill he fastened a frame of plastic sheeting around the door to prevent additional water seepage. Gotta love a man with a cordless drill and sheet plastic and spare wood. The plastic was a bit flimsy, and we weren’t sure how well it was going to hold up.
That was it, our one hurricane Teddy adventure. As the afternoon wore on, the winds and rains died down and sometimes even stopped. We waited for it to get worse. We waited for that freight-train sound of severe winds. We checked on the weather posts to see what was happening. Still coming they said. Be prepared, Teddy is still coming.
By eleven at night, I was falling asleep while watching the baseball game. Yes we still had power. My team was losing so I decided to go to bed. The Doc followed shortly after. Sometime through the night, I expected to be woken up by the clicking and beeping sound that usually indicates that something has lost power, which is then followed by the dark silence that happens when every little light on every item goes out and the air exchanger ceases to circulate any air. But this didn’t happen.
I woke at about six this morning. It was quiet so I checked the weather. Apparently Teddy was a slow bear and still hadn’t made landfall. He was expected to arrive by eight so I thought I would snuggle down and listen for the wind to pick up. Well that didn’t happen. I woke again at ten o’clock in the morning when The Doc was rolling out of bed. Everything was still quiet. By this time Teddy was farther up the coast of Nova Scotia and we still had power.
Walking around the yard today, I saw a only few leaves and some small branches down. Our windows and cars weren’t smeared with shredded greenery that resembled wet confetti. My gardens were intact. As a bonus, the rain had brought the lake back up to a normal, before-a-dry-summer, level. I’m always happy when that happens.
Every time there is a hurricane or tropical storm warning we prepare. We also cross our fingers and hope that we don’t have any damage and that we aren’t several days without power. This time round, I really was dreading the thought of an extended power outage and days without running water. I have plans to ask Santa Claus for a generator. Sans generator, this time round I took my favourite aunt’s advise and crossed my fingers, my toes and my twat. And we were lucky. Our little Mineville nook, a bit east of Halifax in Nova Scotia experienced the warm and fuzzy side of Teddy. Things could have been so much worse. Must have been that crossed twat.
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Photos: Jenn Stone
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