Hurricane Sandy - The Aftermath

We made it through our first hurricane! It was definitely quite the adventure.

Let me take you through it.

Thursday the winds and rain started coming in. Sandy was expected to hit closest to us Friday around mid-day. So Thursday night we hunkered down at our apartment with the Womack's and our other friend Vedant and waited. In Indiana we've got tornadoes. The thing with tornadoes versus hurricanes is that tornadoes last for a very short time. Very short compared to hurricanes.  So we knew we were in for a long haul. And it was nearly a 2.5 day affair.

We lost power around 6:30 a.m. on Friday morning. At that point we still had running water. (I've gained a whole new appreciation for running water.)

That morning, the boys walked down to the Pepperpot Restaurant (who managed to stay open throughout the entire storm) to bring back breakfast. The winds were pretty heavy and there wasn't much rain.

Let me tell you, when there is no power and the weather is bad, there isn't much to do to pass the time. So we spent the day playing the 'time game' where we would try and guess the time. Very exciting stuff.

We also took a break to walk around the apartment to get some exercise and fresh air. Thrilling. We did get a taste of just how windy it was.

Notice the boards that were on the windows of Sunset.

Hurricane Sandy brought a lot of wind at about 75 mph. Surprisingly not a lot of rain - just mainly wind. The wind was hitting us from the side of the apartment by our front door. Our patio gave us some cushion from our back door, so we were able to keep that open to give us a bit of relief from the stuffiness inside.

With the winds hitting the front door, we were a little afraid of the door or windows being blown in. We did have to put a towel down because water was coming in under the door.

We weren't the only people who were getting cabin fever. Being that Sunset is housing for only students, things got a little interesting around here.

Future doctors of America. Here's your warning people.

The storm left Grand Bahama around 1 p.m. on Friday. However, the back end of the storm gave us even higher winds. 

We had to get creative with our food choices since there wasn't power, and it was getting too windy to walk to Pepperpot again, so for lunch we had peanut butter and nutella sandwiches along with fruit snacks and crackers. Jealous?

The power came back on for nearly 15 minutes at some point on Friday. And it went back off just after we closed up the windows and had the AC back on.

We lost water sometime Friday evening. Apparently, the storm caused 8' storm surges by the water company, so they needed to shut it down. The cell phone towers were also down. It's an uneasy feeling to be completely disconnected in all aspects.

That night, the boys used the grill to make us dinner. Sunset's grill was moved in a 'safe' area so we could have some hot food options. Although a good portion of the food blew away on the way back up to the apartment. 

We made it through the night, and by Saturday morning, we could see some blips of sunshine. By that time, we were definitely ready to get out a bit. So we called Tyrone who came and took us to get some breakfast. And by breakfast, we had lunch at Pollo Tropical. It was one of the only places open that didn't have a huge line. The winds were still pretty high, but the weather gave us a taste of Indiana fall weather as a sweatshirt was needed!

We got back to find out that the school was sending a bus by to take us to get some breakfast and then go to the hardware to get more candles and flashlights and other necessities  We didn't need to eat, but it was a chance to get out of the apartment, so we took it. We stocked up on candles, water and a lantern.

Apparently the north side of the island got hit rather hard. There was a lot of flooding, including the airport. The entire airport was underwater, and the cars that were parking in the lot were floating.

By Saturday night, the wind was calming down a bit. We walked down to KFC to grab some dinner as hot food was a must! We got a great view of the sunset and were reminded of the beauty around us.

The power kicked back on for a brief 20 minutes around 8 p.m. Saturday night. You could hear the cheers throughout Sunset. And the groans when it off. But then around 9 p.m. it came back on. And around 11 p.m. the cable started working again.

This morning, we had a trickle of water, so I thought the water was back on, but that's all we ended up getting. So we are still using the buckets of water from the pool to flush. Resourceful!

So now, we just wait until the water is back on fully. Until then, we just have to sit in our own stinkiness. One thing this hurricane has done, is made us get to know each other on a whole new level.