the town of wilmington, vermont after irene

as i'm sure many of you have heard, the devastation from irene in southern vermont is extreme.  a quick google search will bring you a myriad of photos and several videos of water completely invading the small communities there - from bridges being ripped away to cars floating downstream.  several people have died, including a girl in her early twenties who was swept off an embankment and into a raging river.

one of the towns most talked about in the news has been wilmington, the quaint little place we are to call home as of this sunday, september 4.

or, i should say, hopefully this sunday.  as of now, the road that connects wilmington to bennington - the road we were planning to take on the pilgrimage from my mom's house to our new place in wilmington - is closed due to extensive damage.  reports today are coming in that the national guard has arrived with a lot of supplies, and the road may be beginning to be repaired.

the reason that it's so important to fix the road the connects wilmington to bennington to the west and brattleboro to the east is that residents in the town rely on those bigger towns for many of their essential services.  this is a problem for many communities in southern vermont right now -- many roads have become impassable and are not repaired.  for many towns, there is no way in or out and no major services within the actual towns.  marlboro, a town that neighbors wilmington, had food and supplies airlifted in yesterday.

yesterday's 'all things considered' on NPR featured an interview with wilmington's town manager, fred ventresco, wherein fred describes the horror of the flood actually happening, and the aftermath the town is left with now.  it's very moving and paints a really vivid picture of what the town has been dealt.

reports today are sounding more positive - this article in the brattleboro reformer shed some positive light.  on the cleanup effort that many are embarking on today.

other resources i'm checking often:

- VT Recovery: http://vtrecovery.com/  A very recently created resource for updates on the current state of things, and recovery and rescue efforts.
- The Town of Wilmington: http://www.wilmingtonvermont.us/ Wilmington's town website, frequently updating on recovery and rescue efforts.
- Deerfield Valley News: http://www.dvalnews.com/ "Southern Vermont's Only Independent Newspaper"

beyond concerns about the safety of the roads and whether or not we'll actually be able to get to wilmington - or at least on the timeline we had planned - i'm not in any way nervous about joining this community at such a harrowing time.  when we visited wilmington, we felt a connection to it, and i still do from afar.  i hope to get involved in the cleanup as best i can once i'm there.  it's such a beautiful place and all of the reports i've heard and read thus far have driven home my sentiment that it's a place with great people.  it will be a difficult, nevertheless unique and wonderful, time to join a community, and i'm excited for what lies ahead.

an aerial view of wilmington, vt posted by the bennington banner.

more photos of the area can be seen here (via wilmington's town website).

brooklyn goes out [as our place of residency] with a bang!

so, about six months back, i said "new york! you're not doing it for me - i'm moving away." and new york was like "what? i'm exciting!" and i said "no. i'm sick of your subways, and the lack of 24 hour local news coverage during storms.  plus, the city that never sleeps?  come on.  take some time off - close some restaurants."

"i'll show you," said new york.

and show me she did.  one week before we're outta here, hurricane irene hit the city - loudly.  by midday friday (which was, might i add, a beautiful day, weatherwise), new york city had been broken up  into zones, and "zone A" was under mandatory evacuation.  we were already aware that the entire transit system was to shut down at noon on saturday.  from there, many businesses started making preparations, aka closing.  the mayor gave a press conference every couple of hours, and the local news coverage was indeed round the clock.

a view of brooklyn on NYC's irene evacuation map.
we were thankfully not in an evacuation zone!

murgy and i headed out early saturday, pre-storm, to stock up on dog supplies - specifically, pee pads and bones.  it was clear we wouldn't be taking many walks this weekend!  after that, garret and i spent most of yesterday stocking up on incredibly-high-in-sodium foods and watching the news, waiting for the storm.  by 10pm or so, it felt a lot like new years eve felt when i was a kid... waiting and waiting, in front of the TV, unsure of what was to come... and all the while, eating doritos.

our hurricane irene emergency food stock.
what are we, nine years old?

ziplock bags filled with water,
which i froze.

i'd like to say we were heroically battling weather like a crazy scene in a disaster film, but in reality it was a lot of sitting on the couch watching news coverage.  a lot of waiting. a lot a lot.  there was a lot of concern about possible power outtages, so garret and i froze a bunch of water in ziplock bags to make ice blocks should we need them to keep food fresh.  there were also a lot of recommendations to fill the bathtub with water should the water pumps not work during a power outtage, but as we sadly don't have a bathtub in our miniature brooklyn bathroom, we filled pots and bowls up instead.  ...we stored the filled pots and bowls in our shower stall, for good measure.  that's kind of like a bathtub!

i woke up midway though the night to hear rain pounding down and wind howling, but by the time we actually were up for the day it was getting brighter and there was a break in the rain, so we ventured out with murgy to assess the damage.

for the most part, park slope seems to be in good shape.  many restaurants and businesses are still closed and/or taped up, and the ones that were open had limited staff and supplies.  with no mass transit, it seems that people are pretty much staying where they are and going to local restaurants, etc.

meanwhile, the entire weekend i was texting with my mom, dad and my friend tracy saying "we had one more week to get out of here! why now!" but, a quick google search has schooled me.  below is a picture i got from the brattleboro reformer's facebook page - this is downtown wilmington after today's storm!  we had breakfast at dot's restaurant (in the background) just a few weeks back when we visited the town with my dad and my grandma...

a photo from the brattleboro reformer - main street in wilmington, vermont - we'll be there in a week!

experiencing this in new york city was truly unique - it's a memory we'll have forever, i suspect.  below are some more pictures i took during this weekend.

beer table in park slope had one of the more creative takes on
"come out while you still can" marketing,
which i saw all over the place.

i loved the sign this CD shop in park slope put up.

the city turned garbage cans over in preparation for the storm
to cut down on debris flying.  the mayor said in one press
conference that he was hearing people were turning them
back over to be helpful.  "please don't." he said.

union market in park slope was packed
on saturday, and planned closure for
sunday in light of the storm.

murgy on sunday morning, assessing the damage.

"where did i leave the...?"

our apartment has kind of turned into a wonderland of random objects in random places.  as much as i want to clean, this phase of the move is about taking things out of their places, not putting them away!

a typical surface in the apartment right now: plants, passports, a coffee canister, a coffee grinder, and a random array of spices.

please don't leave mi

new thought: i must eat as many tofu bahn mi sandwiches as humanly possible between now and september 3.  apparently hanco isn't moving to vermont with me?!

tofu bahn mi sandwich from hanco's in park slope, brooklyn.

thinking inside of the box

i know i know, my titles are punny as punny gets.

saturday marked the start of the endeavor that is packing!  our last two moves have completely lacked well-packedness (when we moved from bay ridge brooklyn to park slope brooklyn, i literally carried an old table drawer filled with spoons and called that "packing")  so we're trying hard to stay on top of it this time.

we're two boxes in so far... but it feels like progress!

garret with the first box.

unimpressed with packing, murgy hid under a couch.

our first box: formerly a wee-wee pads box, now our first box of books!

buggy

this past sunday we went on a hike at garret mountain (a park garret went to a lot as a kid that i jokingly insist is his namesake).  i wanted to get out of the city, so we rented a zipcar and away we went for a hike with little murgs.

a tired little murgs on our hike.

while we were eating our picnic lunch on the top of the mountain, i put a bottle of water down for murgy.  about a minute later, i looked down at the bottle, became horrified, and quickly exclaimed "OH MY GOD! there's a huge ANT! on murgy's bottle!"  garret chuckled as he took a bite of his sandwich and said, "are you sure you want to move to the woods?"

it's true, i'll have some adjusting to do!  growing up in upstate new york i had perhaps just become used to killing spiders and the like (babysitters have to be brave and kill bugs for kids, and babysitting was my thing) before leaving for college.  in brooklyn, the bugs i do see are supremely scary ("that's a waterbug!" is landlord rhetoric for "COCKROACH!!") and are to be avoided at all costs, which i have done successfully.  meanwhile, i've become less used to the little crawly things.

garret and murgy on the hike.

i've been out of practice for a while.  when i lived in orlando for a stint, i attended the "it's a bug's life"show in the tree of life at animal kingdom and literally cried at the part the "stingers" come out of the back of the chair to startle the audience.  in short, i'm a baby.

my dad - similarly new yorked and not in touch with nature - recently moved into a home rental in texas, where he has geckos.  "they're AN INCH!" he exclaims, as though i should be scared.  i make fun of him i think most people would hear "just an inch" not a "a whole inch," which is how he says it.  i'll be eating my words soon...

i did okay on the rest of the hike, though the fact that i congratulated myself, out loud, for "walking right past a daddy long leg and not even squealing" should probably be an indicator as to many squeals to come.

atop garret mountain - in the distance, between the trees, you can see new york city.