Hurricanes can be serious. Long Island has been hit with some bad ones. Most of the hurricanes hit us between August and October with September being the prime month.
Henri was a dud. Not that I'm complaining. But honestly, it reminded me of when I was a kid and my family would light off fireworks in the yard on 4th of July. Everyone would get so excited to see the pretty colors, my dad or grandfather would light one, tell us all to stand back and then, nothing, not even a little poof. That was Henri, not even a little poof.
Long Island is no stranger to Hurricanes. While hurricane season runs from June to November, the majority of hurricanes have hit Long Island, coming up from the Caribbean, in September.
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I have a very personal relationship with Hurricanes. On my first birthday, my parents had the whole yard set up and a storm blew threw and destroyed everything. A few hours later, it was like nothing had happened. It was beautiful, sunny and they were able to have the party!
The day before I got married the first time, Hurricane Gloria hit Long Island. Someone up there was trying to tell me something! Amazingly, I was able to get married. The church was lit by candlelight, someone played the wedding march on a cassette player and the venue was the highest bidder on a generator. When so many other weddings were cancelled, mine was on. I got married on 9/28/85. That was the only good day of the entire marriage. I left him on 12/15/94 and life has never been so good!
I remember I was adamant about taking a cruise for our honeymoon. When we met with the travel agent, she tried to talk us out of a cruise saying September was the highest hurricane rate in the Caribbean. Well.... I insisted. Of course, Gloria came up from the Caribbean. We were able to fly to Florida the morning after our wedding and take a Royal Caribbean cruise but our ship, The Song of America, had to change course a bit. We saw the damage Gloria had left at our ports of call. It was my first cruise and I've been on many since.
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My current husband and I have a Royal Caribbean cruise planned for March, 2022 leaving from New York (New Jersey) and I can't wait.
The funniest story I heard about Hurricane Gloria was from a client. He told me he was in Ireland, in a pub, watching coverage of Gloria hitting Long Island. On the news there, he saw his father and brother and his house and dock being broadcast. No one would believe him when he said, "that's my house!"
It reminds me of when Flight 800 crashed on Long Island. My two sisters where in Portugal. My sister's husband is from there. She and her husband and kids took my other sister with them for a three week visit. They had arrived the day before the crash. They were watching coverage on TV in Portugal and the news was filming authorities walking through the yard of someone who worked for my sister at her salon.
By the time Superstorm Sandy hit in 2012, I was remarried and living in a nice apartment. I was done with owning and done with too many rooms.
I had two good friends over for a "hurricane party" while my husband was working. In his line of work, overtime was expected during any kind of storm, especially when he was a lieutenant at a private college. His specialty was disaster preparedness. I assure you, he has everything completely under control in our house. The apocalypse could happen and we'd survive.
Sandy devastated the areas of Long Island near the water. We live in the center of Long Island. The media, of course, showed the devastation near the shore and people from other areas believed the entire Island was underwater and all of Long Island was devastated. Not true.
There was little damage where I live. I didn't even lose electricity until 8:30 p.m. A tree fell here and there, but nothing like what happened near the south shore and north shore. My sister never lost electricity. We were all piling into her house for meals and showers for about a week after the storm.
We live on the highest point of the Island. Key word LIVE. Technically Jaynes Hill is the "highest point" on the Island, but since no one LIVES there, and it's impossible to LIVE there, we do LIVE on the highest point on Long Island. If we flood, the Island is gone.
Long Island is basically flat. If we want to see mountains, we must travel.
I'm glad we were spared the wrath of Henri. We aren't in the clear yet. More storms could be headed our way. Please pray for the areas of Louisiana affected by Ida. We can all help.
Every time I hear someone planning a wedding for September, I cringe. It's when we get hit the most often by hurricanes.