Assessing the damage

You may have heard in the news that Buffalo was buried in a freak early snowstorm. Now, we Buffalonians are a bit sensitive to all the hype about our snow. We are quick to point out that we have more sunshine than any other city in New York, and often beat Orlando on the sunshine count, as well. Nonetheless, what you read about the "October Surprise Snowstorm" was absolutely true in all it's ugliness. It was a true disaster. Buffalo has long been known for it's huge, sprawling, old growth trees along shady streets and in our Frederick Law Olmsted designed park system. Unfortunately, they have been decimated. Trees by the hundreds of thousands have toppled or been stripped of branches, leaving ugly skeletons where trees used to be. The trees all had leaves on them, and when the heavy wet snow piled up (22 inches in all) the branches didn't have a chance. They took out powerlines and telephone cables.

My home was powerless for three days, but, thankfully, the power went back on yesterday evening. My mother has not been so lucky, nor another 200, 000 some other homes. They predict all should be restored by week's end. Most of the schools are off for the week. It looks literally like a war zone, with smashed cars, streets blocked, and complete darkness in many parts of the city.

Through it all we kept the fireplace going, and slept together in the living room around the fire, all eleven of us! As a nurse I spent considerable time on duty making up for the many call-ins, but all in all, everying is okay. The kids had no computer, phone or TV, and had to entertain themselves, and did a pretty good job of it. We went to mass Sunday, although the Bishop gave dispensation, to a darkened church, but the enthusiasm and spirit of those who came warmed all our hearts. God was good to us. We survived. But we also learned how fragile our hold on things really is.