The Streets of New York were uncharacteristically empty and food stores were comparatively bare as millions fled from the path of Hurricane Irene. Over three dozen storm related deaths were reported in 11 states but all the Fieg cousins came through safe and sound.
Sarah Fieg Corkery, her husband Kevin and their five children were mostly unfettered but Sarah's sister
Anna Fieg Dangca and her husband
Alan Dangca and their four children, only a few miles away, were without electicity for three days at last count, as they were among more than 100,000 New York State Electric & Gas customers whose service failed.
Worse, Anna's family narrowly missed what might have been much more serious when a large tree snapped, fell onto the cross timbers of a wooden utility pole and the timbers and insulators fell into their driveway. It looks like they may be without service for another week, maybe more.
President Obama has declared New York State a disaster area. The Thomas E. Dewey thruway was temporarily closed near Diana Monaco's and Bill Doyle's home in the lower Hudson River Valley.
Lisa Fieg, ensconced in her apartment only a few hundred yards from the East River in a "mandatory evacuation" zone, refused to leave and was better off for it. With incessant rain, her roof sprang a leak and she emptied some six gallons of water into the kitchen sink, having captured it in a large pail. If she had fled, that water would have flooded her floor or the apartments below.
Parts of New Jersey were inundated with water from surging creeks and rivers but
Anne and John Roman stayed high and dry in their luxurious town home on higher ground in the greater Piscataway area.
Col.
Edward Fieg Sr., having just completed an eight-month tour with the Air Force in Afghanistan, was eager to return home to his loved ones but his flight was backed up for two days in Germany as many U.S. East Coast airports closed.
Ironically, John Roman had been in a shaky area of the state, Atlantic City, during last week's earth-quake, which was felt from Georgia to Maine. John's car rocked noticeably but he couldn't imagine why until he saw dozens of people emptying out from their buildings.
At first John thought people were outside for some sort of an entertainment event, until a construction worker explained to him that everyone in his building thought it was going to collapse, and that an earthquake was suspected.
Could a cold, hard winter be the third in the triumvirate of natural disasters for the East Coast? Find a woolly bear and ask him.
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