Hurricane - David Mathre Photography

Tuesday (04-August-2020) — New Jersey

Tropical Storm Isaias.

During the night the clouds were moving fast. The first heavy rain squall passed through about 05:15. It started raining again at 09:00 with heavy bands at 11:15 and 11:45. The weather station reported 3.19″ of rain up to the time it stopped collecting data. The wind started increasing at 09:00 with sustained winds of 18 mph and gusts of 34 mph. Power to the house failed at 11:06. The weather station continued to report data until 13:25 via WiFi when the UPS for the network went offline. By the time the weather station stopped collecting data the relative barometric pressure dropped from 30.0″ to 29.4″

I reported the power failure to PSE&G online at 11:21 and was told it would be restored by 18:00 the next day. I could hear several of the neighbors generator running. A neighbor texted me that live power lines were down and arcing in the street in front of my house. I took some pictures from my front door, and the back door of the garage. Even though it was still raining the arcing 10 kV power lines started to burn the asphalt. It took a while until the power company de-energized the lines. After the lines were de-energized I went to check out the damage. The two large oak trees at the head of my driveway had fallen. The oak tree on the east side of the driveway broke above ground and fell onto my rock wall and crossed the street ultimately landing on the rock wall on the other side of the street. The tree missed my mailbox with the troll that lights up at night, but did block my driveway and the street. The oak on the west side of the driveway fell while pulling the root ball out of the ground. These were two of the largest trees in my yard.

Downed Power Lines Electical Fire on Grandview Road in front of my House. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Little Planet View of my front yard after Tropical Storm Isaias. Composite of 22 images taken with a Leica CL camera and 18 mm f/2.8 lens (DAVID J MATHRE)

Individual images used to create the Little Planet view of my Front Yard after Tropical Storm Isaias. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Front yard after Tropical Storm Isaias. Montgomery Township Volunteer Fire Company, District 1, Car 46. Image taken with a Leica CL camera and 18 mm f/2.8 lens (DAVID J MATHRE)

Front yard after Tropical Storm Isaias. West side side oak tree across Grandview Road, composite of 4 images. Image taken with a Leica CL camera and 18 mm f/2.8 lens (DAVID J MATHRE)

East Side Downed Oak Tree; West Side Downed Oak Tree; Downed Power Lines Damage to Grandview Road. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Eight-Years Ago (28-August-2011) — New Jersey

Hurricane Irene. Central New Jersey.

My Sunday afternoon post from eight-years ago. Today we are watching as Hurricane Dorian tracks toward central Florida.

By mid-afternoon, I still was not able to report the downed power lines in my yard. I drove to the nearby High School where there I could get much better ATT wireless Internet reception. I logged onto the PSE&G site and reported that I didn’t have power and that I had downed wires in the yard. The automated response let me know that they would have power restored by 8 PM 04-September (next Sunday). I figured that I would be living in my RV for the week. By the time that I got back to the house, I was very surprised to see 3 PSE&G trucks pulling up. It took them some time to free the downed wire from the trees and vines. It was right around this time that the wind and a small amount of rain started up from the back side of the hurricane. I commend the PSE&G workers for their dedication to be out working before the storm had passed. After they completed here, they fixed some other local problems and were able to restore power before it got dark. I feel lucky this time that power was restored this quickly. I know that there are many others still without power and the PSE&G crews will be busy for the next several days. The following images were taken with a Leica X1 camera. Images taken with a Nikon D700 camera will be included in another post.

PSE&G Truck and Crew Getting Set Up oo Repair the Downed Power Line. Hurricane Irene. Image taken with a Leica X1 camera. (David J Mathre)

PSE&G Workers Viewing the Downed Power Line. Hurricane Irene. Image taken with a Leica X1 camera. (David J Mathre)

Downed Power Line. Hurricane Irene. Image taken with a Leica X1 camera. (David J Mathre)

PSE&G Truck and Crew Working on the Downed Power Line. Hurricane Irene. Image taken with a Leica X1 camera. (David J Mathre)

PSE&G Worker Working to Free the the Downed Power Line from Trees and Vines. Hurricane Irene. Image taken with a Leica X1 camera. (David J Mathre)

Five-Years Ago (01-November-2012) — New Jersey.

Hurricane Sandy Aftermath: Day 3.

Many trees and wires were down. The power had been out for several days. Those with gasoline emergency generators were out of luck when they ran out of gas — the gas stations if you could get to them didn’t have emergency generators to run the pumps. One of the lessons learned. Now many gas stations have auxiliary power. I still had a bit of propane in my RV to run the generator, however food in the fridge and freezer in the house was going bad. I was cooking outside on a charcoal grill. Images from that day taken with a Leica V-Lux 30 camera.

30-October-2012

Hurricane Sandy Aftermath.

Around midnight the wind and rain subsided. No power, but I could hear multiple generators running. Once it was light out I went out to survey the damage. A few trees in the yard were down or lost large branches, but less damage than from Hurricane Irene.

I was lucky as the power came back on at 8 AM. Most of my neighbors are still running on generators, when I checked found that I was one of two houses that had power. I set up a free cell phone charging station at my front door. Cell phone & internet signals are weak and intermittent. I gave 2 gallons of gas to a neighbor with a generator.

When I checked the basement, I only found a small amount of water. I did see a lot of house centipedes (Scutigera Coleoptrata) and crickets. Also, the mouse/rat poison trays were empty.

Hurricane Sandy Aftermath in Skillman New Jersey Day 1. Montgomery Township Fire & Rescue. Image taken with a Leica X2 camera. (David J Mathre)

Hurricane Sandy Aftermath in Skillman New Jersey Day 1. Image taken with a Leica V-Lux 30 camera. (David J Mathre)

Basement Critters. Image taken with a Leica V-Lux 30 camera. (David J Mathre)

29-October-2012

Hurricane Sandy Getting Closer

When I woke up this morning, only light rain and little wind. As the day progressed the rain got heavier and the wind increased. This still does not seem like a tropical storm as the temperature is only in the mid 50’s °F. Now that the wind is increasing, there have been several power glitches. I decided to grill this Porterhouse steak I got from Mallery’s Grazin Meats before the power goes out. Once the power goes out, no idea how long it will be before power will be restored. I have everything in the RV (water, food, fuel) ready for a few days.

The power just went off at 5 PM.