Dear Family,                                   Thursday September 25th

I haven't used this computer before and am not sure if the fifteen minute
rule holds even if there is no one waiting, so I might have to stop quickly.  It
took most of the fifteen minutes to get rid of the junk mail so I could see
what was worth reading.  Thanks to all who have mailed!  I will write more when
we get back online.

The hurricane was very dramatic, and we escaped with a minimum of damage.  A
60 foot oak tree fell, grazing the house and miraculously missing the corner
where Randy was at the time.  It ripped the gutter off and fell on the heat
pump, which will now be replaced.  It also fell on the gas grill which I had
carefully had Randy and Ricky stow in that spot by the house where it was to be
safer than the deck.  It wasn't damaged, but was buried under the tree for a
while. 

The paper said that there were sustained winds of 38 and gusts to 70.  The
trees swayed very dramatically and the wind blew, but mostly it rained hard for
hours and hours.  Darkness fell before the main part of the storm approached,
and at the same time, the power went out.  We were prepared with more than
adequate supplies of batteries, flashlights, etc.

Mike rigged up an extra car battery, an old car cigarette lighter, an
inverter, and a little tv, so we watched the weather guys and the news for a long
time.  We also quite foolishly went to Sue & Sheila's house for an hour at the
height of the storm.  At the exact time that we were coming back home, a guy was
killed 10 miles from us, outside checking on a tree when another one fell on
him. 

We had also put up a lot of water, in buckets, pans, the bathtub, the camping
five gallon cooler.  It wasn't enough for flushing after a couple of days
(even with frugal flushing) so Mike made the well (remember that the well pumps
run on electricity which we didn't have) into an old fashioned pump-handle
well, and the neighborhood could get water.  He did this on Sue's well, which is
out by the road (ours is in an inconvenient corner of the yard).  It was pretty
cool.  Sue put the kids' wagon out there so it was possible to haul a five
gallon bucket back to the house.  That's good for two flushes.

Sunday morning Doug and I drove to Newark for a nice lunch with Dot and John
before heading to Princeton for showers at Mom's house.  After we got there,
the power came back on at home, so we came home the next day.  It was
especially nice to visit with everyone, and I'm sure that if we had stayed home, the
power wouldn't have come back.  The phone came back on Wednesday morning.  We
are still waiting for the cable to bring our internet service back (hence my
visit to the library).

While Doug and I were in NJ getting clean, Mike took matters into his own
hands at home.  He made a shower on the deck; he fitted a five gallon bucket with
a faucet at the bottom, and even rigged a shower curtain.  The deck is up off
the ground, so the bather stood off to the back and let the water fall on
him.  They were glad to get clean. 

Ricky, in the meantime, worked hard on sawing the tree.  The main trunk is
still there, but the branches are no longer on the heat pump or up against the
house.

That's all I can think of right now.  Did I say that Randy is back at
school?  The damage in Newport News was about the same as here; they were closer to
the ocean, but we were smack dab in the path of the hurricane/tropical storm. 
The damage in Virginia is tremendous.  There are still 200,000 without power,
I think, a week after the storm.  Tempers are short, and people are
complaining about the speed of the recovery, but it is clear that this is the most
damage the state has ever sustained.  Driving around a week later, we can STILL see
many places where trees are still resting on power lines, not to mention
trees that are piled up right at the edge of the road, having been cut away just
enough to let traffic go by.  12 schools in Chesterfield are still without
power and there are still roads that are impassable.

That's my storm report.  Please write, even if I can't get the mail easily; I
am really looking forward to catching up!

Love,  Julie