Hurricane Sandy from S.E. Penn.

I'm in Bucks County, PA, and this time I got whacked pretty hard by the storm (literally and figuratively).

SUNDAY OCTOBER 28
13:00 - Prepping for storm, basically getting stuff I already had in place.
13:30 - My son seems to be developing a rash on his face. My wife decided to monitor.
20:30 - The rash gets annoying, incredibly, we're out of Benedryl. I drive to far away store that's open and buy more.

MONDAY OCTOBER 29
08:00 - My son awakes, his face severely swollen, throat in pain, breathing difficult. I am in town getting early preps for hurricane done with township. Wife takes kid to ER.

13:00 - Storm starting, winds strong, wife returns home with son, three prescriptions, an epi pen and no clear reason why my son is having a severe allergic reaction.

18:00 - Winds gusty, rains blowing, light branches coming down.

20:30 - Winds seem just gusty, not as severe as expected. Send daughters to their room, they get in their bunk bed. After a few minutes, I hear wind getting stronger and stronger, I yell to girls to retreat to basement, which is previously set up for spending the night in the laundry room, the most secure and storm proof part of the house. As children's feet touch stairs to basement, there is a huge crash, the power transformer out on the road explodes, and our house rattles so hard the pictures shake off the walls. I peer into my daughter's room and there's a large tree limb through the ceiling directly where their bunk bed ladder was, as well as extensive other damage. Rain is flowing into the room. My son's room is also damaged similarly. We stay in the basement, additional trees fall.

21:00 - All roads in my township are blocked by fallen trees. I am able to update our county information desk via a laptop tethered to my iPhone.

23:00 - A fire breaks out in a home in an adjoining township. Crews are unable to reach the home, despite being able to see the house burning. They are cutting trees as fast as they can to get near enough to the scene. It burns to the ground. No injuries are reported.

OCTOBER 30
01:00 Wind is slowing, but still strong. Wife and I take steps to try to reduce water damage to contents of room. We move most contents to other parts of the house.

02:30 I notice that my Bucks County emergency radio is no longer working - the radio is fine, it's clear that the radio system itself has failed.

02:35 AT&T Cell Service fails completely (turns out to be related to Bucks County radio system failing due to loss of T1 line to the tower). Verizon still operational, but with limited signal quality. I fall asleep.

07:30 I awake to asses the damage. There is a very large tree down into my house, other large trees are down on my property. There are 5 trees across my road directly in front of my property. The transformer has burst and there's oil all over my driveway. There is no access in either direction from my house, with dozens of trees and wires down. There are no working communications of any kind - all cell service and emergency radio systems are down. There are no working landlines.

08:30 I decide it's time to at least try to get a tarp over the roof, and so I proceed to the roof with a chainsaw and begin to slowly cut up branches.

08:45 Verizon Cell Service is operational again.

09:00 As I am cutting a large limb (6" diameter), I am unaware that the part I expected to remain on the roof has just slid down perpendicular to the gutter and then rotated, causing the end of the limb to strike me in the right rear of the head. I feel what I perceive to be a severe electric shock, lose consciousness and fall off the roof, landing squarely on my hip on a basketball sized rock. I awake quickly, and am ambulatory, however, I have severe blurring of vision in my left eye and am seeing "floaters" and other distortions. Nausea sets in and I realize that I am at immediate risk from possible intra-cranial trauma. I call my counterpart in the emergency management office and tell him I need an ambulance. The roads are impassable. Using only cell phones and person-to-person communications, word is spread that access to my home is needed, and members of Bucks County Station 42, 48, 49 and 47 literally cut their way as close as the possibly can to my home, and, at 0940, the medic crew walks the last 1,000 feet that are simply impassable over the road. They strap me to a backboard and since I know them, and I'm conscious, and I have strapped many a patient to a backboard with these folks, the banter is easy and factual. I need a level 2 trauma center, due to the mode of injury, but there's no way to get me to one. My neighbor's pickup truck is called into service and they drive me off-road through yards to get back to the ambulance and I go to a "regular" hospital. I've gone on long enough, but to summarize, my head is harder than even I knew, my hip is a horror to behold - but not broken and I found a few other dents and scratches after I got home from the hospital.

I rest.

October 31: I have a concussion, short-term memory and confusion are issues, plus now I realize just how badly I hurt my hip. My job as Emergency Management Coordinator is, fortunately, made easier by the fact that despite the huge winds and tree damage, there is actually minimal damage to the area- in fact, my home is the worst hit of all that we are aware of. Roads are still mostly impassible, communications are poor, but for the most part, things aren't that bad.

1 November: I'm feeling well enough to resume ordinary duties as Emergency Management Coordinator, but more slowly. My yard cleanup and house cleanup is a wonder of friends, community and strangers - at one point there are over 30 people in my yard cutting up the ash tree that hit my house as well as the others that fell. I have what appears to be 12-14 cords of firewood, we're splitting and stacking every day for a few hours.

2 November: Power is still out, but people are very well equipped. The American Red Cross has a shelter operation at the high school and we have been going there for hot showers in the evening.

My own prep plans were sufficient in most every way - and having a rotating stock of gasoline - a miserable monthly chore I've put up with for years - has been tremendously beneficial this time. The only thing I could have done differently was to not have the huge trees near my house - an issue that has at least be partially solved by this storm, and will be solved as soon as possible, as I'm having the remaining 6 large trees cut down.

EDIT: ADDENDUM
I realize that this post does not thank the members of this forum for the years and years of great advice that changed how I think and prepare. Some specific things that I was ready for because I what I learned here.

- I didn't actually need anything I didn't already have in a dedicated cache for emergencies (except the benedryl)- tarps, fuels, batteries, everything - it was all in the place where I had put it, clearly labeled and quarantined from day-to-day supplies.

- My aversion to cash was argued out of me here in this forum, and when the hardware store opened up with a big sign that said "Cash Only" and all the ATM's were off and/or empty, I was able to buy a few items I wanted (but didn't really need).

- I once read here that when the Red Cross and other do arrive, it will be three days later, with more stuff than you can imagine - and that's 100% true. But those first three days...you're not quite on your own, you're only as ready as the people around you.

Finally, I learned that what you give is what you get is the single most true thing ever spoken. I have given of my time and energy in emergency services and planning over the years because, quite frankly, I like it, and when others thank me for what I do, to me it's like being thanked for enjoying a good meal - who wouldn't like doing this? When it was my turn to be the one needing help, I realized how important giving in the past can be to needing in the now.

Wow! Phew. That could have been so much worse. I'm so glad it wasn't.

Take it easy, Martin. Stay safe.

I wish you a speedy recovery.

Talk about the good and the bad. Shows what being prepared and having good relations in the community will do. Hang in there and best wishes for a quick and full recovery.

Wishing you the best!!!!! I hope the soreness leaves quickly!!!

first off OMG!!..close calls all around and second great to hear it's working out for you and the folks around you.

I have learned a ton perusing this forum, but sometimes experience is the best teacher. Our experience:

1. Beforehand: Topped off car gas, bought processed food, filled numerous containers with water for drinking, found one 5-gal container had a leak--have to replace.

2. Our town (15 miles from Martin Focazio), started robo-calling on Friday, October 26th, strongly advising everyone to bring their outside "stuff" inside, and to fill your tub with water (for flushing when there's no power). We did both. Our neighbors did neither. What happened? Discovered our tub has a drain that isn't sealed, so we found it empty Tuesday morning. But, the town's water wells have generators, so we had water pressure the whole time power was out. The neighbor's "stuff" blew all over the place.

3. Power went out @ 9 on Monday night. Why? A neighbor's tree fell across the power/telephone/cable lines, snapped a pole in half, lay across the street, cutting off access to two homes, and leaving a live cable on the street which hissed, sparked, and smoked, before the town pulled the switches for the section covering the live wire. Had the town then cut and capped the line, they could've restored power to 50-60 homes leaving 4 homes without. But it was a bit windy at the time. And wet. No fun for linemen. Quite dangerous, in fact. Unfortunately, they never came back to do the temporary fix. They just waited until they received enough complaints (not by me) that they came out with several bucket trucks, a new pole, etc. and knocked out the whole job.

4. What happened when the power went out? I broke out the LED lights of all variety. I hadn't made any bigger purchases, such as a generator, chainsaw, and our house has oil heat requiring electricity for the fan and thermostat. So no heat. It wasn't that cold, and we have sweaters, coats, blankets, etc., so that wasn't a problem (this time). Now I know you are all screaming at your computers about all the things I could've done. You are absolutely right. However, sometimes you have to experience something to get DW to see the light. Now DW and I are having discussions about generators and wood stoves.

4.1. Our house is shadowed by tall trees, and we had fears of a fate that Martin actually experienced, but we were spared this time. Others in town were not so lucky. We'll cut down anything that seems diseased, weak, or dead, otherwise these trees are a constant source of shade, leaf compost, & firewood for my camp stoves.

4.2. The sump pumps ceased to function without electricity. Fortunately, there was surprisingly little rain, so our basement filled slowly. On Tuesday, our neighbor ran an extension cord from his generator to our basement, and our pumps took an hour to remove 24 hours of accumulated water.

5. I was prepared to bug out, with a waterproof bag for the roof of the car, and all our camping gear staged, ready to toss in. Wondered what would happen if tree fell on garage or in front of garage. Wondered which way to drive--the storm was huge, everywhere. Decided to shelter-in-place. Noted that interstates were first restricting traffic & speed limits, later were closed.

6. Lost power at work (1 mile away from home). Still not on. A big tree from work fell across the arterial road and closed it. Although the resultant detour was a very short, I went to work at clearing it with a foldable hand-saw. (I was going stir-crazy at home.) Then the timber truck we called for showed up and cleared the tree in short order.

7. Re-learned that my wood camp stoves were hard to ignite in the wind and wet--something I had been practicing in varying conditions with DS over the summer.

8. Could've bugged out to relatives who are close and had only 12 hours with no power, but stuck it out at home. DD & DS had no school for days. Becoming stir-crazy was an issue here. Revealed how our lives have become tied in to electricity.

Wow, Martin, that was scary! I hope you will recover from your injuries quickly. It shows the importance of not only preparing ourselves, but of being part of a strong community.

I'm glad your injuries weren't worse! Looks like the preps that you and GrilledBison had in place were instrumental in coming through as well as you did.

I'm glad you weren't more seriously injured, Martin. Best wishes for a complete and speedy recovery!

So how are you and your son doing? Did you go to the same ER? Do you have power @ your house, yet?

Yikes, Martin, that's a nasty turn of events. It's a cautionary tale for all of us. Here's hoping for a speedy recovery.

Glad to hear you folks are doing well relatively speaking,and SAFE,and were able to care for yourselves in the disaster.

Whats your experience with neighborly help,they were Awesome when we faced the challenge.Never thought people would pull together like they did.

I am feeling much better - leg still hurts lots, head seems fine.
Not only was my son at same hospital, the same nurse as mine saw him.
Power is still out, I don't think it will be back anytime before Monday night, at the earliest.

People - for the most part - always pull together in times like this. My neighbors are great.

Thank you for reporting your experiences. Your comments reminds me of the hassles of a friend who went through Hurricane Andrew some years ago. He stated that often as many injuries (and fatalities) occurred during the cleanup from events like this, as happened during the storm itself.

Sore, bloodied, zapped and woozy... and he's back at work again! We never hear about those stories on the news. Thanks for all you do, Martin!

Thank goodness you're OK after surviving your own self inflicted 'Widow Maker'. Operating chainsaws (I'm assuming here) to cut tree limbs at higher elevation above ground (feet not firmly on the ground) can lead to all sorts of accidents. Were you wearing your head and eye protection? It sounds like this 'Widow Maker' probably would have knocked you out regardless.

Best wishes for a full recovery from your ordeal.

Wow, close call Martin! I am SO pleased to hear that you're going to be ok.

I just read in the Allentown newspaper of a man who died after being hit in the head by a tree limb while cleaning up debris. You are a lucky man, Martin.