My love of the natural world was forged at an early age. My mother is always telling my wife stories of how I, as child would run off and play in the bushes instead of playing on the playground. It was always about the scavenger hunt for me. I was always looking for a new bug or little critter to bring home. My moms favorite story is how I, on one winter afternoon decided to bring home a jar of carpenter bees which I had accidentally unearth, and didn't want them to die, therefore I re-homed them in my parents bedroom. Needless to say, my parents were not pleased with my intent in saving the bees. Till this day i am afriad I am not quite sure of whatever became of those bees, I never dared to ask!
However, as hurricane Irene tore through the east cost I was again in a situation where I had to save the bees. I had to admit when I decided to create my urban farm yard, keeping chickens and becoming a beekeeper, the thought of a hurricane never entered my mind. But now the threat was real. Irene was coming, and all my hard work was in real danger. I knew from the News forecast that Irene would be heading straight for us. My wife and I knew we had our work cut out for us, and no time to waste. Getting our home ready for a hurricane is one thing, but when you have livestock in an urban setting this becomes a whole other matter. I don't think a city shelter was ready for us and our livestock. Imagine the conversation with the evacuation shelter when I ask them if they have room for two adults with chickens and 10,000 bees. I don't think a conversation like this would of faired very well.
The first thing I did was to make sure our home was not situated in a flood zone. Thankfully we are not, however that's never a guaranty we wouldn't be flooded. But it's a start. I moved the bees to the highest point on our property and anchored them down with cinderblocks to keep them from being blown away. Then crossed my fingers and prayed! I then had to secure the hens. Those little ladies spent a good part of the hurricane in dog kennels which we had kept from previous pet dogs we had owned. They were then moved from their coop and temporarily occupied one of the vacant bedrooms which I have yet to renovate. Yes, thats right I had to bring in the chickens! OMG!, I think they believed they were being crated up for the butcher the way they were clucking!
Now that the livestock was secured. We had to get the house ready for the storm. We had to make sure we had enough food and water for the both of us and the hens. Made sure the car had a full tank of gas just in case we did have to evacuate. However the current plan was to wait out this storm at home. So then began the waiting game!
I can't say I wasn't worried , the truth of the matter is, I was! New York hasn't seen a hurricane of this magnitude since hurricane Gloria, and I remember all the damage she did when she payed us a visit. Our home was built in 1899, and she's no stranger to hurricanes. However, I Had my reservations. We'd soon find out, as hurricane Irene was only 7 hours away.
There she blows,Irene finally reached us. She dumped about 12 inches of rain on us, but I suspect more. I can say this with gusto as I am the proud owner of a new in door swimming pool in our basement, as a result of hurricane Irene. With wind speed of 56mpr, wind gusts of 65 Irene hammered Staten Island. We slept in our living room, as the storm had her way with us. All we could do is wait her out, prayed a lot and hoped for the best.
It was 4 a.m., when I remembered the bees. I wondered if the cinderblocks I had placed on top of them had been enough to keep them from blowing over. I made my way to the kitchen window which has the best view of the hive. At first all I could see is trees swaying back and forth as if they had received the Holy Spirit on Sunday mass. Then I saw it in the distance, a small little brown box, held down by the weight of those concrete blocks. I couldn't help but feel overjoyed, at least for the moment they were ok. But we still had several hours of storm yet to pass.
Then thankfully, it was over ten hours later. We'd had made through this storm unharmed and stepped outside to survey any damages caused by Irene to our property. The worse we had received was the flooding in the basement. I considered ourselves blessed with that alone. The bees road out the storm just fine, and the hens were glad to get out of the those pens and forage through the landscape once again.
All and all I was thankful that this storm gave us a pardon. However, we may not be so blessed for the next one. Yet I am some what grateful to Irene, for with out her threat and other storms such as her, I would have never known what it takes to prepare an urban farm for disasters such as these. It has given me a better perspective on disaster preparation.
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