Hurricane Sandy spares northern Virginia

News about Hurricane Sandy, also called “The Perfect Storm” or “Frankenstorm,” has spread through the country as fast as lightning.

When Sandy first started in the Caribbean, it was a tropical storm.  In a matter of days it was upgraded to hurricane status, with winds up to 75 m.p.h. (miles per hour). Sandy was supposed to impact every state on the east coast, and experts predicted Hurricane Sandy would be wider and stronger than last year’s Hurricane Irene.

To prepare for the “FrankenStorm” people rushed to grocery stores, hardware stores, and anywhere else they needed to go.  In some stores, the shelves were close to or completely bare.  People prepared for the storm by doing everything from buying extra toilet paper to charging electronics to taking down Halloween decorations.   In West Virginia, the hurricane brought a lot of snow. In Virginia, it's rain. And in Delaware, residents are told to evacuate the state entirely.

Here in Virginia, Hurricane Sandy caused delays and cancellations for many schools. The entire Fairfax County Public School system was cancelled for two days - Monday, October 29, and the following Tuesday. No one went to work, either, except essential workers like emergency services personnel.

I spoke to Amy Sung-Concannon, the mom to a family with four kids living in Old Burke, about the storm.  To prepare for the storm, she pre-cooked about enough food to last two days.  Amy and her kids made a little storm shelter for their outdoor cat, and they all slept in the living room, the safest room in their house.  She even bought a generator.

It turns out that they didn’t need a generator — not one household in Old Burke lost power. Amy was expecting to lose power for about five days because they have a lot of trees that could knock into the power lines and because it happens frequently here, even in small storms.  She also thought that the winds from the storm would knock trees over, or at least make large limbs fall.  But that didn’t happen, either.  The only thing that Hurricane Sandy caused was a small amount flooding in her basement. 

Schools closed, workers stayed home, people flocked to the supermarkets, and all for a storm that they thought would be huge.  But it wasn’t.  All it did was cause rain and wind.  Maybe because here in Fairfax, Virginia, we’re nowhere near a coast. Or maybe we were just lucky.  We do know that Hurricane Sandy caused a lot of damage elsewhere, so instead of being upset that you went out bought a ton of bread for nothing, here in northern Virginia, residents are thankful.

—Kid Reporter Abby Sacks

Comments

[Nonna]

I read Abby Sacks' article about preparations for the Frankenstorm and was happy to hear that Burke was not affected. However, I live in East Hampton, NY and unfortunately, we lost a 27 foot beautiful Douglas fir tree. But fortunately, it didn't fall on the house. We have been without power for 6 days now and have no idea as to when we will get it back. When we have no power we also have no water since we are all on wells. In spite of good preparations on our part,there is little we can do about this bad turn of events.