(perhaps the title isn't in good taste, but the story is pretty decent!)
It started on Monday morning with a call from the UHaul store where I have my storage unit. It's an 8' x 12' room with everything from boxes of books, all my child therapy stuff, out-of-season clothes, bikes, some furniture, etc. A pipe in the unit above me burst and they didn't think it had done any damage to my unit, but there was a little puddle of water outside the room next to me.
So I stroll over in the snow and find that, indeed, yes, the water had come into my unit and had drowned a lot of clothes, an entertainment unit, an air conditioner and computer monitor, as well as a dozen books. It took myself and 3 U-Haul staff nearly 3 hours to get everything out, sorted, moved to another unit and then packed up for the claims agent.
I was disappointed to find my Winnie the Pooh Classics book had not survived. In the words of Christopher Robin, "Tut, tut. Looks like rain."
That evening I was fast asleep at 10:45pm. I was exhausted from hauling boxes, bikes, wet furniture, etc. At 11:17pm, I woke to find out that the power had gone out. Well...kind of. Four plugs still had power in them. So we called ConEd, filed a report, were told they'd be out in 3-4 hours, and back to sleep I went. Or tried.
I'd just dozed off when, at a little after 1:00am there was a huge explosion that shook the house (we're on the 4th floor of a big old limestone building). I ran to the window, only to see a huge geyser of flames shooting up from underneath a van sitting right in front of the house. I ran and called 911 and the fire department had arrived before I could finish dressing and head downstairs.
The salt from the street cleaners had gotten in to the wiring below the street and shorted everything out. The partial power outage was our first hint. The exploding manholes and burning wiring was the second. Although the boiler had gone out (and with it, our steam heat), we were able to keep the fridge plugged in with the help of an extension cord and we had phones.
A police car parked outside of the house, waiting for ConED and trying to track down the owner of the car that had been char broiled. At 2:20am I was back in bed, trying to get in a few hours before the alarm went off at 5:30am.
BOOM! 3:12am and another explosion, another geyser of fire. The police called the fire department this time and again they came. They don't do anything. Well...they go into the basements of the surrounding buildings to make sure the fire hasn't traveled underground. Then they look at the manhole. And you can still hear this "POP! POP!" sound...like the jolly green giant was making popcorn. Then, after six minutes, they all pile back into their trucks, saying that ConED has been notified, ya-d-ya-da-ya-da. I think I watched 4:30am on the clock before I faded out. Tuesday morning.
It was a cold morning without heat, hot water. I made coffee using one of the four active plugs and spent an hour on the phone with the Public Utilities Commission, filing a complaint. ConED showed up at about 10:10am, our building manager called an electrician to do some fancy wiring in the basement so we could have heat (11:30am) and full power came on around 7:45pm).
Flood. Fire. What more? Well....
Wednesday morning. I dare to leave the house (although I confess with a bit of anxiety) and head to the subway. Amtrak leaves on time (7:25am) and I get to work on my laptop. I didn't even recall the train slowing down. I do remember it stopping. But sometimes the trains stop because they've been flagged for going to fast and they are reprimanded by being held by dispatch. Not in this case. Nope. We lost power. For 30 minutes we sat in the train with no power somewhere outside of New Brunswick NJ.
Flood. Fire. Loss of Power. What's next? In the words of the Police, "don't stand so close to me"
It started on Monday morning with a call from the UHaul store where I have my storage unit. It's an 8' x 12' room with everything from boxes of books, all my child therapy stuff, out-of-season clothes, bikes, some furniture, etc. A pipe in the unit above me burst and they didn't think it had done any damage to my unit, but there was a little puddle of water outside the room next to me.
So I stroll over in the snow and find that, indeed, yes, the water had come into my unit and had drowned a lot of clothes, an entertainment unit, an air conditioner and computer monitor, as well as a dozen books. It took myself and 3 U-Haul staff nearly 3 hours to get everything out, sorted, moved to another unit and then packed up for the claims agent.
I was disappointed to find my Winnie the Pooh Classics book had not survived. In the words of Christopher Robin, "Tut, tut. Looks like rain."
That evening I was fast asleep at 10:45pm. I was exhausted from hauling boxes, bikes, wet furniture, etc. At 11:17pm, I woke to find out that the power had gone out. Well...kind of. Four plugs still had power in them. So we called ConEd, filed a report, were told they'd be out in 3-4 hours, and back to sleep I went. Or tried.
I'd just dozed off when, at a little after 1:00am there was a huge explosion that shook the house (we're on the 4th floor of a big old limestone building). I ran to the window, only to see a huge geyser of flames shooting up from underneath a van sitting right in front of the house. I ran and called 911 and the fire department had arrived before I could finish dressing and head downstairs.
The salt from the street cleaners had gotten in to the wiring below the street and shorted everything out. The partial power outage was our first hint. The exploding manholes and burning wiring was the second. Although the boiler had gone out (and with it, our steam heat), we were able to keep the fridge plugged in with the help of an extension cord and we had phones.
A police car parked outside of the house, waiting for ConED and trying to track down the owner of the car that had been char broiled. At 2:20am I was back in bed, trying to get in a few hours before the alarm went off at 5:30am.
BOOM! 3:12am and another explosion, another geyser of fire. The police called the fire department this time and again they came. They don't do anything. Well...they go into the basements of the surrounding buildings to make sure the fire hasn't traveled underground. Then they look at the manhole. And you can still hear this "POP! POP!" sound...like the jolly green giant was making popcorn. Then, after six minutes, they all pile back into their trucks, saying that ConED has been notified, ya-d-ya-da-ya-da. I think I watched 4:30am on the clock before I faded out. Tuesday morning.
It was a cold morning without heat, hot water. I made coffee using one of the four active plugs and spent an hour on the phone with the Public Utilities Commission, filing a complaint. ConED showed up at about 10:10am, our building manager called an electrician to do some fancy wiring in the basement so we could have heat (11:30am) and full power came on around 7:45pm).
Flood. Fire. What more? Well....
Wednesday morning. I dare to leave the house (although I confess with a bit of anxiety) and head to the subway. Amtrak leaves on time (7:25am) and I get to work on my laptop. I didn't even recall the train slowing down. I do remember it stopping. But sometimes the trains stop because they've been flagged for going to fast and they are reprimanded by being held by dispatch. Not in this case. Nope. We lost power. For 30 minutes we sat in the train with no power somewhere outside of New Brunswick NJ.
Flood. Fire. Loss of Power. What's next? In the words of the Police, "don't stand so close to me"
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