Nikki and Tom take on F&W and MNSSHP-Take 2! LINK TO TR pg. 55

[NikkiLovesWDW!]

Thanks guys! It's been drizzling all day and just started being really heavy off and on....I'll try to keep everyone posted!

 

[Dream426]

Hey guys! We are in full hurricane prep mode today! For those of you who don't know, Hurricane Irene is heading straight for us and from what they have been saying, it's going to be bad....really bad. So far, they have not called for evacuation in my area but if they do, I want to be ready to just grab my stuff and GO!

So here's my agenda for today.
-Buy a flashlight (if there are any left in the stores!)
-Take the AC out of the window
-Duct tape the windows
-Bring in the yard furniture
-Fill up gas tank
-Pack a suitcase
-Get documents together (that includes birth cert, ss. cards, MNSSHP tix...ya know, the important stuff!)
-Move photo albums, and anything else important in the living room, into bedroom because I'm nervous about the tree just outside falling.....in which case, we are totally screwed!

I'll be packing:
-cd case with discs of photos since I can't bring my albums....
-the documents I mentioned before
-prescriptions
-cell phone charger
-laptop/charger
-cameras
-the boxes that contain my two deceased cats


Can anyone thing of anything else I need to do or have ready to bring with me?

We live on Long Island and were doing the same thing today getting ready for the hurricane. I have found so many PTR and TR to read and keep me busy. My daughter (she is a newborn) has been sleeping most of the day so I had a chance to read a few and I am enjoying your PTR. Hope everything stays safe by you. I am hoping I don't lose power or internet tomorrow so I can continue to read everyones reports.

 

[Stefy]

Hey Nikki & Tom hope you guys are safe and well. Thinking of you and sending lots of love and good thoughts that Irene passes quickly

 

[anjalee6]

Hope you are safe. We survived with just power outages and lots of wind. There are downed trees, but overall, not too bad. Now, to focus on the return to school tomorrow and Disney in exactly a month!

 

[NikkiLovesWDW!]

Hey! Power just came back on. We decided to go to my parent's, just up the street, last night once we saw tornado watches! We had a lot of fun all being together but it was still scary. My dad was called out around midnight with the fire department and he still is out with them. I'll post pics later!

 

[ronnmel]

Glad you are safe! It's been raining with some big gust of winds all afternoon here, but I'm sure it's nowhere near as powerful as what you guys had to face since it's basically just the "tail" (well, more like the front, but whatever), portion of the storm that is hitting us.

I was hesitating between the Butterfinger the peanut butter cupcakes while in DHS last week.

Hope you get to do all the stuff you have planned!

 

[NikkiLovesWDW!]

Hurricane Irene

I started freaking out about this storm on Thursday! So it was very eerie on Friday when it was beautiful, calm and sunny all day but there were sooo many cars on the streets and in the store parking lots.

We were all set to stay home. I was mostly scared about a tree outside my house that could fall into my living room so I moved all the important stuff into the bedroom. Once the storm was getting closer and we saw tornado watches, we made the decision to go to my parent's house, where my sister and Emma already were!

And Hurricane Sleepover Fun ensued!

Emma was doing some poses with her mom!

The rain and wind started picking up around 10pm.

And the dogs started freaking out!

They seriously could NOT get closer to me!

By the way, do you LOVE my New Kids on the Block comforter? I've had it since I was a kid!

Around midnight, my dad, who's been on the volunteer fire department in our town forEVER, got the first call....and I'm still not sure if he's home yet! Once it started, it never stopped!

About an hour later, the fire truck pulled up and he came in to get his rain pants and tell my mom to sleep downstairs and a tree fell on Anchor Place.....I'M ON ANCHOR PLACE! And it's only a one-block street so naturally I started freaking out that it was MY tree but it was not.

Since I got up to talk to my dad, Pumpkin decided she was no longer safe, so she went and got into bed with Emma!

Finally around 2 or 3am, we fell asleep. I woke up to the sound of the power going on and off around 6:30am and then it was off.

Not 10 minutes later, the fire truck came down our street again and to the house just across from ours.

They were bringing a generator to a boy who needs oxygen or something. Apparently they had a list of everyone who would NEED power and as soon as their power went out, they would come.

Then just a couple of hours later, it was beautiful, calm and at one point, the sun was out!

But my dad said my street was blocked off so we just hung around for a while and had some fun!

The house behind my parent's house had a very flooded yard!

Upstairs, we saw that there was a little water damage on the ceiling so dad had the fire truck drop him off again to fix that and also set up a generator so we could have some TV!

Tom was trying to get onto the internet. Even though we had power, the cable was out so no internet.

Britney was assessing the situation outside...

After a bath, Emma wanted to pretend she was a baby...

And the neighbors gather to assess the neighborhood!

 

[NikkiLovesWDW!]

The rest of the pics are "damage" pictures. They are just around my neighborhood. My sister and Tom and I wanted to see what the deal was with our street being blocked off so we drove around and took some pics.

This is actually really bad. My very good friend lives down in that water and I just heard her den is flooded up to the second step. Her husband had to canoe there in order to get to the house. (They stayed with relatives last night.)

And this is the tree that knocked out our power.

The wind is actually REALLY strong again right now. Power is back on but I wouldn't be surprised if it went out again. I keep hearing sirens still so I'm sure trees are still falling.

But on a brighter note.....ONE MONTH FROM TODAY!!!

 

[Dream426]

Glad everyone is ok. Love the New Kids comforter by the way. I had the sheets.

 

[Tracy161]

Oh my gosh!!! NKOTB! Wow does that bring back memories! Remember those obnoxiously large buttons everyone thought were super cool to wear?! I used to love those things! Ahh... to be a kid again.

So happy to hear that you and your family are okay. What a crazy week for the northeast! First an earthquake, now a hurricane. Crazy! Sorry to hear about your friend's house. Hopefully the damage in your area is kept to a minimum

 

[knewton64]

Glad 2 c u r ok - was worried about ya.



T.T.F.N.

 

[Stefy]

Glad you guys are ok. Looks like you had a fun sleepover to take your mind off of Irene

 

[disneybarbie]

Hi Nikki, glad to hear you were all ok & the sleepover looked like a fun way to stay safe and make the best out of a pretty scary situation!

Less than one month to go until WDW now!



Emma x

 

[podsnel]

What a mess, huh?! We never lost power, but the north side of town is having alot of problems- lots of flooding and they are being told no electric for a week! We were very, very fortunate- no real damage, just the same leak in the bathroom we always have when it rains. And I never heard about any tornado warnings! Glad I missed THAT!!

 

[jenneth79]

Glad you got through the storm with loved ones and everyone seems to be ok! I hope the damage locally isn't too bad and things get better super fast! I really think we dodged a bullet with that one....

YAY on one month to go!

 

[ronnmel]

Glad you are okay and that you personally didn't suffer too much damage. All I got here was my cable went out, but my friend who lives in a town closer to Vermont had her basement flooded and lost a lot of her teacher stuff.

At least the sleepover seemed fun! And I'm sure that one month before Disney will go fast, you'll be so busy with school!

 

[Megablocks]

Glad everything is okay! We got really lucky because we are near Boston and the eastern part of the state didn't get it too bad. I know some neighborhoods in surrounding cities lost power, but we were lucky enough not to. A DIS friend that lives in Rhode Island has been without power since yesterday morning and they have no idea when they'll have it back

Your sleepover looks like so much fun! Emma is adorable!

 

[NikkiLovesWDW!]

Hey guys!! Thanks so much for the concerns about the hurricane. It really is a lot worse than it seemed. Power is still out all around me, I really have NO idea how we have power! Trees are down everywhere and it's very hard to get around with out having to take multiple detours.

Some more photos...

This is where I do my jogging! I jog on a trail around the lake/river that flowed into all the houses nearby. (Seriously, in the streets around the river, everyone's ruined belongings are on all the front lawns. It's very sad. I took a video, I will try to upload it later. )

The trail was blocked by two giant trees that had fallen.

Here they are from the back....

And the other side of the trail....

Then I turned and took this picture because I find it amazing that something so beautiful could cause so much damage!

Another fallen tree in the park....

Just leaves and branches all along the trail...

See this beautiful bridge? Look closer....

The water had actually risen ABOVE this bridge! You can see all the river debris on it.

Sorry to keep being a downer about this but it's just so sad to see it all every day, I just wanted to share!

On another note, my first official day of work is tomorrow!! And school starts on Tuesday! Not excited about Summer being over BUT....

FOUR WEEKS TIL DISNEY!!

 

[NikkiLovesWDW!]

I've never posted a video from photobucket before so I'm trying now. I'm been using shutterrfly for pictures and videos but they've been all warped and I paid for it! Photobucket lets you do 500 videos for free. No brainer! Okay, here goes....

Oh btw, this is video of the street right by the river that was completely flooded. All of these people's basements and first floors were ruined. All of their belongings are now out on the street for garbage.

[/URL][/IMG]

 

[NikkiLovesWDW!]

Day 3 ~ September 30, 2011​

So even though this is technically "day 3" it's really only our second full day...and it's gonna be a doozy!!

This day is the main reason why we rented the car.

So the plan for most of the day is....EPCOT!!

Today is the first official day of the Food and Wine Festival which I am SUPER excited for!!

So we're going to leave the resort around 8:30 and DRIVE to Epcot. (You'll see why in a minute..)

We hope to be there for opening and hit up Future World for the first two hours! I can't' WAIT to ride Test Track with my nephew, Conor! He LOVES that ride...and so do I! And the best is that it's somehting really fun that all 5 of us can ride together! I'm sure there will be multiple rides on TT that morning.....

And of course, a little Soarin!

Maybe some Nemo, a little bit of the Land and of course a stop in MouseGear!!!

Then it's on to the festival!!! WOOOO HOOOO!!!

Here are some pics from the one other time we were there for F&W!

Ahhh, that was such a great day!! We were there from morning til night. Unfortunately, that can NOT be the plan for this day....

At around 2:30, Erin and I will need to leave with the car and go to WWoS to pick up our race packets for the following morning. Then we will meet the boys back at the resort, shower, get our costumes ready and head to....

'Ohana!!! Dinner is at 5:10, so I'm thinking we leave Epcot at 2:30, get our race stuff done and be back at the resort by 3:30, which gives us an hour to get ready so we can leave at 4:30. It seems like I'm cutting it close but don't forget, this is where the car comes in handy again! Erin, Gary and Conor wil probably have to leave earlier to get to the Poly since they'll have to bus it to MK, then either boat or monorail from there to Poly.

I'm planning to valet at the Poly so I can leave it there for the rest of the evening.