Unfortunately, the Washington Monument sustained damage during the earthquake.
They were both right about the earthquake. We were completely unprepared. I was sitting on the couch folding laundry when it hit and I just sat there for a few seconds wondering what was happening. I must admit that my first thought was that a bomb went off. (In retrospect, it makes me feel a bit uncomfortable that I feel a bomb is more likely than an earthquake.) After those few seconds, I realized that it was an earthquake. It was about that time that the kids came out of their room. I honestly struggled to know what to do. It wasn’t until it was almost over that I told them to get in a door frame. I was stunned more than scared and none of us moved much. That is my only comfort because I can at least say I didn’t panic even if I didn’t do the right thing.
Hurricane Irene as she begins to hit our region.
The hurricane was a different story. The moment I heard that it may come up the east coast, I went to the store and added to our food that we could eat without cooking. I also bought enough water for three days. I know we should have this stuff around already but we don’t. I am grateful that we had some warning for this one. I didn’t worry about batteries because we have flashlights that wind up and have a radio. It turns out that these flashlights do not exactly shine brightly and the wind up part takes a lot of work for them to actually shine (we had to use batteries anyway) and the radio did not pick up any stations. So it is back to the drawing board for flashlights and a radio for emergencies. I think we deserve the B that AJP gave us. We were better prepared but without the warning we would not have been. Additionally, we failed to check the flashlights. That could have been a big problem.
Overall, we are very grateful that these two disasters were not as much of a problem as they could have been. They have also helped us to think about how we can improve and be ready for the next round.
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