Everything Else Can Be Replaced

The storm had passed and aside from a loss of cable and phone, we were doing OK.

Not everyone was so lucky, of course. Large swaths of Kendall Park were without power thanks to Hurricane Irene – and are likely to remain without power for days – but no one was hurt and it appears that few sustained any real damage to their homes.

That’s probably why everyone seemed to be in such good spirits as I took a walk around Kendall Park on Sunday in the immediate aftermath of Irene’s visit. There were downed trees and people were out cleaning up their yards.

One woman, who has lived in her house since it was first built 50 years ago, said it was the worst storm she’d seen. On another street, a man and his two kids told me they came through unscathed – and then he pointed me to a fallen tree on Joline Road that was leaning on the power lines.

On Kendall Road, Mahendra Solanki was standing outside his front door looking at the tree that blocked the street. The massive tree fell shortly after midnight, landing on the wires that connect the power lines to his house.

“There was sparking next to the house,” he told me. “My daughter was in the living room and she woke me up. There was a buzzing sound.”

The police arrived quickly, followed by PSE&G and the power was shut off. No one was hurt and, aside from the meter, there was no damage.

It was a rude homecoming for the Solankis, though; they had been on a cruise for six days and had arrived home at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, just early enough to get the house ready for the storm.

“The cruise was shortened one day because of the storm,” he said. “Nassau was canceled. The boat was racing ahead of the storm to get to Baltimore. Then we drove from Baltimore ahead of the storm.”

PSE&G told him he would likely be without power until Sept. 5, but Solanki wasn’t overly concerned. His wife and daughter were fine and the damage would eventually be repaired.

Around the corner on Dillon Road, John Reil was beginning the cleanup process. He had the chain saw out and was cutting up the large trees that had fallen and blocked the road. One of them snagged his power lines and, as with the Solankis, pulled his electric meter from the wall.

“I was looking out the window at about 2 or 2:30 in the morning and I saw the whole thing,” he said. “The meter’s wrenched from the house. It’s holding on by a wire. I heard it snap and was surprised.”

Dillon was hit hard by the March 2010 N’oreaster, too, with several trees falling, lifting slabs of concrete from the sidewalk. I remember walking my dogs following that storm and marveling at the massive roots that were now visible.

Reil remembered that storm, too. He said that one of the trees that fell Sunday was swaying badly in the 2010 storm and he expected it to go then. So he wasn’t surprised that they lost more trees Sunday.

“They just fixed the sidewalk from last year’s storm a few days ago,” he said. "The new sidewalk slabs were just two doors away. Now the township is going to have to repair two more sections of concrete."

That’s OK, though, Reil says. In the larger scheme of things, the fallen trees are nothing more than a minor inconvenience.

“Nobody got hurt and I didn’t come out and find cars squashed,” he said. “Everything else can be replaced.”