Friends (Vellingas) and Foes (Hurricane Irene)

The past couple of weeks have been very eventful here in New York. About a week a half ago, we invited our friends, the Vellingas, over for a lasagne lunch. They had us over to their home for Sunday dinner a few weeks ago, and we wanted them to come to Scarsdale to eat and have some fun. Vellingas are in our Inwood Ward. Jed Vellinga (on right) grew up in our ward in Provo. He and his wife, Lisa, moved to New York so that she could go to school to be a nurse anethesist. They have two cute little kids, Dillion and Haley. We went over to the playground so the kids could play. Then, we went on a walk along the path in back of our apartment building and enjoyed seeing all the greenery and beauty. Haley decided that she wanted to collect LARGE leaves, so she got a few a long the way. I took this picture in front of the waterfall. Cute family.

Jed got daring and took both Dillion and Haley out near the waterfall.

We really had a nice time with the Vellingas. We even called Clarence and Annette (Jed's parents), who are on a mission in Calgary, Canada. I think they were a little envious of us being with their kids. I know I would be. The day was absolutely perfect in every way. We were so glad that they came when they did and didn't get caught up in the storm.

All last week, we were watching Hurricane Irene. On Tuesday, many people felt an earthquake, which stemmed from Virginia. We didn't feel it in the Family History Center, as we were on the ground floor of the temple. However, there were people on the third, fourth, and fifth floors of the temple that did feel it. Then, Irene really scared the people of New York. It was a huge hurricane and moved very slowly. When we were in the Family History Center on Friday, the mission office called us and told us that the subways would be shutting down, as well as the trains, Saturday at noon. We usually go to work at the FHC on Saturdays, but we just decided to close it, inasmuch as we couldn't get there on public transportation. The temple also closed at 11:00 a.m. Saturday.

We spent Saturday preparing for the worst--getting emergency supplies ready, filling the tub full of water, ect. We took a couple of walks and the air was very moist and heavy--humid. Here is a picture of the calm before the storm.

At about 7:00 p.m. Saturday night, it started to rain. It rained hard for about 14 hours, with lightening and thunder during the night. We were surprised when we got up in the morning and it wasn't raining too hard. Even the little delicatesen across the street opened up about 9:00 a.m. Church meetings had all been cancelled on Sunday throughout the mission, so we stayed home.It's hard to see how hard it rained and how much it blew, but it really wasn't too bad. We spent the morning doing some scripture study, watched an old movie, took a walk after the storm, and then invited our neighbor, Jay Steele, over for dinner.

I was impressed by by the preparations and precautions that Mayor Bloomburg announced prior to the hurricane. The city was quite prepared. This is a shot from the television with the mayor in blue on the side and plow trucks moving the flood waters on the main screen.

I was also impressed by the way our mission president handled the evacuation of the Manhattan missionaries. They were transported to members homes or other missionary apartments. Then, he checked with the Zone leaders, who checked with the District leaders, who checked with the other missionaries. Also, we all got text messages about every four hours letting us know what was going on. Below, you can see the river and how it flooded over the walking and biking path in back of our house. Also, the next picture show the Bronx River Parkway, which was also flooded.

Below is the waterfall going into the river. It's much higher than it was in the picture with the Vellingas.

This bridge was covered with water and lots of debri that washed into the bridge.

There were a few trees that had been blown down and lots of branches and leaves all over.

On Monday, Dick and I took a drive into a couple of villages away from ours, Larchmont and Mamaroneck. The day was absolutely perfect, and we drove around some of the areas and took this beautiful picture. What a difference a day makes.

Thus, we survived Hurricane Irene. "Goodnight Irene." Here's hoping you'll go far away.