the foolish man built his house upon the (hurricane) sand(y)

Hurricane Sandy hit Nazareth with minor rain and major wind. The electricity went out at the Dunford house, so they hooked up their generator during the daytime for showering and cooking and then turned it off at night. The third night without power there was a loud boom followed by the house lights flickering 8 or so times, but the electricity failed to stay on. Now awake, I looked out the window to see if others' had gotten power. What I saw was three small fires in the trees by the side of the house. There was also an increasingly loud whirring sound. Within a few minutes, a firetruck and a cop car had pulled up on the road beside the house, sat still a few minutes, and then drove away... so I thought. There was a sudden banging on the front door and I immediately knew we were being evacuated. I rushed our of my room and followed a half-awake Lori down the stairs to the door. "Everybody needs to get out of the house! Get out now!" I turned right back around, yelled down the hall to the kids, "Everyone wake up! We have to get out of the house!" to which I heard Kevin quickly reply, "Alright!" I went to my room, threw on a sweatshirt and shoes, scooped up Max, headed down the stairs debating whether or not I should go back for my bra, and was the first out the door, albeit bra-less. Kevin, go figure, was last. As we shivered in the street (Lori put Max inside her robe), we heard another boom that must have killed the power line completely. The firemen did a final check and let us go back in after a total of maybe 10 minutes outside. "I assessed the situation and made the call," said one fireman. Our hero.

This all happened the night before we were leaving for the wedding. It was a crazy 10 minutes, but we were able to take warm showers in the morning. And Max, he handled it all like a pro. He didn't make a peep the whole time outside (probably freezing) and fell right back asleep after. I, on the other hand, was wired. I lay in bed thinking about "what if" scenarios and feeling grateful for the firemen who "make the call" even when nothing happens in the end... because "what if?"