"I have rope"

[asakiyume]

I've been visiting my father, usually on Sundays, during the summer, but this weekend, knowing that Henri was coming, I went on Saturday. When the hurricane came up, he reminisced about the famous (in these parts, anyway) Hurricane of 1938, which he could remember.

My dad was a little boy of seven at the time, living in Lexington, MA. He said that at that time, no one in the region had any experience with hurricanes. His uncle Sal (whom I believe I've mentioned on these pages before: he was part of the team that captured top-recorded** world wind speed in 1934 from atop Mt. Washington) told the family, "A big wind is coming."

He said there were pine trees by the house, and one just snapped, halfway up its trunk, and the top went sailing by the house. Everyone in the family was huddled on the second floor of the house when there was a loud noise from the attic. The negative pressure had caused a skylight in the attic to blow open, and a huge gust of leaves came rushing in and whirling through the house.

He said his father said, "I need a rope; where's a rope?"--he wanted to go tie the skylight closed.

Well, my father's little brother--my uncle--was clutching a brown paper bag full of his precious possessions (my dad mentioned a teddy bear whose head had fallen off), and among those possessions? A length of rope!

"I have rope," my uncle said.

So my grandfather used that rope to batten down the skylight--my three-year-old uncle saved the day!

As for Hurricane Henri, right now it's bringing us the intense but very fine rain that hurricanes do. By the way, do people know the site windy.com? It's fun for looking at storms and wind patterns. (Here's Henri.) You can move the little marker on the far right further up to get the wind speeds higher in the atmosphere (they get faster; it's very pretty).


**The record was broken, as the link says, in 1996 by a wind recorded by an unmanned instrument station on Barrow Island, Australia during Tropical Cyclone Olivia.

Comments

[sartorias]

Everywhere on my feed, stories of torrential rains.

We had two inches this year. Two. Of course not a drop since Fed--and the really dry hot weather still ahead, sigh.

[asakiyume]

Climate change is definitely a tale of extremes....

[sartorias]

Well I'm glad you guys are all tucked up safe!

[queenoftheskies]

Are you in any danger from the hurricane?

[asakiyume]

We have a flood warning, but since we're on a hill, I think we're fine.

[osprey_archer]

I hope your upcoming hurricane experience is not QUITE that exciting! Although maybe a broken skylight is actually the perfect level of excitement? No one injured, and a good story afterward.

[asakiyume]

Precisely! The perfect level of excitement.

I can't express how magical it was when my dad described the leaves come billowing into the house--it was like some kind of spirit from a Miyazaki film.

[minoanmiss]

That reminds me of so many stories my grandfather told me...

[asakiyume]

Oh I bet he had bunches! If you ever feel inclined to share, I am an eager audience.

[sovay]

So my grandfather used that rope to batten down the skylight--my three-year-old uncle saved the day!

It is wonderful that your father has these stories to share and is around to share them.

[asakiyume]

Agreed--I'm very grateful for the fact of it.

[sonia]

Best wishes to everyone with Henri! I'd forgotten about windy.com - so cool. Looks like there's a storm up in North Dakota right now too. And you can see the wind funneling down the Columbia River between Oregon and Washington, kindly keeping Portland clear of wildfire smoke.

Thanks for sharing the family stories! That world wind speed story is amazing. And I'm glad the falling pine passed by the house. I just read this post The Forest Fell describing a less happy outcome (people and pets were okay).

[asakiyume]

"The Forest Fell" looks like it will be sobering (I opened it and saw the photos but haven't read it yet).

I'm pleased you like windy.com too!

[sonia]

Yes, well-written and sobering. Feel free to skip it if that's not your thing right now.

[gale_storm]

Ah! Thank you for the reminding me of windy.com — where bookmarks sometimes go, I don’t know, but maybe they got caught up by the winds!

[pameladean]

OMG, Rope! You'll want it, if you haven't got it! A budding Sam Gamgee.

I'm so glad your dad could tell you those stories. That is just lovely.

P.

[asakiyume]

Hahaha, I forgot about that line of Sam's! That's a great thought, my uncle as a Sam Gamgee type.

He tells great stories, my dad does ^_^

[shewhomust]

I'm glad I wasn't the only one waiting for the Sam Gamgee reference -

But it's a great story in its own right!

[asakiyume]

I'm awfully glad Pamela was here to make sure it came up ^_^

[gale_storm]

Hee! Sam Gamgee was a fun and thoughtful hobbit!

[asakiyume]

Fun isn't the first adjective that comes to mind for me for Sam, but definitely thoughtful!

[pameladean]

I'm not sure why that line always stuck with me so, but it delights me. I guess it's just very Sam.

P.

[mallorys_camera]

That story of your father's is fabulous.

I was living on Long Island during Whatever-It-Was Sandy, and one of my cats—the cantakerous, practically feral Meezer—somehow slipped out the door, and I decided I had to rescue her, so I went after her. I could not believe the ferocity of the winds! Other-worldly. You're on your own, cat, I thought grimmly as I struggled the one-foot distance back into the house. But fortunately, she dashed in as well.

[asakiyume]

Thank you! I thought it was a fabulous story and had to share. Re: Whatever-It-Was Sandy, yikes! I've never actually felt winds that strong. Glad Meezer had the common sense to come back in.

The winds from Henri ended up being nothing to write home about, right? And yet when I went out to film the rain, a gust managed to not only catch my umbrella and turn it inside out, but to entirely dismember it! I mean, it ripped the cloth right off the spines! I've never seen such a thing. ... Resourceful Wakanomori collected the cloth and was able to put it back on again though, so *shrug* no lasting damage--just a dramatic scene.

[mallorys_camera]

The winds were so strong,. they ended up toppling half the trees on what the urban planners had designed as a tree-lined street.

I watched several of them crash down from an upstairs window.

Very surreal.

And we were without electricity for 10 full days. In the immediate New York City metropolitan area.

[asakiyume]

My experience with trees coming down like that was in an October blizzard in 2011. All night long, we could hear the trees cracking and falling. It was terriying. In the morning they were down everywhere, roads blocked. Very like a hurricane. We lost power, but only for about four days.

[wayfaringwordhack]

Thanks for sharing the link to windy.com; I didn't know that site before. Like you said, very pretty, and fascinating how the directions change the higher up you get!

Glad you are not in danger of the storm.

My first thoughts when reading the subject line were more about "rope to hang oneself" so I was quite glad the entry took a different turn. Exciting and much-more preferable. :P

[asakiyume]

Yes, fortunately it was helpful rope, not harmful rope! And I'm glad you enjoyed windy.com--so pretty!

[khiemtran]

What a great story! Glad you survived Henri...

[asakiyume]

Henri packed much less punch for us than predicted, which was a happy thing.