Bethany Well

“You have been a refuge for the poor, a refuge for the needy in his distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat.”

~ Isaiah 25:4

The damage of yesterday’s storm seemed quite severe in various places in NJ. It was a quick storm with torrential rain and high gusts of wind. Theresa and I were at her mother’s place in North Arlington. As soon as we decided to leave, the rain started. I contemplated staying there and waiting it out. It looked like a hurricane [by NJ standards] was blowing outside. Nevertheless, I sloshed down the street to get the car, parked it in front of the house, walked the kids outside and then escorted Theresa to her seat. When I was putting Chloe down, a loud ‘CRACK’ resonated around me. I didn’t know where it was from, but I was pretty sure that a tree was about to fall on me.

We finally got in the car and thought we were safe. We drove past 3 houses and saw a downed tree branch. This was not a twig, but a large portion of the tree. As we turned on Ridge Road, we quickly realized how un-interesting that branch was… because we saw about 12 downed trees (!) along a portion of that road. I say ‘portion’ of that road, because the road was eventually blocked off because of a tree blocking half of the road. So we detoured down a side street, only to have to maneuver around another tree blocking that street. Finally, we made our way closer to Route 17. But as we were approaching Route 17, we saw a street light short circuit. Sparks flew out of the light with a loud buzzing sound.

When we made it to the ramp on 17, we were happy that we were past all of those suburban streets and onto the highway. But, then quickly, we had to avoid a tree that was blocking both lanes of the on ramp and had to get onto the shoulder to pass it. And then under one of the overpasses, we had to slodge through about 2 feet of water [kdoh, you know which overpass I'm talking about].

We arrived safe, secure and sopped. Besides from our clocks blinking 12:36am at 10:00pm, the damage was done.

This morning I received a phone call from Richie’s Day Care saying that Palisades Park is without power. Theresa called and said that some towns may be without power for days. I heard that Englewood Cliffs, Palisades Park and Cliffside Park is without power.

I’m just thankful that God was a shelter from the storm.

I hope that all of you are alright. What is the extent of the storm damage around your parts?

Written by: RjL on June 11, 2008.