Hurricane

No, that’s not the disorder of my mind (which, as human minds go, is less tattered than usual these days). This is the railroad I take from my home in Warwick, NY to New York City, and to my other home in Washington, DC. After, that is, the tracks were destroyed by Hurricane Irene.

Maybe the hurricane is old news by now. But what happened to the railroad — New Jersey Transit’s Port Jervis line — is staggering. News reports said there were 1000-foot stretches that look like the photo, or worse. The trains won’t run again for months.

And the hurricane brought a plague I haven’t seen reported anywhere, not nationally or even locally — mosquitoes. Gigantic, relentless, after us day and night, indoors and out. I’m used to fighting a few of them off when I’m sitting outside at twilight. But clouds of them? In the morning? When I’m playing croquet with my ten and five year-old nieces, visiting over Labor Day?

Clouds of them would surround our car, as if they were trying to find their way in. Like hordes of zombies in a horror film! One morning, inside the car, I killed eleven of them.

Of course they hatched in all the water that got dumped on us. I’d swear we also had a rebirth of spring peepers, the little peeping frogs that come out in March and April. Don’t know if their life cycle really allows them to reappear after a hurricane, but I’d swear I heard them.

We lost power for nearly three days, had water damage inside our house. And Warwick suffered its worst flooding ever. Driving was an adventure. Which roads had collapsed? Which had flooded? We’d find ourselves blocked when we drove, even right in the center of town.

Here’s a photo I took on Lower Wisner Road, where we live. Maybe half a mile north of us. Water everywhere, on the road, and covering the fields on both sides. I called it Lake Wisner. Look carefully, and you’ll see Anne’s and my shadows down on the bottom, taking pictures of our new lake.

Which is back, today, after two more days of rain. Along with more water damage. No fun.