RSS

Good Night, Irene

What do you do with a house full of guitars and a hurricane? Throw them all in the old Volvo wagon and evacuate? The amps too? I live right on the coast of Connecticut and right now they are predicting that the storm will make its next landfall on Long Island, New York and make a quick trip across Long Island Sound and hit coastal Connecticut where I and my family (and my guitars) live. At high tide. With a new moon. I, for one, think that the news departments of all the TV stations intentionally turn it into a bigger news story than it is. I worked at local news in New York in the 70’s and 80’s and I know how it works. If the story isn’t huge, then nobody watches your show. Also, the commercial stations stay on the air all day and get more exposure than usual and probably more revenue. So, the “better safe than sorry” news reporting has us evacuating and preparing for a 14 foot high tide. My house is built at 12 feet which is the exact height of the storm surge in The Great New England Hurricane of 1938. That was a Category 3 storm which hit at high tide on a full moon with wind gusts recorded of over 180 miles per hour. In contrast, the “storm of the century” that the media is hyping right now is a Category 1 and will likely be a tropical storm by the time it reaches my guitars. Wind gusts and sustained winds are already less than half of the ’38 storm. So, I’m not going anywhere. I brought in the patio furniture and the boats (it’s just a canoe and a kayak) and sandbagged the garage door. My wife, who is a bit of a worrier, has put me on “better safe than sorry” patrol bringing the antique furniture up to the second floor. I was annoyed that she fell for the old hype but, to be fair, if my guitars lived on the first floor, I probably would have brought them upstairs, too. Better safe than sorry. Tune in tomorrow for full coverage of the storm and its aftermath. If it gets too bad, I’ll lash myself to a pair of 335’s and my wife to a couple of SGs and float to safety. I can see it now. For Sale: ES-335 near mint with minor water damage.

2 Responses to “Good Night, Irene”

  1. RB says:

    Hopefully CG you made it thru the storm without too much fuss. Beware “Hotel Le Gouge”.

  2. OK Guitars says:

    It was a bit scary to see the tide rise about 8 feet in about 2 hours. the house is built at the height of the 1938 Hurricane (Cat 3) that wiped out most of the New England coast. The water missed my first floor by 18 inches.

Leave a Reply

Optionally add an image (JPEG only)