New York - Stocking up on emergency supplies, food and storm-proofing windows had kept former KwaZulu-Natal man Paul van Essche, and his family busy for the past 48 hours.
Van Essche lives in Westchester County, 40km north of New York City.
“The good part about a pending storm is the excuse to get cool stuff you wouldn’t normally buy… I bought a 40-foot [12m] ladder, a chainsaw, a hard hat, some huge tarpaulins, ropes and a bunch of other sundries that helped to max out my Visa card,” said Van Essche, a self-employed management consultant for international organisations and non-profit bodies.
The tarps, he said, were to use over the roof because the tar tiles had started flying off, even though the area had not been experiencing especially strong winds at the time.
“Also, we have some huge trees within damage distance, so the chainsaw might come in handy, even if only for clearing the yard after the event.
“My golf rain-gear has been excellent for ventures out, as the rain has been coming down for a while now, and the wind is really picking up,” he told the Daily News on Tuesday.
“Although the predicted path changes by the minute, it seems at the moment that the worst will skirt around us, although that means we’ll get winds of up to 50 miles per hour [80km/h] instead of 70 [over 110km/h],” he said. “The storm is so wide that people all along the eastern seaboard will be affected.”
Worcester-born Van Essche, brought up in Eshowe, has lived in the US for almost five years. He said the area had been fortunate enough to have not lost power or phone service. “We’ve managed to keep our friends and family informed of what’s been happening.”
Having power, he said, had made the storm easier to bear.
Van Essche said he and his family had slept in one room on Tuesday – not on the upper floor where the bedrooms were, as they would have been more vulnerable to a falling tree.
“It howled like hell until the early hours, then dropped to nothing more than breezy, and the scene here is best described as extremely scruffy,” he said.
“All the autumn leaves that were on the trees are now on the ground, as well as a ton of small branches, and a few larger ones.
“One very large tree on the edge of the forest that could [just] have hit the house came down, but fortunately fell the other way. Several medium-sized trees are also down, but none in our yard; one of them right next door just missed the neighbour’s car.
“
And as if on cue, the sun had just come out,” he said. “Time to start raking.”
Meanwhile, International Relations and Co-operation Minister, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane said consular officials were ready to lend assistance to South Africans overseas.
Daily News