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This past week was a very interesting one with Hurricane Irene slamming into the eastern seaboard and locally my hometown in New Jersey. I did not sleep more than two hours the night the hurricane was supposed to hit, not that I was nervous or scared but very curious in that the local television stations had stopped showing anything other than news and hurricane reports for the previous 36 hours before the storm was supposed to be here. I did not think of evacuating my family since major disasters rarely strike where I live, but we did buy water and extra food just in case things got bad. As the storm came barrelling up the coast I was amazed at the projections of rain that was supposed to fall in our area and by 7 am Sunday morning the weather was getting very bad. I walked out of my house and saw a small river rushing by. I ran back in and checked the basement but the walls and the floor were dry, fortunately I live at the top of a hill. The storm ended about 11 am and I walked out and started to see that everyone was not as fortunate as my family. Half of my street had no power and down near the bottom of the hill, homes were flooded up to six feet of water in some homes, including my wife's sister. They were in the Hamptons for the weekend so I went to their house, took some amazing pictures and emailed them. There was massive amounts of water throughout the town with many businesses still repairing the damage a week later. I thought to myself that this storm was a blip compared to Katrina and yet my neighbors were feeling just as much despair with the loss of heirlooms, toys and a feeling of security that this New York City suburb seems to feel is its birthright. At 3 pm the storm hit my home as the rest of my street lost power and the alert came out that the water treatment plant had been hit and all water must be boiled before consuming. As night fell so did the realization that we were not getting power back, but no one knew for how long. I packed up the kids and took them to their grandparents who still had power and came home to a dark and lonely home. As I looked out of my home it was pitch black, except for the flashlights you could see in each persons homes. I started to eat food that I thought would go bad and sure enough was throwing the remnants out the next day. Five days later and the power is back on for most and the water is consumable for all. My kids start school this week and for me it is time to get back to what I love to do and that is study market action, teach and trade. A few things I learned from this experience are 1) you can never be prepared enough, 2) get a generator and 3) truly enjoy the creature comforts we take for granted.
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