Eight Days Down In The Moe

It's been almost two weeks since I had occasion to post something here, other than updating a posting about Bob Ross that I had started just before my power went out.  Part of that is because that power (and thus my home internet connection) stayed off until just a few days ago.  The few times I was able to get access at my brother's house I used the limited time online for school business and some direct correspondence with friends.  The other part is that I had a major job to deal with, and it's not quite done yet.

With the storm approaching I took what precautions I could for my art.  Went into the Studio to make sure all my blocks were protected in plastic and up on my table, just in case the surge breached our building.  Also protected framed work in my apartment, again wrapped in plastic and moved away from windows.  However the largest amount of art and related materials I have is still in my former studio, the basement of the family home in Manasquan.  The basement has a history of minor floods under extreme weather conditions, so I had a history of keeping all my art stuff off the floor.  Framed work (large individual pieces and shipping boxes of series work) on a high shelf or on my work table, and assorted large prints in folders, along with all the blocks that predate my Ocean Grove space, on shelves at least a foot above the floor, higher than any flooding I'd ever seen there.  Last year we had Hurricane Irene come right up the coast, and the house survived just fine- no floods, and only losing power for a few hours.

The basement had a lot of other stuff, too.  Much of what was emptied out of the house in Bloomfield ended up in the basement, on every other surface, or just in boxes stacked in every bit of spare space.  Plus stuff left behind by many other family members who have lived in the house over the years.  The basement also included a rudimentary bathroom (toilet, sink, shower stall) that was very popular before a second bathroom was put in on the main floor.  This basement facility (particularly that toilet) was known as "Uncle Moe" a reference to a long story of my grandfather's, previous owner of the house.

On Monday, October 29th, Hurricane Sandy charged up the Atlantic coast, as predicted, then combined with two other weather systems (from the west and north), and took a hard left right into the New Jersey coastline.  Around 2 pm, long before the storm made landfall, my power went out.  In the early evening I got frantic call from my mother- the storm surge overwhelmed the town's sewer system, and now a mix of sewage and storm water was pouring out of that basement toilet and beginning to fill the basement.  And there was nothing anyone could do about it.  It eventually rose about 2 feet.

The storm absolutely devastated the shore towns.  Boardwalks were ripped up, many buildings partly or completely destroyed, trees and power lines down on almost every block.  It was a few days before I could even make the three mile trip down to Mansquan to inspect the damage.  By then a plumber had removed the useless toilet, so that hole now became a floor drain, and the flooding had settled down to a few inches.  Thus began my new job, cleaning out that basement.

Along with my father, brother, and sometimes his wife, I spent hours each day down in that mess, hauling our anything solid enough be carried up the stairs, and bagging up everything else.  Anything that had been under water was contaminated, and had to go.  Most of that time we just had whatever light leaked through the windows, so we had to quit each day by late afternoon.

As I said, that basement was pretty full.  We removed an old washer and dryer, a couple of refrigerators, and lots of furniture.  My hardware store owning grandfather had left behind paints and related chemicals going back decades, along with hundreds of feet of various lumber.  All went up the stairs or out the window.  Also decades worth of family keepsakes were destroyed.  Unfortunately, a significant amount of my art stuff was also under water long enough to be damaged beyond saving, but I'll address that in the next post.

By my count, I spent parts of 8 days working down there.  I had one day off from the basement this week, when one of my schools actually managed to open for a couple of days.  Taught a class and got home just ahead of a snowstorm that knocked out power again to some recently restored areas.  The lights finally came on yesterday, just in time for a professional cleaning crew to come in a scrub down the now empty basement.  Today I got to spend the day outdoors, reorganizing the junk piles on the front lawn into categories (construction materials, household trash, paints and solvents, saturated cardboard and paper) for eventual pick up by the town.

Naturally, my only art related activity this week was dealing with the art I had in the basement.  What had survived the flood was secured in place or relocated to my home or the Studio (neither of which had any storm damage).  The rest is in piles on the front lawn.  I only got electricity back a few days ago myself, so after my days in the basement, I had nights of candles and flashlights back home, so working on woodcuts was out of the question.  However, things are slowly returning to normal.  Power is on, all my schools are open next week, and it looks like we may even hold our traditional critique group for anyone who can make it.  It will be nice to make some art, instead of throwing it away.