Hurricane Sandy: A Baltimore Perspective of Frankenstorm

I’m just going to go ahead and assume that you all know that Hurricane Sandy blew through the mid-Atlantic region yesterday and today… and is still on her path of destruction in New England as I type this. As a Baltimore resident, I have to say that I’ve been completely impressed and comforted by t.he preparedness, attention to detail, and information I received on a constant basis: Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, Gov. O’Malley, Sen. Cardin – thank you all.

Many in Maryland were hit hard and lost power, but I was was not one of them. Many are saying that Maryland was on the more “fortunate side of the storm,” and for that, I’m grateful. I don’t have official word on how our little beach town of Fenwick Island, Delaware fared, but these photos are pretty shocking and sad:

(All photos above courtesy of R. Chris Clark, Coastal Point. More photos here.)

Here is a picture of my neighborhood, Hampden, from Monday a.m., before things really got going:

And now? Thankfully, it looks pretty much the same, just with more leaves on the ground, and significantly wetter.

I prepped for Sandy by attempting to bake chocolate chip protein bars,

buying lots of wine (and chilling lots of beer),

and tidying up my backyard furniture:

I don’t know WHAT I did to those protein bars, but somehow I think the egg started to cook pre-baking because it looked like a souffle and tasted like GROSS NASTY EGGY EWW. Not at all like the cakey goodness that I had anticipated. Oh well. I did successfully recreate this recipe for sweet potato pancakes, via Daphne Oz and The Chew. I forgot to add carrots, but they still came out really well! I didn’t take a picture, though, because I was busy conserving power and instead focusing on capturing the leaks in my roof.

Yes. Plural.

LeakS.

Six of ‘em.

Here are some photos and one video from the first two leaks in my guestroom: