Just got power back yesterday here at my job out in Eastern Suffolk... We didn't get hit as bad - winds topped out at 80mph, and we are 10 mi from the ocean. However, my parents house was 6" from being flooded - we could hear the water gurgling under the house. The winds were shaking the house, at which time I told everyone to get the f out of there. I left my truck, my CJ7 (with 25k original miles on it), GPR, and SJ there, along with a 7000w diesel generator we borrowed from the neighbor.
Needless to say, when I got home, my housemates said I looked like I'd seen a ghost.. I explained the situation to them.. And, they jumped up and went down there to salvage whatever we could. We pushed the CJ across the street to 1' higher of elevation, parked my truck there, lifted the SJ into a 4' space between same neighbors house and shed, and tied my GPR to a small tree. Also pushed my mothers RIB to the same place.
Then, my roomies said it's time to gtfo of there.. As we were leaving, and wading across the 4' of rushing water at the end of the block (the bay met the small protected harbor behind our peninsula of a road), I bumped into my cousin and his friend.. I told them what was going on, and his friend defiantly said, "F this, the generator is still good right? Your truck is still good - but you might lose both of them.. Let's take a shot at driving it across". I was really against the idea, but my cousin has had OBS Chevys for ages, and knows them very well. The intake being above the right wheel, I figured why not.
My roomies bailed, and this guy Brett, whom I barely know, jumps out of the truck and starts walking down the street - that has no less than 1.5' of water the whole way down. We took this small sailboat of ours (a bathtub boat as we call it), and walk it into the garage, lift the 350+lb generator into it, and walk it to my truck. Heavy lifting with 80mph winds at your back is quite interesting, adrenaline kicks in and you suddenly become he-man. We got the generator into my truck, and he says, let's take the ski on the trailer (GPR). We tie it down to the trailer so it doesn't float off as we're fording the river (see Oregon Trail), and head on our way.
This guy climbs up and sits on my window, spotting the whole way out, "Faster, slower, left, right, straight" the whole way down... Needless to say, we made it through, and have some crazy ass stories, and pictures/videos after the whole ordeal. It is such an eerie feeling looking in the rear view window to see your waverunner floating, and rocking back and forth as you drive... And all I thought all night long was, "Man, I can't believe I didn't take the SJ, what the hell was I thinking..." Bruceski built my sj as I'm not quite the master builder I hope to be one day, and the ski rips, and is great to me. To my defense, the SJ is on a beach cart, and the GPR was on the trailer.
Here is my truck mid-pass, as photographed by my cousin's potatophone:
Here is the video from my parents deck:
http://youtu.be/ALjiqFd-LVQ
We were extremely lucky... So very, extremely lucky..