SuperStorm Sandy

As all have noted, we have had quite a week with Hurricane Sandy! We took many precautions to protect the Church property and I am very happy with the results. Our actions before & after the storm are listed below:

  1. The shutters on the Sanctuary windows were firmly fastened with cross braces so that the shutters could not vibrate loose. This protected both the shutters and the very fragile window sashes. Following the storm, all of the special braces were removed and stored for future use.
  2. Sump pumps were checked to be sure they were working properly before the storm and the basements were dry. Both sump pumps were recently replaced. Check valves were installed in the lines so that we do not waste energy with water in the lines flowing back into the sump pump wells. Fortunately, we had relatively little rain with this storm so the ground water that usually comes into the basements did not materialize. Good news for us during the extended power outage.
  3. The freezers were emptied and most of the frozen food was brought to our home to keep it frozen. We lost a few items which thawed on the first day of the power outage. Virtually all of the frozen goods were saved and have now been returned to the Church freezers.
  4. We had quite a few large branches come down from the tree by the shed and along the East berm in the North parking lot. All of this debris has been taken to Yorktown Recycling so the campus looks pretty good following this huge storm.
  5. The furnaces, circulators & copier were shut down during the power outage so that any power surges upon restoration of power would not affect the motors or electronics. Following restoration of power on Saturday morning, all was switched on again and no problems have shown up.
  6. We lost quite a few shingles and peak-caps on the roofs of the C/E bldg. and Fellowship Hall. Jose and I were able to replace all on Friday. No interior problems have been found since.
  7. We have had one of the 10 ft long copper leaders from the Sanctuary gutters come down during the storm. We tried to restore this leader, but could not do so safely. Therefore, our good friend, Tom Clemmens of Clemco Constrution, will reinstall this leader as soon as his emergency workload eases up.
  8. While not related to the storm, we have begun refinishing several of our offering plates which had gotten somewhat dilapidated. Those at the Service on Sunday may have notice our use of very old offering plates. This is the reason for using the old ones. Jose is doing a great job on these and we will have four of them restored by Sunday, 11/11. We plan to refinish all of the good offering plates.

 

We continue to strive to keep our facilities in top-notch shape. This takes a great deal of effort behind the scenes and we are indebted to all of those who help and those who bring problems to our attention. Our facilities are used by huge numbers of people each week as openness to the community is part of the Mission Work of our Church. Please let me know if anything looks amiss. We will try to correct problems immediately. Thanks! Dick Seymour, Chair of Operations & Facilities Coordinator

:)