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TracyQ
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| Posted: Oct 16 2006 at 8:47am | IP Logged
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 We live in Amherst, NY, a suburb of Buffalo, NY, which was hit with a horrible storm on Thursday evening. Over 400,000 people were without power, and there are still at least 200,000 people without power today. Schools are closed all week, and people are really having a difficult time. We could really use prayer. Amherst, where we live is the hardest hit. We lost 1/3 of our huge maple tree, which is now all over our yard and on our house and garage roofs in huge limbs. This is the worst natural disaster we've ever had here, and in terms of electrical and outside damage,it's jaw dropping!
Below is an update I wrote for a couple of my email lists, with some specific need for prayer. We'd appreciate ANY prayer you could offer up for this area. I'm just so saddened by the change in the landscape of our area. Tops of trees just snapped like twigs. All night we heard.....crack....whish.....thump. It was just the eeriest, most awful sound we ever heard. All of our trees still had the leaves, so the heavy snow just brought down huge limbs, causing downed power lines everywhere. It's just completely unbelievable, and we're all in a state of shock, and emotional sadness and frustration right now. Any prayers would be helpful and appreciated so much. Thank you, and God bless you.
Tracy Q.
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Hi Friends! :o)
Here’s the latest update. Well, it’s sunny here in Amherst, NY. for now, which is helpful. But rain is coming, and that’s going to make the cleanup extra difficult, especially for the electric people trying to restore power. :o( We had apx. 400,000 people without power, and now that’s been cut down to about 200,000 from what I’ve heard this morning, so that’s a positive thing.
Our schools in the area have closed for the entire week due to many reasons………..food spoiling in the school, fire alarms not working in the schools, no power in many schools, safety of the kids walking to the bus stops, the buses not being able to get down the streets, etc. etc. etc. I told our kids they can have today off, but we need to get back to school tomorrow, because otherwise our Christmas and Easter vacations would have to be lessened, and they won’t be happy at that point. So they’re not happy, but hopefully are understanding.
I’m not sure if Jake will have his PSAT on Wednesday morning, or if it’ll be postponed. I’m guessing it’ll be postponed, but we’ll have to see. He’s supposed to take it at an Amherst school, but a Christian one, and I don’t know if they are off all week as well or not. I’m a bit stressed about that. Marty took off of work today and he and the boys are beginning the clean up outside. My brother is supposed to come today with his chain saw after helping another friend to allow us to borrow his chain saw. I’m hoping he’s going to stay and help too, but I’m sure he has his own clean up at home too. :o( Ugh and sigh.
Everyone here in the area (including us) are trying to keep our chin up, and keep a good attitude, but I must admit, this is getting difficult as the time goes on. This is the worst natural disaster we’ve ever seen. The Blizzard of ’77 was very bad, but the devastation wasn’t like this, so this is more reminiscent of nothing we’ve ever endured before. We do have power crews from all over the East who’ve come in to help, and we’re so grateful. They’ve interviewed some of them, and they said this devastation (electrically) is more like a hurricane or tornado, and one of the worst in terms of devastation that they’ve ever seen. What’s heartwarming is that many have said that when others have natural disasters, our area is always there to help, so they wanted to return the favor. I thought that was heart warming.
Last night we went to Mart’s brothers, and the family was all together. Mart’s poor brother Paul and his wife and family have no power (and four kids). You can see the exhaustion and frustration in their face. They’re considering traveling to family in Rochester until power comes back on, because living without power for so long is truly difficult. People are losing all of their food, flooding in their basements, exhaustion from clean up outside, and some destruction to their homes. I know things are just things, but people are taking a huge loss financially right now, and all built up, honestly, this is truly hard for everyone. I am most concerned about our elderly, and those with medical problems. There are many who can’t even get to the shelters easily because of the streets. There are some crews transporting people, but waiting is hard. I know my poor mom in law is so cold. She was so happy to be in a warm house for awhile last night. People are going to malls, etc. to spend time in warmth.
It’s really hard emotionally too. We’re in a pretty good situation inside, but not good outside of our home. But looking out at the landscape just breaks my heart. When we went to Mart’s brother’s yesterday my jaw was literally dropped looking at the devastation. It is completely unbelievable…..truly takes your breath away as you see your neighborhood flooded with HUGE limbs across entire streets that are blocked, and power lines hanging everywhere. It’s dangerous! I’m extremely concerned about my boys (all three of them) with this clean up, and even the danger of doing that clean up in our own backyard). :o( I think it’s starting to take its toll on everyone both physically and emotionally at this point. If you feel you can pray for this area, we really do appreciate it. Here are the biggest concerns to pray for:
*SAFETY for those working on power lines, and those cleaning up with chainsaws, those using generators, and thing they’re not used to using. Safety for those driving where traffic lights are out (almost everywhere).
*Power to those who have none
*Physical and emotional healing and rest
*Financial help for those who will be affected by this (almost everyone one way or another, but some more than others)
*Prayer for those families who’ve lost loved ones because of this storm, and healing for those who are hurt, aching, and exhausted.
*Prayers for our leaders to all work together for the good of all to get our area back on track.
I honestly can’t keep up with my lists right now, and it’s frustrating me not to be able to reply to everyone, so I’m going to be mass deleting. I’ll read those messages that seem really important (prayer requests, etc.). PLEASE KNOW that you are all in my thoughts and prayers, and in my heart, and thank you for being such treasured friends! :o) I’ll update as I can.
With Love,
Tracy
__________________
Blessings and Peace,
Tracy Q.
wife of Marty for 20 years, mom of 3 wonderful children (1 homeschool graduate, 1 12th grader, and a 9th grader),
 homeschooling in 15th year in Buffalo, NY
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JennGM
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Prayers for your area, Tracy.
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Jennifer G. Miller
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Rebecca
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I'm praying too, Tracy.
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Cay Gibson
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Prayers for all of you, Tracy.
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Cay Gibson
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JSchaaf
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You have our prayers. My mom and dad live just 60 miles south of Buffalo (still on the lake) and got NO snow. Incredible. I went to college in Buffalo and remember how bad it can get.
Jennifer
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Mary G
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Tracy,
Prayers for you and the area....
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MaryG
3 boys (22, 12, 8)2 girls (20, 11)
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kingvozzo
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Tracy, your intentions are in my prayers.
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Noreen
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Dawn
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Tracy, we will remember you and your community in our prayers.
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Dawn, mum to 3 boys
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MaryM
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We've been victims of an early heavy snow like this before. It really takes a toll on the trees and power lines. I know that scary middle of the night cracking sound and fear that one is coming through the rood at any minute! We'll pray it clears quickly and with as little flooding damage as possible.
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Mary M. in Denver
Our Domestic Church
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stefoodie
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Praying for all of you, Tracy.
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stef
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Taffy
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Keeping you all in my prayers, Tracy
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Susan
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Michaela
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Praying here, Tracy!
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Michaela
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Erica Sanchez
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Praying for you, Tracy, and all the folks in your area.
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Have a beautiful and fun day!
Erica in San Diego
(dh)Cash, Emily, Grace, Nicholas, Isabella, Annie, Luke, Max, Peter, 2 little souls ++, and sweet Rose who is legally ours!
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Angel
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Oh, definitely prayers! We've been following the situation out west  .
--Angela (near Albany, NY)
Mom to 3+2 
Three Plus Two
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Bridget
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I'm praying, I knew about the snow but had no idea it was such a disaster. I'm so sorry.
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God Bless,
Bridget, happily married to Kevin, mom to 8 on earth and a small army in heaven
Our Magnum Opus
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Dawnie
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Tracy,
We had a really bad ice storm that caused lots of damage and power outages about 18 months ago, so I know how frustrating this can be. I had to stay w/ my in-laws for several days as we had no power or heat for about 3 days. Dh stayed in our house running a propane heater to keep the pipes from freezing. There were limbs everywhere for weeks and weeks after the storm.
We will be praying for things to return to normal soon in your area.
Dawn
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TracyQ
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| Posted: Oct 18 2006 at 7:39am | IP Logged
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UPDATE on us:
We're doing Ok here ourselves. The area is very slowly coming back, but it'll take quite a bit of time. My mom and sister have power now (thank the Lord), but my mom in law still doesn't as of yesterday. I'll call her later. But my sister in law was coming with a generator.
We still have half power, and it'll be awhle because it's one of our power lines on the ground causing it. We have one line up, but there's a branch on it (and we're concerned about losing the half power we have), and one is totally down, causing our half power loss. Nights are dark, and days have been dark with rain and cloudiness. It can get a bit discouraging and frustrating, but we are BLESSED, and have it SO much better than most, so we're GRATEFUL.
This is our 4th day off of school, and I'm going to have to adjust our schedule and take some vacation away. With the half power, we're very concerned our power could go off at any time, and we are using the computer only for a few minutes at a time, just in case. Most of Jake's schoolwork is on the computer, so we don't want to chance it. Plus yesterday and today it's just been too dark to even do school, even in the day.
I'm hoping that I can figure out what we can do without computer, and to plug along tomorrow, even if we have to use candles and flashlights to do school. I want to start again by tomorrow, and try to get us back into more of our routine, so we can feel normal again. Thankfully, we don't have to boil our water for cooking, drinking, and washing dishes anymore!
We're down to less than 100,000 without power now, I think, and that's significant improvement from 400,000 on Friday! So little by little we're coming back here in Western New York, and we do treasure and covet your prayers, thank you so much! 
God bless!
Tracy
__________________
Blessings and Peace,
Tracy Q.
wife of Marty for 20 years, mom of 3 wonderful children (1 homeschool graduate, 1 12th grader, and a 9th grader),
homeschooling in 15th year in Buffalo, NY
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Victoria
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keeping you and your community in our prayers Tracy
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shartlesville
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Praying!
Blessings,
Krisann
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MaryMary
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Praying here!
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Mary
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4Real Forums : We Pray to the Lord
Topic: Need prayer for our area...Buffalo, NY...
