Flooding in Simmon’s parent’s neighborhood led to a mandated evactuation by the state of New Jersey. Having recently been allowed to return to their home, Simmon’s parents house was accessible by kayak due to the flooding. “It’s approximately a quarter of a mile away from my house and they kayaked a quarter of a mile to get into the area that my parents are in,” Simmons said.

– Courtesy of Van Simmons

Two weeks after Hurricane Irene hit the East Coast two Paly staff members — Chris Farina and Van Simmons — are still recounting the consequences of the storm.

Farina, a new psychology and world history teacher at Paly, traveled to Connecticut for a wedding and  hoped to return to California on Sunday, Aug. 28. However, he was unable to do so due to the storm. Through the media, Farina found out about the incoming hurricane and was thus able to stay informed about it.

“We picked up newspapers in town, and some people had smartphones that we could keep up to date with,” Farina said. “We heard that it was a Category 1 storm, and wouldn’t be hitting us directly, so we figured we’d probably lose power, which we did, and have some trouble driving home, which we did, but that there wouldn’t be any extreme damage, which there wasn’t. A lot of us had friends or family along the East Coast, though, so we were keeping in touch with them to see how they fared.”

After receiving information about  the impending hurricane, the airline which Farina was using quickly contacted him, letting him know that the flight had been cancelled.

“I flew on American Airlines, and I have to say they were wonderful,” Farina said. “They canceled my flight early, had a quick response time when I called to reschedule, it didn’t take long to get re-booked, and I was even able to get moved around to a slightly earlier flight that I was initially booked on.”

Early on during the weekend, Farina began to see an increase in rain and wind, caused by the hurricane.

“We started to see rain and wind on Sat evening, and it kept up through most of the night,” Farina said. “It was steady rain, probably six to eight inches in total, and the winds were supposedly around 35 mph. All the rivers were very full and rushing, and there were a lot of downed trees.”

The hurricane led to a brief loss of power thus making contacting Paly staff a challenge for Farina. However, once he was able to do so, Jaclyn Edwards, the instructional supervisor of the Social Studies department, was instrumental in finding a substitute for Farina as well as arranging lesson plans for the days he would miss.

“Fortunately I won’t have to change my teaching schedule much at all,” Farina said. ”I was able to call Jaclyn Edwards, though not for long, as we couldn’t charge our phones, our IS, and let her know what was happening. She arranged for lesson plans to be dropped off to the sub, with her contributing for my World History classes and Melinda Mattes contributing for my Psychology and Advanced Placement Psychology classes.”

Farina returned safely to California on Wednesday, Sept. 1.

“It was a beautiful wedding, and the weather held off long enough for the ceremony to be held outside,” Farina said.

Van Simmons, another Paly staff member who also felt the consequences of Hurricane Irene. Simmons’ parents were mandated to evacuate their home in New Jersey due to flooding caused by the hurricane.

“There was a mandatory evacuation,” Simmons said. “One of my best friends called me and told me an evacuation was about to happen and as soon as I got off of the phone with him I called my parents to let them know that they needed to get out of there. When I was on the phone with my mother, my friend showed up to help them leave the house.”

The town in which Simmons’ parents live began to flood shortly after they left their house.

“Basically, as my friend was getting there the streets were filling up with water,” Simmons said. “By the time they left there was probably already a foot of water in the road.”

The flooding affected many towns in New Jersey. However, Simmons’ parents were able to stay in a nearby town until they were allowed back into their home.

“Fortunate enough, my uncle lives in the same town and he was in the area that was unaffected by the flood and they were able to stay there,” Simmons said.

Simmons is currently in New Jersey assisting his parents with cleaning up and rearranging their home.

“My parents are older so they’re pretty upset,” Simmons said. “I’m going to New Jersey in a week. They were evacuated on Sunday and were just allowed into their house today. So you can imagine it’s a pretty big clean up.”