Buffalo October 2006 Storm Gallery - Page 7

The Oberg family of hard-hit Chateau Terrace in Snyder started searching for a generator by phone after their power went out Thursday. "We called as far east as Rome, N.Y.," Ruth Oberg said. "When we found nothing there, we started calling west." The Obergs finally located a generator in Cleveland. "We bought it over the phone and went out to get it," she said. "We figured we'd go down and get the generator and the lights would be on when we got home," husband Dean said. But no. Along with their children Carrie and Jason, they were pulling maple tree boughs off the roof of their garage Sunday while the Ohio generator hummed in the background.

Looking back at Thursday night's storm, the Obergs recounted how they found all the devastation sadly fascinating. Dean Oberg and his family watched the large maple next to their house, which always kept its leaves late into the autumn, come apart piece by piece. "It was like it was disassembling itself," he said. At midnight Thursday, the family stood in the middle of the street - "the safest place to be," Ruth Oberg remarked - and just watched the branches fall one by one. "It was just "snap, snap, snap,' all night," she said. "It was a beautiful tree, and it's just a tall stump now," her husband said. "But we're totally grateful that nothing happened to the house."

The Obergs weren't the only ones traveling far and wide for heating equipment. Vivian Earl of Horseheads, near Corning, drove three hours Saturday to bring her son a kerosene heater. Standing outside Dwyer's Irish Pub in North Tonawanda midday Sunday, she recounted how before leaving her home, she met a man from Buffalo at their local Lowe's. "He was looking for generators," she said.

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The Eberhard and Mayer families, with five children between them, all 10 and younger, seemed relaxed Sunday as they faced entertaining the youngsters. "We've been watching movies," explained Abigail Eberhard, 7, big sister of Aaron, 11 months. "My dad hooked up the TV to another thingy that you plug in. We've been watching movies, but not TV shows."

"A generator," explained her mother, Arlene.

Across Roycroft Boulevard at the Mayer house, Carly, 10, Chelsea, 9, and Kayla, 7, spent the night playing Monopoly. They usually don't play board games, said their mother, Keri, but were enjoying the family time. "We had a camp-out in our family room," she said.

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