'Everybody Is Our Business'

David and Alice Schroeder of 290 Whalehead Road have had a full house this week. Two daughters – one from Vermont and one from Munich, Germany – and six grandchildren have been staying with them.

“We’ve had 10 in the house this week,” said Alice, who was accompanying her husband to the transfer station Tuesday to discard a load of brush left by Hurricane Irene.

That’s not all the hurricane left behind. It left a house with 10 people and no water or electricity. “You tend for forget how much we’ve come to depend on electricity,” Alice said.

And water. For the first day there was no way to flush, David said, until they reactivated an old spring, which now provides “gray water” for flushing and washing.

“But it’s been fun,” Alice said. “We’ve been playing board games at night. We’re using oil lamps.” During the day their very resourceful kids went to Esker Beach in Groton to take showers.

There was still no drinking water, but there were plenty of friends and neighbors.

“People have come by with bottles of water,” Alice said. One neighbor stopped by with some dry ice to put in the Schroeder’s freezer. “And there have been calls to check on us and make sure we’re all right,” she said. “We feel so together.”

Which, many would agree, is all a part of the hurricane experience in New England and elsewhere. “Suddenly we have something in common with people we’ve never talked to before,” David said.

“New Englanders tend to just go about their business,” Alice said. “But now everybody is our business.”