August 29, 2011

Irene. Is Riotously Evil Not Evaded.

Phew.


I'm so glad that last week and it's multitude of natural disasters is, well, so last week.

Earthquake+ Hurricane Irene+ Tornado Activity + Flooding... I'm really ready for some boring weather going forward for the rest of the year. All these kids going back to school are going to have some interesting fodder for their " How I Spent My Summer Vacation" essays.

It is with an amazing amount of relief that I can report we suffered no major damages during the storm to any of our properties. Some limbs down, major flooding in our backyards, and an actual swimming pool in one of our basements. I'll take it. We're safe, my family is safe and our home is intact.


Unfortunately, my current town did not handle the flood waters so well and two bridges washed out almost completely during the 16' creek surge we had at the during the first bands of the storm. We think the bridge washed out sometime around 1am, because at 11:30 when Pete and I took a stroll around the neighborhood during a lull in the storm, the bridge was still there and seemed solid. There was an insane amount of water rushing into the lake, but nothing that appeared to be destructive. It was during that stroll that we went to check on our backyard, which slopes down a bit towards a teeny little drainage stream, was then about 20' deep, 75' wide and 100' across of water.

The words "We're Effed" came outta out our mouths when we saw how high the water had risen. A whole multitude of gratitudes came forth for our deep property and small, sloping hill. Had we gotten the rain that was expected, which was a good 4-5" more, I have almost no doubt I'd be singing a different tune right now.


The rain let up and we (thankfully) did not end up effed by mother nature.

As for the actual storm itself, I slept through it. Like a log. In fact, it was the best night of sleep I've gotten in a while. All the stress of the preperation and anitcipation, combined with the adrenaline of area Tornado warnings just conked me out for the night. You should have seen me during the Tornado warning, I packed an essentials backback, laced up my Timbs and sat in the hallway for 15 minutes with the cat in one arm and dog on her leash like the paranoid freak that I am.

Hurricane season is so much more nerve wracking as an adult. I liked it better when a Hurricane was a potential day off of school.

2 comments:

  1. So glad you're ok and came through with minimal damage. I had to laugh at your comment about sleeping through it - I did the same and I am a paranoid freak about storms and knowing we were due for a glancing blow after it hit my family in NC and worried about the trees in my yard, etc., etc., I thought I would be up all night!

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  2. Try 5 adults, 1 toddler and 3 dogs in a small finished basement 6 hours. The hours in which said toddler should be sleeping but instead she is crying. Not something I want to do ever again.

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