Hurricane Irene 2011

Today, the sun is shining and it's beautiful.  This is a far cry different from how things looked yesterday.  Yesterday, it was rainy and windy, birds stayed in their nests, and the dogs stayed inside.  Yesterday, Hurricane Irene hit. 

I posted before that I really wasn't too concerned about things.  I'm definitely a take-things-as-they-come type of person when it comes to some things, and I just wasn't concerned about Irene.  The only thing I was really worried about was losing power, and I knew that we could make things work with that.

I was right about worrying about power.  We lost power around 11:00 am yesterday, and we were some of the first in the city without power.  Of course, we'd just started a load of laundry with the hopes of finishing it before power went out, so now we have a nasty, wet load of laundry sitting in a washing machine, waiting for power.  I'm pretty sure that load will be washed two or three times...or we'll go to a laundromat. 

You know what's nice about not living on a well, though?  WATER!!!  Growing up, whenever the power went out, we also lost water because the pump for the well required electricity.  It was so nice to still be able to wash dishes and use the bathroom and even shower (even if it was cold).  I know, what I'm thankful for today, and that's water!

The other thing I'm somewhat thankful for today is that the tornado last October took out all the trees we would have had to worry about during this storm.  We were not concerned about trees falling on our house or our cars because there just wasn't one close enough.  In fact, while this may not have been the smartest thing to do, at one point Hans and I sat on the front porch and watched the storm.  It was quite relaxing.  Other than that, we spend the day and evening reading, sleeping, and playing Jenga by candle light (with a small break for dinner with the neighbors provided by Chinese delivery).  It was very peaceful.

With light this morning, though, we can see all the damage the storm did.  Many trees lost branches, and plenty were simply uprooted.  At least three people lost their lives when trees fell on them, including on 11 year old boy.  Power is out throughout the city, but I've seen a few crews working hard to get them back up (and I've cheered them on).  While most houses were fine, some have simply been destroyed.

I feel really sorry for this family.

 Most of the damage, though, looks like this:

With all the rain, trees were simply uprooted.

My favorite road to run down has a green carpet.

For a while, some of these trees will be fun for kids to play on.

I'm not sure how it started, but this building actually caught fire yesterday, and apparently crews had a hard time putting it out.  It used to be a dry cleaners, so we're wondering if there were still chemicals inside.

All in all, we're happy and safe, and happy to be safe.  We're praying for families who weren't as fortunate, but we're also yelling at our mothers to stop worrying.  Really, we're just settling in for a few quiet nights.