Hi all, glad to hear that no one has had any catastrophic events. Irene may not have had the "normal" destruction that comes with high wind, but the rain surely made up for it.
My power finally came back late today (Thursday) and I quickly emptied out anything that was suspect from the freezer, started a load of wash, took a shower and had my first hot meal in 5 days. Then booted up my Mac. :-)
Our immediate neighborhood was mostly affected by the heavy rains (around 8" locally) and of course no power since Saturday night. Normally where I live is very quiet but the past few days it roared from the sound of generators. I think I was the only one on my block without one. The towns nearby that usually suffer flooding did so and many roads were closed due to trees down as well. It's sad to see the streets lined with household belongings at the curb and the brown silt lines delineating how high the water rose in various areas. Many people lost a lot and I feel fortunate for only having to
rough it for 5 days. One good thing about hurricanes is that they occur when the weather is warm so heat was not a consideration as it is with blizzards or Nor Easters in cold weather.
My pine trees stayed upright and weren't blowing as much as they do during winter storms. I realized the even taller deciduous trees were buffering the wind and they were the ones I needed to worry about this time.
There were some serious gusts that had me cringing and moving to the other side of the house from the wind direction.
Most amazingly the battery powered backup sump pump actually kept up with the near continuous flow for hours and then it slowed to coming on every few minutes and finally only a few times an hour by Monday aft. I couldn't believe it would last that long. I kept blowing it kisses and vocally praising it every time I went down in the basement.
Had battery bubblers for the fish tanks so they were OK but I didn't feed the fish to help keep the water clean. Went out on Tuesday to get ice for the freezer and try to find more batteries but there wasn't a D battery to be found for miles in the stores that were open (even Home Depot was cleaned out) and traffic was unreal with the limited routes available. So I made do with candles and a couple smaller flashlights taped to a jungle pith helmet, like a miners' hat. Worked great and they used AA batteries which I had in abundance.
Our town used taped messages (keep your landline and a wired phone folks!) to keep us informed. Yesterday they reported that it took much effort from the Warren police and "elected officials" to get the power company to send some of the out of state linemen to our town. One of the trucks my neighbor saw was from Missouri. They also notified us that a nearby YMCA was open and offered residents the opportunity for showers and the town had a spigot available for fresh water near the municipal building. I had put aside enough drinking water and used the sump water for the toilet. Food was not my usual diet without the ability to cook but I didn't starve. One thing I really craved was a hot cup of tea.
Dad didn't get the brunt of the storm and only got an inch or two of water in part of the basement which his little portable pump took care of. My sister was with him so I didn't feel bad about not being there. They never lost power of course since they have a full house generator which comes on automatically.
One thing I discovered was the paucity of decent radio to which I normally never listen. Most of the talk is controlled by the extremes of the political process and it was hard to find something interesting to listen to other than music.
Back to the folks' house tmrw but I hope to be able to check in more often at TS in the future though my sleep/wake hours are not what they used to be.
Take care out there.
