After Irene passed

August, 2011.  Simsbury, CT

The internet service at The Consultant's house was not consistent, and with lots of little kids around, we weren't watching much of national news and weather.  But I'd been aware of Hurricane Irene as I drove north, and she'd hit the Outer Banks of NC on Aug 27th. 

Then the next day Irene plowed through Brooklyn, and started flooding all the rivers and low lying areas up into New England.

Many places had high winds and electric power outages.  That's what happened in West Simsbury, CT.

The only source of information, besides cell phones with limited batteries.

The power was out, it was daylight on the 28th, and the children were used to being entertained with TV's or computers.

So it was a challenge for the three adults in the house.  The Care Giver used her cell phone to talk or text other friends and relatives, trying to find an open Duncan Donuts, since we couldn't even make coffee.  Our crank powered radio had lots of options, but the weather reports didn't really say much that we wanted to hear.  The storm had passed just about dawn, when the power went out.  Some roads were flooded.  The thing that happens in these situations is that you never know how long it's going to last.  In this case, many people had a week without power, but we were lucky.

The Consultant after a couple of hours of no electrical power

By dusk, we decided to drive out and look around, finding very few places open due to no electricity almost everywhere.  One gas station looked open, I think, and by going near the airport we actually found a Duncan Donuts to have some bagels for supper.

We didn't really care what we looked like, since most of the mirrors at home didn't have power to see ourselves.

We went to bed pretty early that night.  And when we started hearing about the flooding in VT and NH, it seemed pretty surprising.  Our flooding had been such that a few streets were closed, but nothing like they had.

On Aug 29 I wrote to my friends:
<Yep, you were right about no electricity here...22 hours of it.

Not so bad except for 3 little girls who are used to being electronically entertained constantly.

Internet is low, so this is just to let you know I'm getting on the road again this morning.

<Sun is shining, and we're all hoping any flooding won't affect I-81, which I'll be on for the next day or 2.

<We didn't have any bad storm here, and only little bits of trees blew around.

<Thanks for your bubble of protection, which I know helped mine.

 

Next email, Aug 30, 9:40 am

<Hi girls...

<I'm having breakfast in bed (muffin and coffee- the free breakfast) in a motel (same one).  Yum.  Will get a shower and hit the road next.

<Just wanted to say how great it feels to be going home.  Even taking 2 days to travel the 850 miles is a good thing, for me to get used to being in a different place.

<The good ole irritable bowel syndrome roared it's ugly head again yesterday as I set out on the road.  It may be triggered just by the vibration of the car on the road.  Cause the minute I stop, watch out.  I've got about 1 minute to hit the toilet!  Made it just barely both times.  And then, whow, somehow that was all for yesterday!  I'm soooo grateful that the rest of the day, even with hourly stops just in case, that I didn't have any more attacks.

<Beautiful traveling weather.

<I may have said something yesterday about the towns that don't have elec.  I quickly learned that stopping at exits out in the rural areas was a mistake.  The weather channel/or radio said it could be next Mon till some will get elec, but towns will get it by Fri.  That was probably NJ or NY area.

<Now I've gone through Maryland, PA, and West Virginia...just barely touching some of them.

<There's no more rain forecast now. 80's for today all the way home.

I decided before leaving CT to skip going to DC.  Many people had evacuated the coast, and were probably jamming up the motels.  So it was unlikely that I could find one so that I could spend a day in museums.  That's got to wait for another trip. 

When I drove through cities on my way south, many exits were closed due to flooding of the streets under the interstate.  I was pretty naive about how hurricanes affected inland areas.  I kept feeling surprised that the storm had affected so many areas.  No electricity and flooding still from a storm that passed 2 days ago.  Later I found that northern New England had many more of these problems that lasted weeks.

My family has finally (a year later) stopped teasing me about how I come to town and bring storms. Maybe.