Come on Irene

So I am an East Coaster.  (Do you think I shouldn't have capitalized East and Coast?  I have trouble with capitalization.  Sorry.  I'm going with it.  How do you feel about me interrupting my first paragraph with a dialogue with myself?  Strange?  I agree)
Moving on.

I am an East Coaster, so Hurricane Irene was definitely a concern.  We were in the projected path of destruction, and even though I am not typically too nervous about natural disasters (because they aren't too common here), I like to be prepared.  Apparently everyone else in the state of NY felt the need to buy D batteries too.  How come D batteries are so hard to come by during natural disasters?  Flashlights.  That's why.

From now on I think I will buy D batteries well before a natural disaster.

So anyway, immanent flooding and hurricane winds and all of the bad stuff that comes with that was what we were facing, and it was all over the news for days.   We live along the Hudson river, so flooding was a real concern.  My home is out of the way of the flood zone, way up on higher ground, so I wasn't concerned about flooding from the river.  We had our generator gassed up and ready to go as needed though.  In case of a power failure, my sump pump would definitely stop pumping, and my basement would absolutely flood.  And Cod help me, that is where my kid's personal disaster area playroom is.  All of their toys and dolls and games and barbies and hmm.  A flooded basement could mean a forced purge...

After the worst of the rain, the tide began to rise and that made things obviously worse.  Several houses were seriously damaged.  River water literally flowing in their front doors.  Bridges were flooded over, cars were stuck and had water up to their windows.  Crazy stuff.  It was definitely the worst flooding that I have ever seen in this town.  And I am pretty much a lifetime member of the townie club.  Thankfully, most people and businesses around here were pretty safe and prepared.

I cannot take credit for these photos and unfortunately I am not sure who's they are, but they are images from the next town over

I can't say the same for some other towns close by.   One town in my county literally lost their entire main street.  Another, lost school buses and fire trucks, roads collapsed, homes destroyed, bridges washed away.  It was kind of unreal around here.  Pretty devastating actually.  It's been shocking to see some of the pictures, hear some of the stories.  The worst stories involve people who didn't have flood insurance, or sump pump failure riders. 

So odd, today, as I sit writing this post, the sun is shining, the grass is green, the kids are outside riding their bikes.  It's hard to believe that just 24 hours ago, we were buckling down waiting to see what this storm was going to deliver.