Hurricane Irene

[Judi]

It's starting to rain here in Schenectady NY. We are expecting heavy rain after midnight and tomorrow along with winds possibly gusting to 60 miles per hour. We took in all lawn furniture, bird-feeders, etc. I also brought in all my chids (in pots), man what a job, didn't realize how many I had! But it had to be done, can't take any chances. This is the first tropical storm for me. Can't say I am worried, we are not in a valley nor are we near a creek or river and I don't think we should be flooded. But I expect trees will be blown down and I have no doubt there will be a lot of power outages. I just hope the trees will avoid our house. I hope everyone in Irene's direct path and flood prone areas manages to be safe! If we are lucky, Irene will loose strength quickly.

[RJSquirrel]

all in all I feel you guys up there have been really lucky. It doesn't look so bad as it did when it started. BUT if you are one of the million(+) people with no power, its going to be a long weekend.

If that storm had sat in the gulf of mexico it would have filled the gulf and become a 3 or 4 category very easily. Thank your cold deep water shoreline for breaking it up. Tornadoes everywhere are just another side effect of these storms. Its kind of odd watchin the news and not being threatened. The last 3 storms I dealt with were Katrina, Rita and Ike.
Katrina left a different kind of mess in Houston thats still here, excuse me... please. Rita wacked Beaumont area pretty hard and Ike was a direct hit on Houston. and MRE'S ugh... Yes we had them too and started to pick the cookies and crackers out of them.. Those things are freeking horrible gummy sticky glutenous mess of something thats only kin to being edible. I learned to like bread and cheese spread. After about a week I just wanted some donuts and milk

But goodness there so many more people per square mile up there its going to get tough before its all over and done...

The water is rising...Dont play in it please you have to idea how nasty that water is. I see people on the news out swimming and playing in it. They get a mouth full of brown trout or fresh squeezed walnuts 'n' they wont be doing anything but making a trip to the emergency room. No telling whats floated in with that stuff or floating in it still. Stay out of the water if you can and indoors safe from it all if at all possible. These storms are sneaky and even if they are small they cause GREAT human issues behind there wake.. Its just starting

[Paul Mc]

WOW, so glad to hear people here have been safe. Hope all friends and family remain so through this.

BTW, is it just me or does it seem like the weather patterns have shifted a bit more northern this year? It was hotter in my city in Missouri than it was in either Playa del Carmen, Mexico or Bermuda this summer. We also had our August weather in July. Not to mention the increased number of massive tornadoes. I don't really recall many hurricanes going this far north, just the rainfall and some winds. Perhaps I'm just imagining it, lol...

[Connie Star]

Well Irene is mostly over here in the Connecticut River valley in Western MA. Immediately around my town is not too bad, but 10-15 miles from here it is awful, mostly because of so much rain. Southern Vermont is a mess- they didn't think they could get hit and now whole towns are inundated. We never even lost power so we are very, very lucky.

[RJSquirrel]

water indeed. you think ah man the wind is gone its over then the water keeps rising and rising and rising..

Good deal Connie you were in the safe zone you have chosen your homestead well..Watch your home value rise with the insurance now to pay for the damage all around you ..

Im telling ya lets see how the insurance companies do for you all. How many ways they can find to weasel out of paying for damages. People still fighting in Texas to get paid for crap that is still destroyed from over 2 years ago.

And Watch out Texas, its been so hot here we are ripe for a "Big Un" to come out of the gulf and swamp us again.

Lots of mom and pop orchid houses are done on the east coast. All I can think about now are all them orchids out there floating around. These people lose their business in storms like this dont often re open when they get paid..They freeking move to Hawaii or are just done with it.
Still thinking of you all and my heart goes out to you for your pain. I would take it all from you if I could and pass it on thru my genes to my progeny.

[Judi]

We made out OK, but down hill wasn't so lucky! We lost power Sunday morning and it just came back on this afternoon. Power failures are getting really old, although, they are almost always in the winter. The ground was so wet the trees just uprooted taking down power lines. Monday we couldn't get out of our development--roads closed due to downed trees. GE which is about 2 miles downhill was evacuated--it took my son 45 minutes to get home. The historic Stockade on the Mohawk river is totally flooded, highest flood on record. Two locks were washed out, the Schoharie river flooded out a lot of people including people that were never flooded before with barns, houses and bridges washing away. Since we couldn't watch the news and I read the paper electronically, I am just beginning to get an understanding of the severity of this storm. We are grateful to be without damage, but feel really bad for others who were less fortunate!

[vandagirl]

Glad to hear everyone is ok. Flooding is never nice ofcourse, but at least no one got hurt.

[RosieC]

Glad you made it through OK Judi

[camille1585]

Me too, glad you're OK Judi!

I finally got some news from all my very close friends over in CT along the shoreline. No damage despite all the trees, and no flooded basements. My best friend's father was saying that it wasn't as bad as the regular 'hurricanes' (ie, the nor-easters or early spring storms.) Spoken like a true New-Englander! Of course they were lucky to be not right along the coast because southern Fairfield got quite a beating. Several houses collapsed during the post Irene storm surge, others are unsafe to live in and an entire section of town around there was flooded.