Monday, September 5, 2011

Earthquake, Tropical Storm & What's Next

New England is not accustomed to wild weather.  Within the span of one week we felt the earth shake as an earthquake started in Virginia and traveled up the East Coast and were battered by Tropical Storm Irene.  The winds were the damaging factor in our area.  The rains did not last long, for which we are thankful.  There were hundreds of trees that lost large limbs and many that were uprooted in our town alone.  We lost power at 6:45 am on Sunday morning.


This was the sight we saw all through town.  We were blessed to not have suffered any structural damage to our home.  We did not lose any large limbs from our trees.  

The most frustrating part was being without power for a whole week.  Our power was not restored until Saturday at 10 am.  Our utility company was not properly prepared for a storm of this magnitude.  Trees have not been trimmed off of power lines.  There were no answers when you called for an update on the power restoration.  It seemed that there was not a proper plan for restoration.  Crews were in our neighborhood on six separate occasions and our power was not restored.  Instead of repairing all the lines in one neighborhood and moving onto the next they were hopping all over town.  This seemed to be mismanagement of both time and resources.  Our neighbors power was restored two days before ours.

The last couple of days have been clean up days here.  Once power was restored, I had the Mt. Everest laundry pile to tackle.  Cleaning and restocking both of our refrigerators and freezers, and vacuuming.  Dry mopping and sweeping just don't work as well when you have two dogs-one very furry husky.  

Thankfully, the days without power were not too hot and humid.  Wednesday was the only day with higher humidity and it was tough without even a fan.  The house held in the heat for a long time but thankfully it cooled down on the next day.  

I am glad that things are back to normal here.   

2 comments:

Adrienne said...

OH my! You all really did get hit. We were so blessed that we only felt the earthquake but no damage was done in our area and Irene missed us. We are now under a flash flood watch b/c of the tropical storm that is coming up from the Gulf. We have had some pretty heavy rain (which we need badly) and very little wind so I just pray the floods stay way! Glad to hear that you all are ok.

Stephanie Suzanne Designs said...

Hi Ruth,

That storm really made a mess and so many trees down. I'm so sorry you lost power for a whole week. After Hurricane Katrina I had no power for 9 days...which meant that the well pump did not run so there was no water...OMG...we had a small generator and would turn it on long enough to use the water then turn it off again because we could not get gasoline anywhere.

I'm glad your home and your family are ok....Now..for some fun. I'd like to invite to a Quiltie Swap. Come read about it.

Hugs,
Stephanie ♥

Post a Comment

I love to hear from all of you. Your comments make me smile.