Hurricane Irene: August 2011

Well, we're more than ok (especially now that we have power back), but Irene sure left an impression. Here are some pictures of the aftermath.

This tree in the back was really our only casualty. Like I mentioned, nothing really.

This tree also fell in our yard, but it's technically the neighbors since "the roots" are in her yard - at least that's what the neighbors said, so we're not arguing with that.
So during in the middle of the hurricane, we found we had a problem that consisted of some clogging, some leaking, and a few new "friends." One of our windows in the basement has a metal siding barrier on the outside of the house. Well, with all the rain, the dirt/mud that formed must have clogged the drain in that little alcove. The water began to rise and unfortunately, we found the window had a leak. So, Keola and I went down to the basement to see what we could do to relieve the buildup. What we found were Friend #1...

And Friend #2

Friend #3 was a little frog, but he went AWOL before I could take a picture. I won't go into the gruesome details of how we actually got all the water out from the OUTSIDE alcove, while still staying inside the basement, but suffice it to say, water is out, the friends are "free", our feet, legs, and pants are drenched, and I'm THANKFUL I got a quick bath before our power went out!

Some leftover debris on the deck.

Now, this neighbor didn't fare so well. A tree had obviously fallen on the roof and created a LARGE hole. Apparently, the other side was completely exposed. We had found out that this happened at 8pm the night before, right when the heaviest of the hurricane began.

Other damages in the neighborhood consisted of some fallen trees at the opening of our subdivision.

As we drove around the surrounding neighborhoods, we found some pretty frightening things.

Trees fallen on power lines.

Trees fallen on homes.

And just plain 'ole large trees fallen over, some with roots and ground uprooted.

This isn't a great video, but I took a little of it while driving home.

All in all, we lost a tree or two, have some fallen leaves and branches, and lost power (which includes no water, so sump pump for the toilets, no regrigerator, stove, or oven, and NO AC!! Yikes) for almost 36 hours. We survived with minimal casualties and now, we're up and running and ready to go. Lillie was out of school today and will be out again tomorrow. So with clear skies and beautiful weather, Lillie is loving a mini vacation.