Irene

Alexandria luckily was not hit too badly. I went to my audition Saturday early afternoon and hunkered down for the night. My neighbor Antoinette and I watched Ryan Reynolds movies and played video games as the night went on. Once it picked up we filled our bathtubs (so you can flush when power goes out) and made sure we were good to go.

It was quite windy and rainy, but not too bad. The major part of the storm wasn't expected til after midnight, so curiousity got the best of us and we bundled up and decided to go check out the river.
It was a little too dark for pictures but it was higher than normal even at that point.

See, very bundled. But still soaked through.

Ahhh wind!

So much rain.

News crew filming on the dock

Hurricane suit = Husband's work jacket + husband's swim trunks + wellies with cherries on them.
The rain was really starting to come down at this point.


Antoinette fared a little better than me in her gortex.

The view from our front door during the storm.

Like I said, Alexandria was very fortunate. Some large trees went down but the river did not flood over and our apartment never even lost power. I fell asleep on the couch watching a movie and was out cold for the worst of the storm. Like I said, we were lucky....

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New Jersey on the otherhand got clobbered, especially with rain. The Raritan River, which is in walking distance from my old house, rose over 40 feet.

This is around the block from my old home.


You have to pass this to get to my street...

I drove over this bridge on a semi daily basis in high school.

Duke Island Park always floods in the rain, but I have not seen it like this since Hurricane Floyd in 1999.

I used this road to go home coming off the highway, like all the time. It is between the river and the cow farm and it floods, but not like this!


The Raritan River rose over 40 feet and flooded most of my home town and the surrounding areas.


Our Minor League Baseball Stadium, where I briefly worked as a mascot one summer, is under water


And our "highways" even are blocked, like near the IHop... which also did not do so well...

We have so many little creeks and rivers that have bridges connecting all the towns that a lot of people cannot go far. I know in 1999 we didnt have school for nearly a week since the school bus just could not reach us.


The Jersey pictures I borrowed from facebook and this website, but NJ got hit pretty hard and there is way worse damage than that. Irene was a serious storm. I am glad VA was pretty unscathed, at least by me, but I am keeping my thoughts on my old home.