Last Saturday Hurricane Irene blew her way through my town. Watching the news and hearing about the evacuations, especially those in my town made for a lively Friday afternoon. I was happy to find out that my apartment is not in a low lying area and I could stay, though I found out later that a friend and co-worker's house was and she stayed on a friend's couch.
Before the storm came, I made sure I did some grocery shopping and took care of things that I wouldn't be able to do over the weekend. I also did "storm" prep, which I'm not usually in the habit of doing. Batteries, water, food, etc. The most important, though, was getting my hair cut. A girl has to take care of the important stuff.
Saturday morning wasn't too bad, but I found myself watching the coverage on the local Fox station. I don't normally do that, but I was intrigued. I also found myself following Twitter feeds (love the Weather Channel and Weather Bug and I found some great local feeds to follow) for info on what was happening here and in the area. I was surprised that it didn't just drive me nuts. Alas, in the evening the winds did pick up as did the rain. The rain wasn't a problem, but that wind. Wow. It rattled the bedroom windows quite a bit, so I didn't really sleep a lot on Saturday night. I managed to get dinner, but the power flickered several times. After making it through all of Saturday and Saturday night and early Sunday, I lost power at 7:30 am Sunday morning.
By Sunday afternoon the weather was gorgeous and I was going stir crazy. Without power, I had no cable and my portable radio wasn't doing it's thing. I didn't realize how disconnected I would feel without some type of contact. I did do a bit on my cell phone, but I was trying to conserve since I didn't know when the power would come back and I'd be able to charge it. Finally, a friend and I headed for B&N to recharge our electronics and to some extent, to re-charge ourselves. We had sandwiches outside for dinner and just relaxed a bit.
I was one of the lucky ones in that I got power back early Sunday evening. My friend wasn't so lucky. She got power back Thursday. Fortunately, I was able to offer up my couch. Thank goodness we get along great! The apartment seemed a little empty after she left, but I know she's reveling in being back in own home. After all, who isn't happy to get back in their own house and sleep in their own bed? Even without a natural disaster, there's nothing quite like returning home from traveling and sleeping in one's own bed.
Watching the news and seeing the flooding in Vermont and New Jersey, I know that where I live, we got through it very well. While it's taken almost a week, just about everyone has power back. Life for us will get back to normal much quicker than those that are stranded or completely flooded out.
The weather this past week has been absolutely gorgeous -- and calm. Hard to believe that Hurricane Irene was only a week ago, though signs of her passing through can still be seen about town. Weather is strange sometimes.
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