Goodbye, Irene

I woke up to glorious sunshine this morning. All that’s left of Irene, the latest hurricane to hit the east coast of the U.S., is the damage and the cleanup.

For a storm that massive that was predicted to pass over the New York area on Saturday evening as a Category 1 hurricane, we were very fortunate that Irene was downgraded to a tropical storm by the time it reached us. As a result, we had far less damage that what was anticipated.

There have been flooding, mostly in flood-prone areas, trees uprooted trees, power lines brought down and cut off electricity in some areas. There has also been some loss of life but thankfully, not as many as could have occurred if the storm had remained as strong as was forecasted.

On Friday afternoon, like most people in the area, I made my way to the supermarket to stock up on batteries (there were no ‘D’), water, and other necessities.

By the time we arrived, around 3:00 p.m., the parking lot was full and the supermarket was bumper-to-bumper shopping carts. Several shelves were empty and there was no water. But several minutes later, they announced that water had arrived. The way people rushed to get water, you’d think they’d been in the desert and just heard that an oasis was up ahead. Before too long, that stash was completely depleted.

I had big plans for the weekend. I was going to catch up on my reading and sleeping, posting comments on blogs and writing a few posts, and watch track and field.

I was only mildly successful.

I’m glad that I don’t have to go into work today. I know I couldn’t deal with the chaos of getting to work when the subways that ferry nearly 5 million passengers daily will not be back to full speed until the tracks can be inspected to determine if there was any damage, and if there was, fixed. That means, most people will have to rely on buses, cars, bicycles, etc., to get to work.

The only other hurricane I’d experienced was in Jamaica when I was about 5 years old. All I remember was the rain — way more than I saw for Irene – and my mother warning that we stay indoors. I can remember how she was afraid that we’d go splash in the murky water and step on downed power lines.

I won’t forget my first New York hurricane, especially since it came the same week of the earthquake.

Thanks to Elizabeth and Totsymae and all my other blogger friends who sent prayers, hugs and love our way. Thank you.

 

10 comments on “Goodbye, Irene

  1. It was, indeed, fortunate. Initially, it surprised me to even hear the storm would affect NY as predicted. I understand the last one, which devastated the city, occurred in the 20s. From watching the news this morning, Vermont has catastrophic floods and Upstate NY is pretty bad off.

  2. Thanks for sharing your experience during tropical storm Irene. Interesting to learn about your first hurricane in Jamaica, too. Quite a week for the East Coast — glad that you’re OK.

  3. Wow! There’s was a lot of panic (and for good reason). I never would’ve thought a hurricane could make it up as far north as NYC and lot of the residents there probably thought the same. This is probably why a lot of people were not prepared for it. I was very happy to see the city took it really seriously and from an outsider’s perspective, I think NYC did a good job on the evac . So glad though that you really didn’t suffer too much and survived safely. Now time to clean up and maybe get back to normal life.

  4. I must say people did heed the warnings. The mayor of NY and the governor of NJ were pretty blunt, telling people they had to get out. Thankfully, people did listen. Looking at some of the footage of the coastal areas of Long Island, parts of NJ and Staten Island — the flooding was really bad on the low lying coastal areas, it’s pretty bad.
    We didn’t expect an earthquake either. But the weather pattern seems to be changing – earthquake and hurricane on the east coast.
    We’re definitely relieved that there wasn’t much damage where we are but I know of people whose basements were flooded or lost power. We did, briefly today but nothing to complain about. Thanks, Sherry

  5. Same as with the big floods in Queensland in January. When the rain stopped, the weather was beautiful.

    Good to hear the weather wasn’t too crazy. It’s a shame about the crazy supermarket instead.

  6. TY too for sharing your experience… I will work on something for mine… I was at a retreat during the hurricane… Glad Irene is over. 🙂

  7. Nature is so incredible. My mom told me that when Hurricane Gilbert hit Jamaica several years ago, the weather was spectacular right up to the time when the eye passed over then it turned black. Once it passed, blue skies returned. Nature is truly amazing.
    Oh, people go crazy at the supermarket whenever bad weather’s expected. That’s to be expected.

  8. You were at the perfect place, Elizabeth. Hope you didn’t have any damage to your property.
    Definitely glad it’s over but I see now that there’s another tropical storm forming out there.

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