Surviving Hurricane Irene

    For the most part, we all survived hurricane Irene. That storm did beat up some of our cars, homes and forced hundreds of thousands of people into the dark. But we Survived. Even with all the damage and suffering caused by the storm only about 46 or so people were killed. Being in TV news, I know that there are countless stories of families struggling without power and trapped in their neighborhoods by downed power lines and trees. Thank God I fared pretty well after this storm. 




    My power was only out for 12 hours. Unfortunately some of my co-workers were in the dark 10 times as long or more. Six days to a week for some. It almost makes you wonder why so many power lines, cable lines and phone lines are above ground. I didn't do too much of any walking into any wooded areas... but I bet most of the trees that fell were along some kind of road, driveway, yard or field. The trees in the middle of the woods probably don't fall as much because they're protected  from the stronger winds. That's just my unscientific opinion.

     But anyway, back to my brush with Irene. First of all, because I wasn't covering the storm as a journalist, my goal was to be safe and keep my family safe when taking pictures. So, I didn't not go out during the storm. But we did go out to survey some of the damage. There were trees down everywhere. 

not my car

   The first thing that hit me when I stepped outside was the smell. It was kind of like fresh cut grass... only with the small of different types of  trees... and it was strong for days after the storm. The other thing was the bugs. They seemed louder. After walking around and riving around.. I'd never seen so many trees leaning on powerlines without snapping the pole or the wires. Our little complex wasn't trapped.. we had one way out.. but one of our entrances was blocked by four or five trees down on the road and on the wires. Our road was cleared within about 3 or four hours. 
The power came back on later.

not my building, .. would have been scary

    There were so many trees down and traffic lights out that there weren't enough officers or patrol cars to guard any of them.  For the most part  Police would put up yellow caution tape or red danger tape and move on to the next downed tree. Intersections a became free-for-all in some areas and four way stops in other. Its a shame that an officer actually has to put up a temporary four way stop sign before people will obey the law and start to remember some of their training. But you know.. people do stupid things. 
    Someone once said - "Lord protect us from the feeble minded."  Seriously though-- while the power was out, .. someone on the second floor of my building tried to start cooking on a grill. Problem number one, - they were cooking inside. Problem number two -- we don't even have balconies.When the fire department showed up.. they didn't seem too happy at all about it. We had every fire apparatus in town at our apartment building.  
      At the end of the God gave us a beautiful light show at night...  The stars came out! The picture I took doesn't even do it justice.