Monday, September 5, 2011

The Day Irene Came to Town

After nearly a week of watching the news, tracking the storm path, and preparing for Hurricane Irene to arrive on the Connecticut coast, arrive she did! Sometime around 5:30 AM we lost power and noticed that the storm was in full swing. The trees were whipping about crazily in the merciless onslaught and the house was being peppered with leaves and twigs. Thankfully, none of those big trees decided to come into the house to escape the storm!

After the tropical storm had passed (without power we didn't know it had been downgraded from a hurricane for a couple of days) we ventured out to take a look around. We were amazed by the sheer number of fallen trees! We were convinced it would be weeks before electricity was restored. For some reason, we actually got power back very late Sunday night (which I blogged about here), but much of the surrounding area didn't have power for around a week.

Here are photos of a few of the more interesting calling cards that Irene left for us in the areas in and around Old Lyme.



Boston Post Road was blocked in several places.

These cables were down for several days...

Our northward adventure ended here on Sunday afternoon. I couldn't believe the cables were still intact...

Residents began to take inventory of the damage and wondered how long they'd be without power.

Another casualty of the wind.

This damaged tree landed about 900 miles from Chicago...

Go Away Irene - 8-28-11

None of us remember seeing this tree on our beach before the storm.

There was still quite a bit of wind on Sunday afternoon.

This amateur news crew was on the scene

Sand, rope, and floats indicate the path the storm surge took around the corner of this beach home.

Buoys by the Barby

This area is roped off because, apparently, it is not safe for swimming...

Our now sand-bound picnic pavilion

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