In the end, I did more damage to our yard than Irene.
After losing power at 9AM Sunday morning, we just had it come back on about half-an-hour ago. I was in the middle of making a comment to the Wife when we both heard an electronic beep and then the house roared back to life. The furnace fired, toilets started running as the water pump kicked on, the refrigerator and freezer compressors fired up, we had light. It was more than a little shocking since, after talking with folks around town, it was starting to sound like it might not happen until later in the week. I’m still wondering if it might only be temporary.
The last I saw, Irene was tracking further west and weakening faster than the early predictions indicated. I think that trend might have accelerated as I’d guess we had wind gusts some where in the 50’s with sustained winds around 30 at the peak of the storm. The rain also pretty much ended around noon on Sunday.
Not that I’m complaining. I’m glad I experienced it because it gives me something to go on for the next time.
The kids ended up managing just fine. They actually got kind of bored with the whole thing and started asking wondering why it wasn’t worse and when it would be done. Explaining that it’s a good thing that it wasn’t worse by telling them just how much worse it could have been had the desired effect. Unfortunately, we were equally anxious for it all to end, so there was no satisfaction there.
As far as damage goes, it was pretty much mild to non-existent. Downed limbs and the like with a couple of spots around town where trees came down on power lines. I saw one tree that hand landed on someone’s deck when it fell, but that was it.
We barely lost any food either. Just a couple of things from our refrigerator freezer. Although, if the power outage had lasted longer, the toll would’ve climbed substantially I’d wager.
In our yard, we basically had limbs and a few larger branches. I pulled out the chainsaw to chop of one of the branches to make it easier to deal with. Once I had the chainsaw in my hands, I decided now was as good a time as any to take care of some other problem shrubberies. That ended up taking longer than cleaning up the stuff from Irene.
But I’m OK with that.