Hurricane Irene

For those who are wondering about how we fared during (and after) Hurricane Irene...the short answer is that we got very very lucky.

From past experience with hurricanes (from growing up in Florida and going through many of different strengths) I knew that with the Category 1 & 2 storms your major worries are the wind picking up objects and throwing them at your house, prolonged power loss, and flooding. So in preparation I brought all the outdoor furniture, planters, toys, etc. inside. I didn't go crazy stocking up, but I did chose not to buy the perishable items I usually would in case we lost power. As to flooding, thankfully we are on a hill and figured out last year during the worst flooding in 100 years in RI that our property doesn't flood, so that wasn't a huge worry for us.

The storm dropped in strength and picked up speed right before it got to us which helped. That meant it dropped less water and the winds were significant but not too bad. We ended up with quite a bit of tree damage. A few small ones came down and lots of very large branches did as well. Thankfully none of the trees are very close to the house, so it just kept Ryan busy with a chainsaw after the storm passed.

The main way we got very lucky was that we only lost power for about a minute. However 64% of RI lost power. Many homes and businesses are still without it, and many aren't expected to get it back for 3-4 more days. Ryan was unable to go to work on Monday (though he tried and was turned away at the gate) due to all of Newport being without power. Our neighborhood had very little damage compared to everywhere else. Many roads elsewhere were blocked by large fallen trees.

I am very happy with National Grid (our power company). After a very rough winter with nasty ice storms resulting in many downed trees and branches, they were very busy over the last few months clearing trees and branches that could take out power lines. It would have been much worse if not for that. All the power lines I've seen taken out around here were by whole large healthy trees that no one could have predicted which would fall and which wouldn't.

So our hurricane experience was quite a bit different than most. We spent the day watching the wind and rain and steam cleaning our carpets because they have needed it for awhile and we could. Then once the storm passed we put some things back outside and Ryan went to work with the chainsaw. Then yesterday I went shopping for the perishable items we needed. As I said...we got very lucky.

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