I was told to report to the TV station for Sunday afternoon. But considering that the storm was picking up some forward speed, I decided to come in on Saturday night. And at 10:30pm, I went on the clock and by the time I left at 5am, Irene was making her presence known.
Very strong winds. Curtails of rain. The rainy version of the big snow storm that hit last winter. Got totally drenched going from my car to the hotel room. And the hotel lost power over night.
Sunday morning, it is still quite windy as Irene is now heading into northern New England and the backside of the storm brings the winds back up. I'm back at the TV station at 2pm for 9 1/2 hours and by the time I left at 11:45pm, things were a lot calmer but not by much. Still no power at the hotel but that didn't matter. All I needed was sleep. And that I got.
Monday morning brings abundant sushine and I could not get home fast enough. I turn onto Oakwood Road and there's my house...still standing and lots of small branches and leaves littering the yard and driveway. Found one large branch that came down and took out my 2 ham radio wire antennas. Checked Mom and Dad's beach house and pretty much the same thing minus the big tree branch.
So when the tally was done, there was no electricity, no landline phone, no cable TV, no Internet. Just city water. And enough hot water for at least 2 days of showers. The contents of the fridge will be a loss. Connecticut Light & Power and AT&T say service will be back on Wednesday. Metrocast says cable TV and Internet will be back hopefully by Thursday. It amazing how spoiled we are with these modern conveniences. Too spoiled if you ask me.
So it's cleanup time for most of the week. I'll post some of the pictures here so you can see what transpired.
Anyway, check out the pictures. And say a prayer for those who lost loved ones.
