Hurricane Irene, Our Story | Personal Alert

DISCLAIMER: This post is VERY lengthy! It might also take a while to load due to the amount of photos included. I felt it was hard to leave anything out because they tell a story, and well I tried to condense but I am kind of a long winded person in general. I totally understand if you wanna click out now lol!

I honestly don’t even know where to begin. Since I first heard that there was the mere chance of Hurricane Irene hitting us here in Connecticut I knew that while I was a bit worried at the possibility of damage and all that comes along with the devastation a hurricane can bring, it would also be an amazing opportunity to document something that rarely occurs around here. It would also be amazing to document something for my children to look back on years from now. Something they lived through. Something they would remember. It was pretty surreal. I admit I am no current events buff. I had no idea about Irene. I was preparing for a session when my client e-mailed and said they noticed the hurricane could hinder our photo op. Hurricane?! Did she really just say hurricane?! Yep she did. I switched it to the weather channel, googled what I couldn’t learn from the television and watched anxiously to see what was going to happen to the East Coast of the United States.

All that week with Irene approaching I cycled through different emotions. They kept warning us this could be quite dangerous, quite severe. There were moments of panic and moments of that whole “it can be THAT bad.” My husband was picking up on the attitude at his workplace that it wasn’t going to be all that bad I guess. They really weren’t worried and I don’t think he was either. I convinced him to get us out to BJ’s our local wholesale market and stocked up bottled water, batteries, non perishables and snack food. Yep LOTS of snack food lol! In the back of my mind I was thinking that at worst we would lose power for a few hours and at best it would have been a lot of hype and we would be out a couple hundred bucks but we could store what we didn’t need in case of an actual emergency. The stores weren’t really all that busy. We also hit up target. Really it was pretty quiet locally.

The night before we also thought we would venture to a few of the areas being evacuated voluntarily. I took some photos of a reference point for “before” in case there really was any damage. I thought if anything it would be neat to have something to post and share. I love to share, I am a photographer after all. It is one of the best parts of what I do. The stores were buzzing in comparison to the day before but really nothing like you would expect leading up to a hurricane. Generators were impossible to come by though. We figured we wouldn’t really need one. We haven’t really lost power where I live. Driving around we noticed the Fire trucks at the ready, the local businesses boarding up dutifully and the skies turning ominous. Figuring we had all we needed we finally headed in to tune into the news and brace for the worst. The kids were actually a little excited. Crazy huh? My daughter LOVES weather though. I sometimes wonder if she will grow up to be a meteorologist. She is fascinated with weather phenomenon. Around 11:30 or so that night the cable went out. The wind picked up and we have a dish. I figured it was a sign to get to bed. There was some thunder and lightning though and our kids were afraid so we let them all sleep in our room. They said the storm was supposed to start up middle of the night and the worst should pass the next day around 2pm. We had filled up our gas tank, charged up our cell phone and Ipad batteries. We were good.

Day One I woke up around 5 am the next morning to no power. Fine. I mean the wind was whipping. We were hit as a tropical storm strength storm versus the hurricane we were expecting but it was still pretty intense. I had my Ipad so I stalked Facebook to see what everyone was saying, kept an eye on the news channel facebook pages especially. Sure enough most the state was dealing with no power. Not to much information otherwise so I logged off and hung back with my husband and kids. We looked outside and the wind was nuts. There was downed branches and such in the yard and the huge trees surrounding us were swaying violently. We all piled up in the living room so that if a tree did fall on the house the kids wouldn’t be anywhere near the windows. There were already a few deaths reported in North Carolina and New Jersey from what I gathered the night before watching the news and I was NOT taking chances. I knew that New York had already been hit but didn’t know how bad because our power was pretty much out and the news was fairly fickle on the websites. We couldn’t watch anything live so I just wished for the best.

After 3 or so we decided to venture out after the storm passed. We were hungry, bored and still well without power. I honestly thought it would be back on by bed time. We didn’t go far. We stuck close to town, I took a few photos and we hit up a gas station to see if there was any luck with the power in other areas of our town. I needed coffee. No luck. Headed home. We charged our Ipads and Iphones again in the Durango. We were happy to discover certain areas to charge in the car didn’t require the car to actually be on. We could leave them to charge while we went in the house. Fairly close to night time and it was getting dark and we realized that there was a VERY good possibility the power wasn’t coming back on. Other parts of Mystic did however have power and Mystic Pizza delivered chilli and pizza. It felt good to have a cold drink and a hot meal. We ate by candlelight together at the table. Something I admit we are guilty of not doing often enough and have done every night since. It was Sunday night. No lights, no power. We went to bed fully expecting power the next morning. I was stubborn and wanted my bed. It was pitch black and I couldn’t fall asleep. It was hot and stuffy and I missed my husband who opted to sleep downstairs (he was smart!).

Day Two was a bit disappointing. No lights. No refrigerator humming. Nothing. Well it could be worse. It was a Monday. Wes had to call out of work because we weren’t as prepared as we SHOULD have been but we were all together.. We could get the kids out of the house and hang out and stock up on whatever we could find that we might have forgotten before the storm. I checked the news on Facebook to find that others were still dealing with the same issue. Most of the state actually at this point. People were mildy upset but mostly upbeat and just questioning when power would be back on. The news channels tried to keep people informed of course. There was really NO communication from the power company but it was early and the line men were working their behinds off. Venturing out we noticed our traffic lights were not only out but flipped around entirely. There was quite a bit of damage in our neighborhood. Lots of downed trees and things of that nature. We drove out to find the kids some hot food. Let me tell you I am SO grateful we had been smart enough to put money in savings and even more thankful for technology. Sophie got car sick and I decided to chuck her clothes because I knew I wouldn’t be able to wash them. The state parks were closed and traffic was a bit nuts with everyone being stir crazy so we decided to run out and buy some board games to entertain the kids, buy some better non perishables and hunker down while we waited for the power to return. I also knew at that point if power wasn’t back on there would be a good possibility it would be me with four kids all day. I tried to think of things we could buy to make it fun for them. We played Jenga ( I lost both games lol!) Shoots and ladders and legos. We again ate Mystic Pizza by candle light. I was dreading Wes going back to work and being without him. I didn’t think it was worth going to a hotel though. This could be a good teachable opportunity for the kids. It would be a chance to reconnect. I was really enjoying our dinner time talks and abundance of time to focus just on the kids.We set up the Ipad to watch netflix with the kids. It helped me ease on off to sleep. We all slept in the living room. Noah cuddled up with Wes, Sophie with me and Lily and little Wes set up camp in the living room. I actually loved being in one room and it wasn’t hot so the breeze felt kind of good through the window.

Day Three Wes went back to work. I woke up with him because I slept lightly and couldn’t fall back asleep. We conserved on hot water so we were still taking luke warm showers. I got the kids all washed up and we did little things around the house to clean up and make it more homey at least. We stayed on the bottom level of the house since it was cooler and I still was unsure about the trees. I stalked the news channels and watched the clock for Wes to come home. I also didn’t have the Durango to charge so I was cautious with my battery on my phone and Ipad. We played outside with the neighbors, snacked (a lot!) played board games and read lots of books. It was fun! I was learning the thought of not having power was WAY less scary then not having power. When Wes got home that day I was SO proud of myself. We had survived another day and did so happily. We ran out and bought a tent for the kids and pitched it in the living room and they had fun playing with their new “fort”. We again ate take out by candle light. Wes had a flash light with a strobe option and we danced all around the kitchen like we were at a disco tech. It was FUN. We were laughing and focused on each other. I wasn’t sure if I wanted the power to come back on. I kept people updated on facebook. I noticed on the news websites people were slowly becoming desperate and angry. I was positiive because I knew that some people at this point had lost their homes and it could have been WAY worse for us. Just as we were settling in for the night I noticed head lights come down the driveway and park shining right in our living room. I was a bit freaked out and Wes opened the front door and shined the flash light right on the driver to see what was going on (and scare them off if it was an unsavory character.) It was my mama!! She brought glow sticks for the kids, lanterns and flash lights, more snack food (notice a trend here?! LOL) and COLD sparkling wine for me! It was amazing. I was so touched. I went to bed that night easily. We watched Tangled on the Ipad for the kids and eased off.

Day Four went smoothly. The kids played outside with the neighbors. We had a bit of a routine down at this point. I admit I missed my vacuum cleaner (we do have four kids lol!) but we made the most of it. Wes and I did a lot of talking and bonding. We went to my moms that night for dinner and had a hot meal and the kid’s played with their cousin. Pretty uneventful. Driving home that night I realized how blessed I really was. I knew that when we got close to our exit the power wouldn’t be on when we got home. The street lights and traffic lights were completely off.

Day Five came and I was fine until I read the news channel facebook status messages on Facebook. People were seething and frustrated and it was almost contagious. There had been no communication at all from the Electric company but they managed to alert people that they were thinking of hiking the rates to pay for the extra work for the power outage. I was pretty mad myself. I got offline though and spent sometime with my little ones. We spent most of the day outside making mud pies and chatting up my neighbor. The utility trucks drove by and the kids went running up the hill to the front of the house. It was hysterical. You would have thought it was the ice cream truck. We waved excitedly. The neighbor showed me photos she took on her camera phone of the electric poles at the end of the street that now boasted two huge HELP CL&P signs with arrows leading down our street. I had a feeling the power would be back on that night. We were definitely out of hot water at this point and the kids were filthy from playing hard all day. I felt bad that they had a VERY cold bath in their future if it wasn’t restored. We had also cleaned out the refrigerator finally the day before. I wish I would have had better forethought and actually donated the food before it went back but you live and learn. Wes got home and said to look into area hotels. That the kids deserved a treat and a hot bath after being so good all week. We booked two nights at the local Hilton since it was close to Wes’s job. We got settled in that night and put the kids in the tub, literally an hour after checking in I got a text from our neighbor. “The street is lit up like a Christmas Tree” lol! It really wasn’t a lost cause though. We got a couple more days together. It was like a little vacation for the kids. School had been pushed back a couple of days so we enjoyed the 3 day weekend. The kids got to jump on the bed, sleep late and swim in the pool! We ended the weekend with Ice Cream at Friendly’s restaurant! I will say that the first morning at the hotel Wes had to work and took the truck. He forgot to leave my debit card and we were STARVING. Wal Mart was right there. Literally across the parking lot basically. I walked there 8:40 am with 4 kids and 20 bucks to my name so I couldn’t even afford the stupid breakfast buffet lol! I was strolling through the parking lot with all four kids standing on the back of the buggy like an idiot. I hit a crack and the older ones went flying off. I must have looked like mom of the year. The kids ate pudding and pop tarts for breakfast. When Wes got back though it was all gravy LOL!

All in all it really was wonderful. I will always look back on this week as a gift. It was incredible to be able to hang out with the kids and reconnect with them and my husband. To pretty much unplug and focus on what really matters. I have LOTS of photos to share. I hope you enjoy them! I feel very blessed to be able to share with everyone! My heart does SO go out to all the families that dealt with flooding and damage. 🙁 Some lost their homes. I saw footage way after the fact because I was in the dark and was just shocked at how bad the storm really was here. It could really have been SO much worse though. I pray Irene is the last hurricane to hit our state for a long long time.

Archive: Sep 2011

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