Irene Aftermath

It has been a really bizarre, rough week.  I didn't have power until Tuesday.  That was annoying, but not devastating. I live in a little town in North-Central NJ that is bound by rivers and gets hit hard.  The day after Irene, we were stranded in town, people who needed medical attention were being lifted out by helicopters and everyone had lifeless expressions on their faces.

I fortunately didn't flood, we live on a hill.  But the town was hit with lots of water that took a few days to recede.  This was the view down my street:

Boats in the street.  My heart goes out to all the people who were affected by this.  Normalcy is finally returning.  No more military check points checking ID's to get into town, the sirens and alarms have ceased, power has mostly returned, stores are opening again - but those were all inconveniences compared to the devastation some people experienced.  People's whole material lives are on the curbs waiting to be picked up by garbage men. There are anti-looting and trash picking signs everywhere, too.  The evacuation shelter behind down the road still has people at it.

This was about 3 blocks up from me.  I am just so very fortunate all we dealt with was a few basement puddles and a refrigerator of bad food.  My thoughts go out to the East Coast.  I hope any of you who were affected by Irene make a speedy recovery.