Hurricane Irene

I was looking with great interest, read all I can,  as I knew we are in the path of Hurricane Irene...
I never remember an hurricane with such big diameter. It was hard to imagine what we must expect from Irene.

I did some preparation, just common sense like:

1) Verified 2-3 times if we are on evacuation list. We was not. In a way this was a good sign
2) Be sure that I have battery for flash lights, candles handy, just in case we have a blackout
3) I did shopping to have a full refrigerator and freezer to resist a week without to get out
4) Friday I cooked for 2-3 days, but in a case of a black out I wanted to have food which we don't need to cook as well...
5) I also verify my camping stove as a back up equipment
6) Verify if Mom has medications for at least one week

Nothing else cross my mind.

After Irene visited North Carolina, and Virginia, I realize that we are not prepared for this type of hurricane and I start to be a little worry.   But after Virginia beach the hurricane weakening and we inherit only a grade 1 hurricane with winds around 60-65 mph but still with a huge diameter.

From some reason I cannot explain I wasn't jumping up and down at the news of weakening Irene... It was something odd about this one.

In my area the rain with winds started Friday night, continue Saturday, started to powerful over Saturday night, and stopped Sunday around noon.
At this point we get out to evaluate the damage if any!

We have water in basement, so a neighbor with a pomp tries to get the water out... He says that this is nothing, and we are so lucky as just 2 blocks away people are without electricity.
So I grab my digital camera and start walking in the neighborhood.

I don't say, but I don't believe him...  but in the next 15 minutes I realize that he is right.
I find out :

• trees blocking the streets
• trees falling over cars and properties
• A house with the roof damaged

and all of those in a 30 minutes walk. I am sure now that there are more damages, but I will show you only what I find and photograph myself.

This was an ugly accident, 4 trees collapsed:

• over the roof where produced a hole, the blue plastic covers the roof’s  hole
• over a car, you can see only the back of the car in the second picture, and
• a garage... you cannot even see as it is completely cover by branches... it is in front of the car in second picture

The 3rd pictuere is takeen under a diferent angle prior they start cleaning the mess. 

Branches which cross roads was the first priority along with trees touching electrical lines.

This branch was the first to fall... and doesn't look dangerous... 

After 2 hours a big one from the same tree fall closing the driving access on that street... see next picture.

Note: I have to admire the people wisdom, determination to help, community spirit of our neighbors in the little town of Verona.

If it was something a person can do, he jumped and do it, NO waiting for official help.
If was something which was tricky, dangerous, needed special tools, as working around electric wires, then people called and requested professional help.

In the next picture, the person you see is the owner of the house behind, the tree was in front of his house but not on his property... he worked tireless for 2 hours to cut branch by branch and to remove them...  and he alone opened the street for driving.

Both the people cleaning and official workers cleaning are already in full swing, and they work so harmoniously...  I am proud of my town!

If you want to know more about Verona NJ a town with 14,254 population, you can read the following post:

Verona Town in Middle New Jersey

In Summary: Hurricane Irene was a painful experience especially for South of NJ.
We in North have less damage, what I show you in this post are images from my town.

So we are the lucky ones. Now the big challenge for the southern part is to be able to open the NJ shore for Labor Day. I hope they will be able to do it at least partially.