Irene

Luckily we were not affected too much by Hurricane Irene but it was kind of an interesting experience being here. We arrived on Friday and Irene was supposed to hit on Sunday. So, I went to the store to buy water and flashlights but they were all sold out. So, we were just praying that we wouldn't lose power or water and that we would be ok since all our belonging were still on a truck which at this point was stuck in N.J. because of the storm.

Saturday night it started to rain and the wind really picked up. By Sunday we were getting a lot of water and the sump pump in the basement was going continually. There was literally a small stream running down our driveway and on down the street from all the water being pumped out of the basement. The basement is really just a dungeon and we don't have anything down there but there was water just trickling down the rock walls. That's as bad as it got for us though.

Mom and Eli stayed home from church since Eli was still sick but the rest of us trecked through the rain to church. There were some big branches in the road and some road damage from running water but we made it there ok. After church we made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies with the one bowl and spoon I had packed in the car. That's the first time I've creamed butter and sugar by hand - I really appreciate my Kitchen Aid now.

We are grateful we didn't have any damage from the hurricane but lots of people nearby did. Vermont was especially hit hard and has had a lot of damage. The town nearby where we go grocery shopping was flooded badly since the Connecticut River is just right there. The bad news about that is that Kmart, Kohl's, JoAnn's, and JCPenney were among the stores that closed. Now I am literally stuck with only WalMart. The shopping here was already pretty pathetic and minimal and now it is even worse.

I took Mom to Sharon, VT to see Joseph Smith's birthplace before she left and we saw the devastation along the way. These pictures are along the river where the trees were just flattened. The river rapidly rose 28 feet that night of the Hurricane. Many people lost everything and had only minutes to evacuate on foot. Their cars were trapped there.

Someone put an American flag next to the river here.

I thought this was kind of funny. Someone spray painted on their house, "Irene, you hit like a girl!"