What a weekend! First it's a category three storm headed straight towards the east coast, then it's a one, then it's a tropical storm, then it's just heavy rain?!? Though there is no doubt that Irene packed a good one-two punch to some areas, thank goodness she was a fickle beast and managed to spare others.
Somehow in my corner of the world, in the visit of what we will call 'Hurricane Irene', the power along the eastern shores of Virginia miraculously remained intact while 2 hours inland, we were sitting in the dark with a mess of candles lit as century old monster trees fell all around us taking a spider web of power lines with them. Though we were not as lucky as some who didn't lose power at all, we are of the fortunate ones in the 5 million houses without power, that had only 33 hours in the dark. I say ONLY 33 hours, but for me it really felt like it might as well have been 33 days at certain points. I do not usually do any type of camping very gracefully ... even the urban kind, and this was no exception. Thanks to all of the windows in our house being painted shut by the previous owners, and a sink clogged with food we were trying to get down the garbage disposal right as the power went out, our house quickly began to smell much like a rotten gym locker room. This sent even the most timid (me) to sit on the porch, while the more adventurous (Jay) took it upon himself to grill brownies for everyone in the middle of a hurricane.
While I wasn't out grilling brownies, I was inspired to come up with some future 'Drink of the Moment' ideas for all of you fun folks out there while waiting out the storm (yay!), and the next day, there was nothing more inspiring than wanting to get out of the house and find someplace that offered the modern amenities we have come so fond of having on a daily basis. Here is what we saw around our historic neighborhood in Richmond's 'Fan District' on our quest for creature comforts.
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| There were a lot of damaged vehicles due to street parking. This Jeep actually got off pretty lucky compared to some others I saw. |
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| Monument Avenue |
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| Those houses on Monument Avenue are not small by any stretch. That tree is just huge. |
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| Monument Avenue |
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| Westbound Monument Avenue |
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| Neighborhood intersection |
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| Neighborhood intersection across the street from the above shot. |
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| You can see most of the tree that did the damage has been moved to the back right with the top pieces in the foreground. |
While things are back up and running at my house, there are still so many folks around the Richmond Metro area, and the entire east coast who are looking at up to another 1-2 weeks before their power/life is restored. Yikes. Of course, my thoughts especially go out to those who have lost far more than just power, and are still dealing with more flooding to come. I believe that almost requires a moment of silence, as I could in no way imagine enduring that without thinking that it might be the apocalypse. Of course, given the events over the past few weeks (swamp fires, east coast earthquakes, and hurricanes in the northeastern US), don't think that hasn't crossed my mind.
Make sure to enjoy your electricity today!!
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