Later that same week we prepared for Hurricane Irene!! This is the first real hurricane I've experienced in my life. In 2003 we got the effects of Tropical Storm Isabelle, that was once a hurricane, and that was some heavy weather. This time was completely different. By Wednesday we knew the hurricane would be coming our way sometime Saturday night. So I took Tanner and we went to get a few emergency essentials that we didn't have. Things like water jugs, a couple extra flashlights, batteries, a few munchies, and extra diapers. It was a good thing we did that on Wednesday because by Thursday night, everything emergency related was gone from the stores and the lines to buy water and other food stuffs was at least an hour wait to check out. Nick and I debated to get a generator or not, but weren't sure if we could find one since everyone was sold out. Amazingly, Friday afternoon, we found a place that had a few left for a little bit more than what we wanted to pay, but I was glad we got one. We managed to get some extra gasoline for the generator and the cars, staked all the bigger things in the yard down, and prepared for the worst. Irene was supposed to graze us off the eastern shoreline of the state as a category 2, but thankfully it was downgraded to a category 1. Lemme tell you, that was bad enough. 
The weather started taking a turn for the worse Saturday morning. The rain started and then early in the afternoon the wind started. We were supposed to have sustained winds of 80+ mph, but thankfully we only had 25+ mph winds with gust of about 55mph. The most intense part of the storm came between 6:30pm and 9:00pm Saturday evening. We had a few horrific thunderstorm barrel through here with tornados all around. We spent some time in the closet singing songs, and at my request, saying a few prayers. The eye of the storm came past us around 2 in the morning Sunday. I finally got a few hours of sleep after that. I made the boys bring their mattresses in the living room and sleep there for my sake. I didn't want to be very far away from them in case something happened.Thankfully we never lost power. Nick was peeved that we bought a generator and didn't have to use it. I think of it as we're that much ahead of the game for the next storm, be it rain, snow, ice, or whatever comes our way. We had a lot of downed trees in the area, and a lot of flooding. Thankfully our house sustained no damage. We were very fortunate and blessed to make it through without any problems.
For the most part we were very well prepared for the storm. We had all of our affairs in order beforehand, so we just had to ride it out. We know what we can do better for the next time, and we plan to do better about that before it gets too late. Now we need to get prepared for whatever winter storms we may get this year. Things like getting our fireplace looked at and cleaned. Getting more wood for the fireplace. More food storage built up in case we're snowed in. More water stored. Things like that and we'll be golden to ride out whatever comes our way this winter. It really does ring true that the more you're prepared the less you need fear. I completely get that now.
1 comment:
Glad you all are ok and survived! I can relate. They storm hit us as a Tropical Storm instead of Catagory 1 which they were expecting...but it still did a ton of damage. I was without power for a week...and others for 10 days. It was crazy!! Plus I'm in an area that has well water, so we had no water for that period of time. I am SO grateful that I had a 72 hour kit along with food storage and water...I was fine the whole time & so very grateful that no severe damage happened at my place. I think you'll be really grateful you have a generator when you need it. They really come in handy!
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