irene

we survived our first hurricane.

and we did it pretty well, thankfully!

after a day of laundry, cleaning, and deck building then a huge party at laura's house friday night, we had a night of anxious sleep. the whole not knowing what to expect part is really tough. matt and i were both up early. he left to go work on the boat, making sure it was all tied up and ready for irene, and i started clearing outside stuff.

(addie helped me make cookies. check out her gigantic one!)

i brought in our rocking chairs, wagon, and anything else that wasn't nailed down. i took a quick break at 7:30 to go buy some D batteries that matt had found at a small auto parts store nearby (they had them when he was there friday, but weren't putting them out till saturday morning). i got back and had christian help me organize some things in the garage, and by that time matt had gotten home and the rain had started.

(9am)

i'm the worlds meanest mom because i wouldn't let the kids go anywhere. after not being home for the earthquake or the huge thunderstorm/tornado warning of the past week, i really wanted everyone home and safe with me. matt made us a big breakfast and we enjoyed our internet and tv privileges while we could.

(pre-nap story)

(12pm - hurricane pictures are not easy to take)

 

mindy and gang came to wait out the storm (we like to call it a hurricane party) with us around 12. we watched kindergarten cop and ate popcorn and drank orange soda. and it rained and howled outside.

(the days festivities)

(addie the photog)

(guess who took this one?)

(chris decided to go get the mail around 1)

(kindergarten cop is a classic!)

periodically throughout the day (and all night) we did checks around the house. we checked the ceiling to make sure the roof wasn't leaking - it wasn't - the doors to make sure they weren't leaking - all were good but the basement, and we still aren't quite sure why, cause the outside drain was working - the windows - all were good except christian's basement window, another mystery, because it was leaking from the top drywall - and the sump pump to make sure it was still getting rid of water effectively - it was.

(matt decided we needed some fresh cilantro from the garden)

we made a big spaghetti dinner and then had chocolate cake for dessert to celebrate ben's birthday, then ran a very full dishwasher well before we lost power at 6:30. the lights had been flickering all day, and at that point it had already been raining steadily for 10 hours. it was a sad day when we realized they wouldn't be flickering back on. :(

matt had noticed a neighbor outside digging a trench in his yard (his beautifully manicured yard!) and with the pond that was accumulating in our backyard, he thought it might help. so he went out and started digging (our beautifully manicured yard!). christian, jack, and ben decided they wanted to help too. out came the panchos and a million towels (hurricanes are a lot of work!). they dug trenches on both sides of the house and i'm happy (and a little surprised) to say that they worked. our basement was one of about half in our neighborhood that didn't flood, and i think that can in part be attributed to trench'de'ray.

(the backyard pond, or oceanview property if your glass is half-full)

 

(after-storm upkeep on the trenches)

 

after the power went out we played some games, drew, and talked. we got the girls to bed (or at least to where they were playing in their beds) and visited. we finally threw in the (hot, so very hot without any ac, fan, or open windows!) towel and called it a night around 11.

(no electricity festivities)

we had planned to camp out in the basement (lots of tornados happen around hurricanes, weird, right?) but with the power out and us not sure about the sump pump battery, we thought it might be better to not risk a possible flood. we debated and prayed and debated some more and finally decided to sleep in our master bedroom, with the 3 babies against the far inside wall (no windows), and all the kids in the hallway (no windows again). 

i woke up all throughout the night. i checked the kids. matt and i checked the leaks and the sump pump and tried to check the storm. i hate that we got the worst of it overnight (they said at 2 am) when we couldn't see what was going on! everything looked good all night. thankfully the sump pump's extra battery lasted till about 7am when matt went down and bailed a few buckets of water.
(bucket of water from the sump pump, complete with frog that the girls went ga-ga over!)

we all got up at 8. we were all just so anxious to see how everything looked. i made a big breakfast of eggs, toast, yogurt, cheese, and lunchmeat (operation clean out the fridge!) and then we all went for a walk, along with everyone else in the neighborhood.

there were lots of trees down (one in our neighbors back yard), fences broken, flooded basements, and water. but overall things looked good. spirits were high (even those with flooded basements) because we all knew that things could have been so much worse.

(neighbors tree)

(and another)

the rest of sunday was spent enjoying the post-hurricane weather (which is beautiful bytheway) outside, trying to catch up on sleep, lots of phone calls, and then to mindy's house that evening to enjoy her electricity. on the drive out to mechanicsville we saw no less than 30 trees down and no less than 15 power lines among those trees. i've heard the rest of st. mary's county looks just as bad.

(after hurricane band of clouds)

it's monday morning and we still have no electricity. SMECO reported that at the height they had over 100,000 customers without power. they've whiddled that down to less than half, but we are among the lucky other half that still have none. trying to keep things in perspective, at least we still have a home and that home has minimal damage. we can live without power for a few days, right?

(scenes from our 20 minute drive from leonardtown to mechanicsville yesterday) 

 

the events of last week have propelled us to get more prepared. in a lot of ways we were pretty good. but these east coast ray's are buying a generator.  too much crazy weather in these parts. we're making emergency preparedness a real priority.

3 natural disasters in one week will do that for ya.