Pics of local damage:

http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/index

Camino- good to see you made it thru.

Same to you Balthy, I was sure that our dam was going to give way - but it held.

Have to go start the cleanup now.

Stopped back in Rancho Balthy to unload another truckload of free firewood. Got a real cozy spot where a county road is blocked off because the canal/stream is a foot over the road, and the toppled trees along that road are (low & ) ripe for the pickin'.

aw man, I wish. We can heat the whole house with just the one fireplace.

We made it through unscathed, but living in a new-ish townhouse community with no large trees, I wasn't expecting anything. Major flooding in Mount Holly and Medford townships, a lot of localized flooding surrounding my community as there are a lot of farmlands, sod farms, and former farms that are road-level and water spilled over. We lost power yesterday from 5:30PM-midnight, have been good all day today (working from home as I heard reports that the NB (& SB) ramps from I-295 to Route 1 are closed as the highway is flooded over, and one coworker IM'ed me to say his normal 25 minute commute was an hour & 45 mins due to detours & road closings). I spent 10 hours with the fire department yesterday blocking off roads due to fallen trees & wires, plus traffic control as traffic lights went out throughout the day.

A few pictures I took while on duty yesterday:

Tree fell over onto wires (water soaked, roots and all exposed):

Tree swaying back-and-forth grounding out the wire until the trunk snapped and was just laying there:

On my 3rd tree run, sawing one up on the side of the road with my lil' orange cone, guy walks up to me from the big house across the road; 'Want more wood?'

A thick maple and 9 or 10 arrow-straight Locust trees - all mine. I should have enough wood for a at least 4 winters now.... I just need to borrow someone's trailer to haul it all. I'll be doing 'wood work' all week now, but that's cool.

Edited August 29, 201114 yr by balthazar

CT didn't make out that bad. About 8in of rain and lots of wind. About 500K people without power and flooding. Governor was saying maybe up to 5 days before power is restored. *Really* glad I kept power!

Some aerial recon shots from last night. CT River still hasn't crested yet.

Well, its nice to have my computer/network plugged back in and operational. Unfortunately, my Internet connection has been less than stellar lately...

So Irene was a bust at the shore... nothing even close to Gloria. I played a good stooge and followed the mandatory evacuation, but I had a ton of irreplaceable items to move and I wasn't happy to left the '95 Caprice or the '99 Bonneville in the path... but both are somewhat disabled, so I couldn't drive them to the other house and towing on such short notice was out of the question. Since I have lots of cinder blocks at the other house, I decided that was could not be moved was raised... lawnmower, spare tranny in the garage, my books and other media was all raised as high as possible, hoping IF the ocean or bay visited me, the extra height would keep things high and dry.

How do you keep your Bonneville high and dry? Well...

So now I know roughly what a "donked" B-ville would be like. Ugh.

What annoyed me about my "evacuation" was that it seemed like I left the pan and jumped into the fire. There was much more wind and flooding in the areas I evacuated to... luckily for me, I was back home before the flooding got too bad in SW Jersey.

Glad to see you back, and unscathed.

Seems like every year people are more scared & frazzled by things that our ancestors took in stride.

without cell phones

without power, at all, ever

without fire trucks, ambulances etc...

just sayin'

Mrs. Jones: No you do NOT need to stock up on 48 bottles of water because of a Hurricane.

Think about it. Some of these people raiding the local grocery stores for TP & beer is just pathetic.

Seems like every year people are more scared & frazzled by things that our ancestors took in stride.

without cell phones

without power, at all, ever

without fire trucks, ambulances etc...

just sayin'

Mrs. Jones: No you do NOT need to stock up on 48 bottles of water because of a Hurricane.

Think about it. Some of these people raiding the local grocery stores for TP & beer is just pathetic.

In general, I agree. Panicking at the last minute helps little... but research ahead of time is the key.

I can camp at the other house indefinitely with little more than a roof and the hand pump for the well... but I generally don't have to worry about being flooded out or loosing the roof off the house (even though its in poor shape) unless we get a freak tornado.

At my home on a barrier island, I cannot put up such a confidant defense. If the house got a hurricane-prep during a renovation and was put up on pilings, I only would have to worry about my water supply. I normally already have some water stowed for emergency (bottled water bottles refilled with tap water) and a pretty good TP supply. Had Irene been a category 3 at high tide, I could have lived without cellular, power or 911 services... but having the house, my TP and water supply washed away, would have left me in a untenable position for riding out the storm. ;-)

That said, I am not one of those people living on a barrier island barely above the water line... At 12 foot, I'm higher than most barrier islands, though I think some parts of Atlantic City may be slightly higher. I would still get disconnected from the mainland, though. Unfortunately, my topo maps are not granular enough to determine this info, though... I'd have to do a GPS survey, which is still iffy.

In my area, people raided the stores for a lot more than water, TP and beer. They cleaned out whole shopping centers and even the dollar stores (where I normally buy my water). Even the Wawas closed... a sure sign of the apocalypse... or Christmas.

Even the Wawas closed... a sure sign of the apocalypse... or Christmas

All Wawa's in NJ closed Saturday night (I think at 8:00 PM), mandated by the company. However, when they re-opened on Sunday, boy were people happy to be able to get their coffee again! The one street my fellow fire police officer and I had to close off was close enough to the local Wawa that when everyone lost power, they all headed over for a cup of coffee to wait for PSE&G to arrive to restore the power.

One other crazy note... When we left Brigantine at 8pm... about 2 hours after emergency management wanted people out... we were probably in the last few households in the south end to leave.

Since most of my nearby neighbors were gone, many people shut off their electricity and even Atlantic City over the inlet was oddly silent... even the seagulls seemed to have cleared out... there was no wind and the ocean was calm... the total effect was absolute scary silence.

I've been some pretty remote places, but there is still noise, even that background rumble or buzz that never quite goes away... but it was gone. There was NOTHING. I've never experienced anything like it before and it was a very profound moment.

I spent time over 2 winters working in Avalon; drove down Monday morning, slept in the house and left Wed evening.

In Jan/Feb- the island was absolutely deserted.... except for the WAWA there. :metal: :metal:

Once out on Avalon proper, I'd drive about 20 blocks to the house and the streets were barren. Creepy.

There was an island elevation chart on the fridge there, we were on the highest spot, and that was only 8'.

Edited September 8, 201114 yr by balthazar

Somehow I missed the memo today that the hurricane was back for part 2. I knew it was raining, but not this much. Turned on Fox Philly over breakfast to see Kelly Drive was again completely gone, covered in rushing water at the intersection below where I live. Up to the same level as with Irene.

Getting old. Especially when a total surprise.

Made a mess for my commute. Had to detour around & around, head north to get south, and so on. So much water...

It continues. Never did I expect to have so much "water" going on, moving to Philly.

Kelly Drive still flooded & closed. Overnight and this morning 76 closed with flooding and mudslides. Mudslides? Completely bizarre.

Good thing Thursday is my day off. I'd be trapped if I tried to leave.

I spent time over 2 winters working in Avalon; drove down Monday morning, slept in the house and left Wed evening.

In Jan/Feb- the island was absolutely deserted.... except for the WAWA there. :metal: :metal:

Once out on Avalon proper, I'd drive about 20 blocks to the house and the streets were barren. Creepy.

There was an island elevation chart on the fridge there, we were on the highest spot, and that was only 8'.

I've lived mostly on the barrier islands since '93, and I love the post-Sept season... shoobies leaving and the barren streets. Some islands get more barren than others... but the hurricane evac made even the most barren island seen downright crowded.

Avalon at 8 foot... sounds about right. What I never knew until recently is how low level nearly ALL of Cape May county is, even the "mainland"... with the exception of Woodbine, I think all of Cape May is under 10'.

Of course 8', 10', 12'... doesn't sound like much of a difference, but for storms it is a pretty big difference... hence why I jacked the car up on blocks. 16" makes a big difference.