Hear the Bells: Hurricane Irene

Finally I can post about the hurricane! We were without power for about a day and a half and then it took a few days for us to get everything back in order. Plus, I had to get William to fix the computer to where I could upload the pictures. We are very thankful to have only very minimal, if any, damage. The most inconvenient thing was going without power. And we got it back pretty quickly compared to most families, some are still without power.

The rain started last Friday night (8/26) and we woke up on Saturday morning to very gray skies, lots of wind and a lot more rain. It was pretty dark. I guess the dark sky and the pounding rain helped Cora sleep because she slept until almost 9 am! (She is usually ready to get up by 7). I got up to cook a hot breakfast around 7 but the power went out. Luckily it came back on a few minutes later and I quickly scrambled some eggs and made cheese toast. As soon as I finished, the power went off again. It did not return. Cora woke up soon after and we all got a hot meal. I was very impressed that Cora handled everything really well. She did not seemed scared at all about the wind or weather. She actually asked to go outside a few times. She did not even notice that we did not have power - except when she wanted to watch TV! She was quite content to do some craft activities - like painting, play doh, and making a bead necklace. She even took a great nap!

The afternoon/evening was pretty much the same as the morning, more wind and rain. We were not really prepared as we did not have a battery powered radio, we thought we did but the batteries only allowed the clock function to work. So next hurricane - we need to get a radio and more flashlights! So not having any access to the outside world made me nervous. I got worried at some points just not knowing how strong the storm was or how long we were going to be without power.

While I fixed dinner, William and Cora watched a "Dora" video in the van. Then we put her down for the night and we went back out to the van to listen to the radio. It was quite sad hearing about all the flooding or destruction. We went to bed early that night, mostly due to the fact it was pitch black and we only had 2 little flashlights. At this point the wind and rain had started to calm down. I opened our bedroom window and all night I hoped our power would return. It did not so it was a little uncomfortable.