One Of These Things Is Not Like The Other . . . .

Here at That Old House, we weathered Irene just fine.
Our worst damage?

Anne went out last evening to walk Dion,

and came back with Dion and a shutter.

One of our shutters lost its pintel hinge -- at the bottom --

and was hanging onto the house by only its top hinge.

Which probably explained the occasional thumps against the clapboards during the high winds.

Easily fixed, and a very minor inconvenience.

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With Tropical Storm Irene (nee Hurricane) gone,

I just need to say . . . 

On behalf of the 1 in 5 Americans who experienced Irene,

and the Canadians and Bahamians who also were in her path,

thank you 

for the good wishes, positive thoughts, and many prayers from

all over the world that flew with Irene up the Atlantic coast.

This fawn is in our former neighborhood.
Now, we live on a hill but my heart is with my old neighborhood and the record breaking flooding there.

To the governors, mayors, and emergency management officials

who painted the direst picture for us ahead of Irene's arrival

and urged us in no uncertain terms to take all precautions,

thank you.

This is the town where our daughter Anne lives.
She wisely rode out the storm at That Old House.

To the people who chose to defy the evacuation orders and
"ride out" the storm in their own homes, or visited
the scene of the action because they were curious -- shame on you.


Your selfish, thoughtless actions put the lives of
emergency personnel at risk, and -- although less importantly
-- add to the already burdensome cost to the public.


If you have sufficient warning about an impending disaster, and the ability to leave,
and you choose to stay in harm's way -- you should be fined at the very least.
If I were Queen, I'd have you put in the public stocks so that firefighters and policemen
and military rescue personnel could throw flood-soaked debris at you, and call you unflattering names.

Golly, Cass, how do you really feel?
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On the whole, we were lucky because Irene could have been worse.

But what she was, was very bad indeed.

Thank you, Laura Schank from Lincoln Park, for this shot of Wolfson's Market, the world's best little food store.
Our daughter Anne worked here -- her first-ever summer job.  The owners and employees are wonderful folks
and seeing water halfway up the door is startling and upsetting.

It won't be until emergency personnel and reporters can get into

towns now cut off from the world by water . . . 

it won't be until then that we will see the true extent of the damage.

Irene's winds tore up trees and did some damage,

but her real legacy is her water.

Along the coast, storm surges from the ocean or other salt water bodies roar in,

and then they roar rather quickly back out again.

And you pick up the pieces. 

In some communities all along the coast, there are a lot of pieces to pick up.

Freshwater flooding is very different.

There are flash floods, when smaller rivers and streams suddenly go rogue and --

like a storm surge -- quickly inundate,

do their damage and then leave.  And, you pick up the pieces.

Then there is the type of flooding that doesn't clear out quickly.

It's from the larger rivers, and New Jersey is full of them.

And they are over-full of water from Irene, which is still rising into neighborhoods,

shopping centers, parks, industrial areas, and small and large roads and parkways.

It takes days for this water to get back into the rivers' banks.

And it leaves behind a gawd-awful mess.

We used to live along a river, and several times had a basement full of water from the river --

a river that most of the time was a delight to watch.

But our old neighborhood is under much more water now; Irene brought disaster there.

It breaks my heart.

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The good news is that disasters bring out the best in most of us.

People are helping people, just as we saw in Joplin and,
unfortunately, too many places this year.

Keep those prayers and good thoughts coming, folks!

It amazes me that all we have to clean off our front porch are some leaves.

It is a spectacularly beautiful day in the North East.

One other thing hurricanes leave behind

are skies scrubbed clean

and brilliant sunshine.

Good luck to all -- Cass