After Irene

Five days without power is not fun. Hurricane Irene pummeled eastern NC where I live. It reminded everyone here how nature can quite easily remove man-made comforts of life. Category size of a hurricane is a little misleading. Yes, a Cat 3 storm is more powerful than a Cat 1 storm, but the reality is "it's not how fast the wind blows, it's how LONG the wind blows". Having tropical storm force winds plus hurricane force winds overhead for 18 hours straight, along with a driving rain, makes for a rough ride. When the winds finally died down we looked outside at the devastation. Lots of very large trees were uprooted, and millions of tree limbs covered the ground to the point that walking was difficult. By the grace of God, all of the trees that fell missed the house. Neighbors were not so lucky. When we were able to get the pickup truck out of the barn and take a ride, the gravity of the damage all around became overwhelming. Power lines were snapped and down everywhere. Roofs were missing off homes and buildings and flood waters were rising. Then the sun came out, the winds completely stopped, and merciless heat and humidity settled in. Listening to a single battery powered radio was our link to the outside world, and the reports were that the devastation and misery extended well up the coast into New England. We heard that Mayor Bloomberg of NYC said that the storm was a dud and was overblown. Really? Mr. Bloomberg should be forcibly dragged into New Jersey and made to stay in a shelter with residents there for awhile. A little sweating in his designer suit would be good for him. Believe me, Hurricane Irene was anything but "overblown".