<p>Lost power here in Central MA today from 10 am to 6:30 pm. Lots of wind and rain, which started yesterday afternoon.</p>
<p>Seems my cable went. Power has flickered and winds are howling. But I found some photos online now of my community that are really really bad…massive flooding…evacuations and so on.</p>
<p>Soozie: I seem to have lost your email and I know you don’t do PMs here. Anyway, I’ve got some sources of Vermont news to suggest to you – if you still have my contact info, get in touch with me.</p>
<p>Oh Soozievt, you spent the weekend worrying about D2 in NY, and now your area is flooded. My thoughts are with you, and all the others with house damage and no electricity.</p>
<p>My S in NC has been without power since early Saturday morning. His university has cancelled classes for Monday because of all the damage on campus.</p>
<p>I lost power (which also means internet) and was shut out from the world but now it has come back …but not cable/TV). I have seen photos online from my community…looks very bad. </p>
<p>fireandrain, I can’t recall your email either but if you click my member name, go to “send email.”</p>
<p>It is rather odd that the devastation here is much worse than for D in NYC. </p>
<p>Good news from D in NYC, however…subways return tomorrow morning…her show WILL go on. On a more minor front (but not to her, LOL), her boyfriend who had been on a trip and was to fly back to NYC today in time for her concert tomorrow and of course could not…and could only rebook for Wednesday (which happens to be the day my D is finally flying home for a visit!), was actually able to get a flight to NYC tomorrow in time to see her show, and was gonna surprise her with this turn of events but called her from the west coast and finally told her tonight. Things are looking up (for her)…actually she had a lot of good news the past few days career-wise and so no complaints. </p>
<p>Feeling really badly for my community though and others so badly affected.</p>
<p>I am in Ct. We have 2houses, our main house and a beach house. No power in either town or my store’s town. 100% out. </p>
<p>Visited beach house after storm yesterday. Extremely fortunAte house is dry and undamaged neighbors not so lucky. At least 3 homes in our neighborhood were destroyed and will be unable to rebuild. These were all for sale this summer between 1 and 2 million dollars. </p>
<p>The power of waves is incredible. The stuff that was moved by the water, unbelievable. According to neighbors waves were breaking over the top of beachfront house in front of me. His deck and seawall are gone. Storm surge in Long Island Sound approximately 9 feet. We have 4 steps in. Water was over 1 st step but not over 2nd. Floor elevation 12.5 feet. Historic surge height generally given as 10-12 feet. All armload was paint due to sandblasting and three fence panels. We are extremely lucky and fortunate. </p>
<p>Sent from iPhone</p>
<p>Armload actually means. All we lost. </p>
<p>Love auto-correct!</p>
<p>All 4 in my family weathered the storm in different places: H stayed at our beach house in RI – he lost power at 6 AM yesterday, but otherwise all is well. (He stayed so he could do a post-storm check on his sailboat which didn’t get hauled; that’s fine, too.) D is in her apartment in New Haven – also no power, but otherwise fine. S is at school in central MA – never lost power and all is well. I’m in Cambridge and absolutely fine. H is driving here this morning.</p>
<p>My hometown in western MA, as well as other area towns, had some heavy flooding in lower lying areas. The town is right on the CT River, and there are several other rivers that converge. Photos and videos on Facebook are showing some pretty incredible flooding.</p>
<p>We have 3,500 in town without power, a few closed roads due to falling trees and police are checking on the elderly in town. We have a total of 100,000 without power in the greater regional area and utilities are working on them. I suspect that they will get things back reasonably quickly as power outages due to snow and ice storms are a normal thing.</p>
<p>Saw some videos of Vermont on YouTube. Considerable destruction of roads getting washed out - reminds me of the floods in Keene, NH a few years ago. Also flooding of village centers and peoples homes that were flooded in a very short period of time.</p>
<p>I have a friend on Cape Cod that lost power but he had internet access on his laptop via Verizon. He had some very heavy winds but he seems okay now. Just waiting for power to return.</p>
<p>Half a million households without power as of last night here. We got ours back late last night. I didn’t mind it so much during the day. As it got dark, I kept rubbing my eyes to see better in the dim light. Impressed with repair crew. No damage for us. No flooding in the basement, no big tree branches came down, either. We have tall trees, tulip poplars, norwegian pines, oaks. When they swayed, it was scary a bit.</p>
<p>I’m getting flood warnings this morning as water runs off into rivers so the effects will be felt for a few days. I checked our catchment basin this morning and it was empty. I think that it only had a few feet of water yesterday. We’ve had storms earlier this year where it filled up much higher but that was due to a series of close storms.</p>
<p>Vermont is reeling this morning from what is becoming the state’s worst natural disaster since the epic flood of 1927. My cable is not working but all the photos online show much devastation in my state, including a great deal in my community. I won’t be going out again today as I believe the main routes and roads in my town are not passable, including he covered bridge (which is at least still standing, but other ones in VT have been washed away). I am fortunate as I don’t live in the village but the villages in my community were all flooded and everyone evacuated. Looks horrendous based on what I can see online. Sad. But our rural communities are very close-knit and people will help one another. There is already a Facebook site for my community and the aftermath of Irene and many trying to help others, and even figure out how to get anywhere (people are spread out, like I am, on dirt roads, and can’t tell the situation from where they live). I had been so concerned with the hurricane for my daughter in NYC, given all the dire alerts, but we got it so much worse here in VT, which I never would have predicted.</p>
<p>Susan, I’m glad to hear that you’re staying inside today! I hope that others will do the same. The stories I’ve seen about the flooding in Vermont have been frightening. I’m going to be visiting your beautiful state next month so I’m hoping that things return to normal fairly quickly for everyone there. As you’ve probably heard, there’s been quite a bit of damage in my old neck of the woods in Jersey, with flooding, no power, downed trees being a continuing problem. What has surprised me is how areas in quite close proximity, have had very different issues from the hurricane.</p>
<p>Wishing all the best to your D tonight with her show!</p>
<p>Still no power at our house </p>
<p>The insurance guy showed up at my son’s college (Marist)
to assess the damage to his car caused by the flash flood into the parking lot. He said that it looks like they’ll probably consider it totaled</p>
<p>AlwaysAMom, I don’t think I could go out even if I wanted to due to the few main roads that we do have which are now closed, as well as the covered bridge I must pass through. I’m fortunate and those who live or have businesses in the villages are not. </p>
<p>I just read this line on Gawker: “Poor Vermont! Even though it’s America’s 47th least-horrible state and a magical place of ice cream and cows, Tropical Storm Irene has been abusing it mercilessly. Severe flooding has submerged homes under brownish water, destroyed charming bridges, and taken a life.” (funny and sad at the same time)</p>
<p>Drop me an email…if you are coming to Vermont…I can meet you wherever that may be. That would be GREAT.</p>
<p>As your hometown is where my brother lives (and where I am from nearby), I know he has been without power a long long while.</p>
<p>Vermont is unfortunately, quite a mess.</p>
<p>I saw a three-minute video of a road getting washed away. Almost one side of the road had been eroded by water and you could see chunks of tar falling off the middle of the road during the video. Best to stay off the roads until state and local agencies can identify hazards.</p>
<p>I heard Irene wasn’t supposed to veer west and hit Vermont so hard. Somewhere else, there was a 911 call from a girl while being washed away by flood water. Firefighters responded but couldn’t find her in the dark. They found her car next morning. Or a tree that fell down on the hood of a guy car who was driving slowly. It’s hard to watch the news.</p>
<p>It’s probably good that I can’t watch the news (my cable is out and cable is necessary here to get any TV reception). Too sad.</p>
<p>I’m now being told that my power won’t be back on until sometime tomorrow.</p>
<p>Hopefully I can get some dry ice for my freezers.</p>