<p>^^^Bless your hearts. Keeping you all in my prayers.</p>
<p>Good luck to all of you in Vermont–my local TV news showed clips of the flooding. It looks scary. My part of Central MA is beautiful right now–sunny and clear. Lost power for most of the day yesterday and experienced rain/high winds. No damage to my property, but trees are down around town. Our island house (Nantucket) was fine–high winds and just a little rain. Friend of my D’s is housesitting for us–she said it was businesses as usual in the downtown there yesterday.</p>
<p>Still no power at our house, in north central CT (since Sunday early AM). Like many we excpected the storm to follow the CT river valley and knock us for a loop. Really it wasn’t that bad damage-wise. CL&P can’t give us an estimate on when we’ll have power back…although my mom, 2 miles across town, got hers back this morning. Hoping soon.</p>
<p>Oh my. Take a look at the projected path <a href=“http://www.stormpulse.com/tropical-depression-twelve-2011[/url]”>http://www.stormpulse.com/tropical-depression-twelve-2011</a> (click on the forecast models in the upper right corner) of tropical depression # 12, which, if named, will be named… Katia. That’s too close for comfort.</p>
<p>Does someone at the national hurricane center have a strange sense of humor? Katia = Katrina without the nurse (RN). Groan.</p>
<p>For my area it was more of a flooding event, with the impact varying greatly from street to street. I can’t believe we kept our power ( knock wood) especially since for years our street used to lose in the slightest wind. We were about to invest in a generator a few years ago, but the electric company promised they fixed the problem. I guess they were true to their word. Lots of severe flooding of homes near water less than a mile away, and on the other side of us, , just a few blocks away and extending to the end of the town, the rest of the area lost power due to uprooted trees on top of downed wires, but ours stayed on.</p>
<p>My biggest concern was when we started to get water literally pouring into the basement well before the peak of the storm. Luckily, the shop vac kept up with it. Never had any problems in that part of the house before - turned out there was a clog in a drainage pipe - when that was removed it drained instantly and no more problems for the duration. But, of course, we were up all night, checking. We did have one casualty - my washing machine’s motor died. One of my children is leaving for the semester this week and I wanted to get all the laundry done ahead of the storm. It was on its last legs anyway.</p>
<p>We actually were very lucky on the South shore of Nassau County,even though we were in the evacuation zone. We prepared our house well and evacuated to the North Shore. Came home yesterday, worried about big tree in our yard but only lost branches. Did not lose power and had minor amount of water in the basement due to the driveway which floods in torrential downpours. Actually most of the power outages were due in NY to trees and once the storm came ashore in Coney Island, we were on the windy side. The rainy side is what is causing so many problems in NJ and up in Westchester. The news from VT is just unreal- who would have thought so much devastation in VT from a coastal hurricane.</p>
<p>I’ve been so sorry to hear about Vermont and other places having such huge problems. We are dealing with a flooded crawlspace and all the adjusters and contractors to deal with that (power still off in pockets of the neighborhood but we have power thankfully) but it does not compare to loss of life, having your home totally uninhabitable. This has been bad enough and can’t even imagine going through some of this stuff that is clearly worse. I wish the best to everyone still dealing with this.</p>
<p>It’s so easy to underestimate the sheer power of water. A few drops can corrupt electronic equipment, and a lot can carve out the Grand Canyon. It’s so sad to see this flooding, and hear the horrible stories of personal tragedy and property loss.</p>
<p>As an aside, a friend who lives in NJ didn’t have enough flashlights, so they got out some of those flameless candles from their Christmas decorations, turned off the flicker function, and used those. They worked great and were safer than candles. That’s an idea I’ll try to remember.</p>
<p>I’m so sorry for your losses, and your kids’. I’ve never been much into cyber hugs, but boy, this situation sure has me giving you all a bunch of cyber hugs. All the best.</p>
<p>I live in a small town in upstate NY, and I must say I did not expect this much flooding up here! I would’ve never thought that I’d have a hurricane destroy the city I live in… It’s unbelievable! I’m just thankful that all I had to go through was not having power for about 5 hours and no internet/cable for about a day. </p>
<p>Good luck to all of you out there being affected by hurricane Irene!</p>
<p>I’m one of those folks with a family wedding this weekend. My niece got married on Long Island (NY) Saturday night in the direct path of the storm. Fortunately, the hotel was literally in the center of the island, halfway between the north and south shore bodies of water. We made it there with no problem, it was raining moderately when the wedding reception ended about midnight, and we had no trouble traveling on Sunday. The only problem was that other than my immediate family, all the other relatives on my niece’s side wimped out and canceled. What a total bummer. 
They made the wrong choice.</p>
<p>It is awful to hear about the people and the communities that have been devastated by this. It certainly puts the smaller scale disruptions and inconveniences into perspective.</p>
<p>Whoohooo! POWER JUST CAME ON!!</p>
<p>Son’s car is totaled from the flash flood on campus. He’s all ready sending us links to used cars to replace it. hahahahaha</p>
<p>interesteddad, who posted in #176 that this was much ado about nothing - how did you fare in the end?</p>
<p>Please don’t use “much ado about nothing” in my neck of the woods. It is devastating here and the worst in a century. Add in other states and communities affected and the sum total is a lot of destruction.</p>
<p>We have many friends in Vermont and have seen the pictures of the very significant damage due to the volume of rain they got there. Sadly, there really isn’t any way to prepare or prevent this kind of natural disaster. My hopes to the folks in Vermont that they are able to rebuild from all of this. The people we know there love their towns, homes and state, and I can see them all doing the best they can to rebuild their homes. </p>
<p>I honestly haven’t seen such damage in this part of New England. So odd that the storm veered west…they usually go east and out to sea.</p>
<p>Did anyone see a covered bridge in VT that got washed away? It was so sad. Someone filmed it. I think VT got hit a lot harder than NYC area. D1 arrived in her new apartment in NYC safely.</p>
<p>Sooze, almost all my family is in New England. It is devastating and particularly for those in VT. My parents who are in their eighties are without power for the second day and have been told it could be up to a week. Luckily my brother lives nearby and has been able to help with small things (like opening the garage door manually so they could get a car out). Last night they drove around for an hour till they found one restaurant open that had a generator. I’m glad that they had no physical damage like many of those in NH and VT (where I also have family) but being without power at their age is not insignificant…</p>
<p>Hi, my son had the same problem and his car is probably totaled. His car is older and we had no collision or comp. insurance on it but I feel the school should have some responsibility for the poor drainage that occured. We know that at 11:00 am the parking lot was dry and by 11:30 his car had 5 feet of water on it. Do you know what the schools responsibility is? Very upset!</p>
<p>Do you think Marist College should have some responsibility for the flooding of many vehicles above engine in their parking lot? Poor Drainage!! Does anyone know about the drainage problem at Marist?</p>