FYI, we're okay
Dear Everyone,
Well, since you’ve likely heard a bit about the passing of Irene through here, I figured I’d send out a little note to let y’all know we’re doing just fine. Irene hit New Haven sure enough, but seems to have escaped relatively lightly. In fact, from our vantage point it seemed pretty disappointing after all the hubbub, since from our windows all we saw was some occasionally heavy rain and some high winds that knocked some leaves loose, but that’s it.
Then once everything had died down to some gusty breezes (~ 5 PM) we took a walk, and within two blocks saw four or five large treed either snapped or splintered. Then, during the weekly potluck barbeque*, we were all talking when suddenly there was a crack-CRACK, and a huge limb from a tree across the street fell onto the road, blocking most of its width and nearly landing on a guy out for a walk. The wind that knocked it wasn't even that big; it must've just been weakened earlier and that was the last straw.
* Like I said, it had calmed down pretty much. Though we’re still probably a little crazy for barbecuing only a few hours after a tropical storm passed through.
Once the girls were in bed we started checking some news sites, and then we really realized how well we got off. There’s all sorts of pictures of flooding, storm surges, entire houses being washed away . . . and that’s just in the neighboring towns. Apparently half of Connecticut is pretty much blacked out, though I don’t know how that translates to population. (I suspect the worst-hit parts are also the least inhabited; less redundancy in the grid.)
So, apparently the hype was pretty justified, and we were just lucky. In fact, our floods-with-every-drizzle basement is somehow still bone dry. We’re still scratching our heads over that one.
Anyway, here's some photos of what we found on our walk:
This is at the elementary across the street. I bet the owners of the cars on the other side of the fence are very happy the wind was blowing the other way.
One block east of here.
Just a hundred yards from the last one. Thankfully, it looks like the angle prevented anything beyond superficial damage.
This one we found on the local NBC site, and I felt it worth sharing.
So that’s that. In other news, my dissertation is 99% done. I’m just waiting on feedback from 2 people, and then it’s time to print, bind, and give it to my committee. Not done yet, but getting close. Wish me luck.
Take care!
PS: If anyone’s curious, that earthquake earlier in the week was felt here by some people, including me. I was sitting at my desk and noticed that if I sat perfectly still my chair was jiggling a bit. It didn’t get worse, so I figured it was just heavy machinery, and ~20 seconds later it went away. Only an hour or so later did I learn what it was. So I almost¬¬ experienced a hurricane and an earthquake in the same week, and was thwarted only by Irene losing enough steam to be downgraded to tropical storm. All things considered, I think I won’t complain.
Well, since you’ve likely heard a bit about the passing of Irene through here, I figured I’d send out a little note to let y’all know we’re doing just fine. Irene hit New Haven sure enough, but seems to have escaped relatively lightly. In fact, from our vantage point it seemed pretty disappointing after all the hubbub, since from our windows all we saw was some occasionally heavy rain and some high winds that knocked some leaves loose, but that’s it.
Then once everything had died down to some gusty breezes (~ 5 PM) we took a walk, and within two blocks saw four or five large treed either snapped or splintered. Then, during the weekly potluck barbeque*, we were all talking when suddenly there was a crack-CRACK, and a huge limb from a tree across the street fell onto the road, blocking most of its width and nearly landing on a guy out for a walk. The wind that knocked it wasn't even that big; it must've just been weakened earlier and that was the last straw.
* Like I said, it had calmed down pretty much. Though we’re still probably a little crazy for barbecuing only a few hours after a tropical storm passed through.
Once the girls were in bed we started checking some news sites, and then we really realized how well we got off. There’s all sorts of pictures of flooding, storm surges, entire houses being washed away . . . and that’s just in the neighboring towns. Apparently half of Connecticut is pretty much blacked out, though I don’t know how that translates to population. (I suspect the worst-hit parts are also the least inhabited; less redundancy in the grid.)
So, apparently the hype was pretty justified, and we were just lucky. In fact, our floods-with-every-drizzle basement is somehow still bone dry. We’re still scratching our heads over that one.
Anyway, here's some photos of what we found on our walk:
This is at the elementary across the street. I bet the owners of the cars on the other side of the fence are very happy the wind was blowing the other way.
One block east of here.
Just a hundred yards from the last one. Thankfully, it looks like the angle prevented anything beyond superficial damage.
This one we found on the local NBC site, and I felt it worth sharing.
So that’s that. In other news, my dissertation is 99% done. I’m just waiting on feedback from 2 people, and then it’s time to print, bind, and give it to my committee. Not done yet, but getting close. Wish me luck.
Take care!
PS: If anyone’s curious, that earthquake earlier in the week was felt here by some people, including me. I was sitting at my desk and noticed that if I sat perfectly still my chair was jiggling a bit. It didn’t get worse, so I figured it was just heavy machinery, and ~20 seconds later it went away. Only an hour or so later did I learn what it was. So I almost¬¬ experienced a hurricane and an earthquake in the same week, and was thwarted only by Irene losing enough steam to be downgraded to tropical storm. All things considered, I think I won’t complain.