These are not first world problems, or, my day with Andrew and the National Guard

[uufarmgirl]

I know a lot of people think Irene was a whole lot of big whoop about nothing and would rather read El Bloombito (and OMG the things I could tell you about her....) but we're only just now seeing the end of the flooding here. Next comes the cleanup, and on Friday night, Andrew Cuomo announced volunteer cleanup days over Sunday and Monday of this

Comments

[tourogal]

no, it wasn't and i thank Gd it missed us...the place it was supposed to land from the time they realized it was going to get past the carolinas. it was big, it was nasty, and yet, my friend's husband who is a pilot was monitoring the airspeeds and at the height of the storm, the 6000ft airspeed was about 60 knots. not really strong.

we got very very lucky, those of us that are downstate. and the smart ones are giving to their favorite saints to thank them for protecting us. me, well, i sacrificed my garden to irene, and for that, she left my home alone.

[uufarmgirl]

That's sort of my point though - just because it didn't have big wind, doesn't mean it wasn't an intensely destructive event. It just means it didn't do its work the way we think of hurricanes. It really bothers me that because it fails that arbitrary test of hurricane-ness, people feel that they can mock and say Irene was a lot of fuss over nothing. As bad as Arkville was, there are towns in Vermont that are basically gone. For me it's a reminder that when G'd decided to destroy everything and start over, he didn't send wind.

[tourogal]

true. very true.

[badapplebettie]

One of my friends is in New Haven, CT. She was very lucky. Not far from her house, which came through unscathed, entire homes were washed away. I guess the storm is only a big deal if it messes your stuff up. If it messes someone else's stuff up, it was no big deal.

[uufarmgirl]

>I guess the storm is only a big deal if it messes your stuff up. If it messes someone else's stuff up, it was no big deal.

That's a pretty good way of putting it. It's just so *random*. One of the houses we shoveled out, which we were allowed to work in because it was intact and safe (there was an enormous gully where the driveway and garage had been, but the house was safe) was directly across the street from a house that was completely blocked off because almost the entire foundation had washed out from under the house. It was just sort of hanging there in mid-air, propped up with some slapdash two by fours to replace the 12 or so feet of earth and basement that used to be under it. There are supposed to be crews up there today as well (when we volunteered, we were assigned randomly to Sunday or Monday) but guess what - it's *raining*. 2 steps forward, one step back.

[rfoster_faith]

I find the image of a child little girl wandering about without her dolly the most difficult, the most poignant. http://rfoster-faith.livejournal.com/19552.html

[lawgeekgurl]

trust me, we thought it was a big deal and I am glad you are safe. It was incredibly lucky it wasn't worse than it was and it was bad as hell for northern New England.