After the storm

Irene was kind to us.

Power shut off for about 30 seconds twice late Saturday night, but that was it.

No flooding either.  Some areas of Brick are experiencing flooding, but thankfully not us.   I haven't even seen my neighbors pumping out their basements either.

My friends up in North Jersey didn't fare so well.  Flooding in their homes and not being able to even get out of their neighborhoods because of the flooding. 

And no power to pump out their basements. 

This is the Patriots baseball stadium in Bridgewater, NJ

When Irene was a Category 3, we were going to evacuate.  We were going to my MIL's house.   But as Irene downgraded we decided to stick it out.  I'm so glad we did.  MIL lost power Saturday night and it just came back on this morning (Monday). Also she couldn't get out of her town until later Sunday.  I would not have been happy being unable to get back to our house to see how we fared.  

Also had we evacuated, I wouldn't have been here to get a ride in the back of a police car around 12:30 Sunday morning!

LOL  That sounds more exciting than it actually was. 

I'm part of our towns CERT Team (Community Emergency Response Team) and 3 of us were asked to come to Police HQ around midnight to help with the expected overflow of calls, power outages, opening shelters, etc.  And since we were asked to come in what was believed to be when the storm was going to be bad, they came & got us. 

I didn't know the back seats of police cars were molded plastic benches.  OUCH!

What we ended up doing was napping in the "war room" because the storm, as it hit us, wasn't that bad.  Sure we had lots of rain & wind, but no damage & no panicking.  

Now it's Monday.  I have a few beach writings to do, but thankfully they all understood it was going to take a few days because of Irene.  My husband is off all week so I we decide to take a quick ride to check out the beach.

This is what we found

Closed.

I'm hoping that they're closed only because they haven't really checked out the ramp & stairs and that they will be opened back up tomorrow. 

Brick Beaches are closed today for clean up too.

So today I'm back to work, so thankful that I work from home and that we have power & internet and no water damage. 

My thoughts go out to my friends & family and others up & down the east coast who are suffering the effects of Irene, even though she's long gone. 

OH and a side note, my video storm feed made it on Fox 5 in NY! :D