Shelllady

Shelllady

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Fires, Earthquakes and Hurricanes...Oh My!!

Don't Mess with Mother Nature!! ~Unknown


What a lot of excitement we have had here in Virginia and North Carolina!!  As you probably know, we have had the Dismal Swamp fire for several weeks, that periodically sends it's smoke our way, and it can be so bad some times that you can barely see to drive....then as quickly as it comes, it goes away!! 


Then, the EARTHQUAKE....yes we had an earthquake here and how freaky that was....it started very slight and slow, just enough to make you think you had a case of vertigo, then it increased rapidly and you knew you had lost your mind....until you look around and see everyone else's confused expressions!!  I happened to be at the Dr. Office with my parents, and it felt almost like the wooden chair I was sitting in had rubber legs...then it backed off ever so slightly!! I couldn't believe it was an earthquake as we don't have them here in Virginia....but the TV in the office made the announcement!!


Meanwhile, Hurricane Irene was beginning to churn things up in the Atlantic!!  Whew!!  Hubby and I left here (Tidewater Virginia) Friday night to go to his mother's house as she lives alone and at 88 years young, living among a group of pine trees, we needed to go be with her for the storm.  We picked up everything that could fly around the yard and packed up our tailgating stove, water, flashlights, batteries and anything else we might need and headed down toward Irene as she headed up to the NC coast!! :\  We got to his Mom's about 5:00 friday evening and were greeted with Irene's rain bands and a little wind, before too long the rain became steady and heavy and the wind picked up!! We "rocked and rolled" all night, and the rain gauge already read it's capacity of 5" as the sun came up Saturday morning.  By 8:00am or so we had lost power, and Irene had made landfall Southeast of us and was headed North!!  It was the slowest moving storm we have EVER experienced!! The rain and wind lasted until sometime before sunup Sunday Morning!! Probably 30 hours of solid wind and rain!!  I tried to take some pictures of the birds huddled under the feeder 'hats' and riding the wind, but with all the rain on the windows they didn't turn out very well....maybe you can get the idea!!
There is a female cardinal inside and 2 under the 'hat' on top

2 under the hat, and they just rode up there going round and around in circles blowing in the wind!!


Believe it or not, no trees came down on her lot!! Lots of debris and limbs, but nothing else!! We had heard people in NC mention the smell of sap during the day on the radio, but didn't quite understand it until we went outside about 8 am to survey the area, and it smelled like Christmas!!  Remember how the Christmas tree lots always smell?  It was amazing!!  We picked up limbs and debris and we still didn't have power, so we cooked lunch on our stove ...and headed home to our house to see what happened here...it passed our house much more quickly, which is really good since we leave very near the water, and our town is prone to flooding....Remember Isabel? We made the national news because of the devastation here in our little 'watermen' town of Poquoson!!  We found out later that the water was rising and many were holding their breath, but 2 hours before high tide, Irene's eye passed over and the changing wind direction pushed the water out before too much damage was done!! How lucky is that??  Most everyone lost power, which is not unusual here, EXCEPT our neighborhood!!  We had no trees down, and only a few leaves on our porch!!  We are SOOOO lucky!!    GOODNIGHT IRENE!!


So I guess I can't complain, all in all with all of our attacks by Mother Nature we are doing Great!! Thank you all for you emails and comments....we're still here, still heading toward the wonderful world of Retirement, and getting ready for Hokie Football (Virginia Tech) which begins this coming weekend!! Yahoo!! I'm ready to have some fun!!  We have become big time tailgaters so I will hopefully have lots of pictures, stories and maybe some recipes to share in the coming weeks!!


::Hugs::


Cheri


BTW The Dismal Swamp fire is still going on even with 10+ inches of rain and wind, but it is now to a point where they think they may be able to get it under control!! 

3 comments:

  1. Glad you are all okay up there! I was thinking about everyone who lives in the upper north east, and keeping my ear glued to the Weather Channel. The force of Mother Nature definitely leaves us in awe of her power. She is something!

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  2. Glad you guys are safe and sound. Capt. Brian

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  3. Wow- it has been a crazy couple of weeks at your end of the country. Lets hope things settle down now. Glad to hear you're ok!

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