Catching Up

We're 10 days post-hurricane and I'm finally getting around to posting about how we battled the storm. We knew Irene was on her way and did what we could to prepare. We stocked up on food and water, bought extra batteries and had a few flashlights at the ready. We also got some new coloring books and Lego guys for Charlotte and charged the portable DVD player, just in case.


The rain started on Saturday, with just a drizzle for most of the afternoon. Charlotte and Mark put a rain gauge out a few hours after the rain began and then spent some time running around our front yard enjoying the shower!


Because there are several trees in our yard and our neighbor's yard, we decided that a sleepover in the family room (partially below ground) would be the safest place for us. So we lugged our mattress and Charlotte's mattress down the stairs and were all in bed by 9:30 or so. I, of course, stayed up until about 2:30am watching the weather coverage. Even after I went to bed I woke up several times, including when our power went out at 6:15am. I got up, assessed the damage (nothing other than a bunch of leaves ripped from the trees) and went back to bed.


We checked the basement and the sump pump only had a few inches of water in it, with nothing coming in. So we snacked, played for a bit, checked in with the neighbors (they had a bit of water in their basement) and headed for my parents.


We spent the entire afternoon there, returning home just after dinner. Thankfully, Charlotte fell asleep on the ride home because when we arrived we found our sump pump had flooded and we had about two inches of water in the basement. The pictures are a little misleading, because there was nearly four inches down there by the time the fire department pumped it out and we'd already removed all the important stuff before I stopped to take the pictures.


I shared a week ago that we were still without power, but I was wrong. Just a few hours after I scheduled that post we returned home and I set myself up with the portable DVD player (to watch Night at the Museum 2 - not sure why that was my choice of movie) and an alarm clock set for 10:15pm so that I could go downstairs, empty the sump pump, and set the alarm for 11:15pm to do it all over again. But at 9:45pm the power came back on!!! I can not explain to you the thrill of running downstairs, knowing the sump pump should be inches from full, to find it was only inches from empty!

So now I'm one of thousands who have a claim filed. We didn't lose much though. At least not much that was of any real importance. We are battling some mold now and just ordered a sump pump battery backup since there are more hurricanes on the way. Hopefully we'll fare better the next time around!