Hurricane Irene- Princeton, NJ

Not much to say for this week. No writing this weekend, as my area was in the dark until noon today. I called on my cell phone to my friends in Texas and they relayed information from the news and etc to us. I charged my phone in the car. The wind and rain was not as bad as near the shore, but it really came down. Limbs and trees lay all about. Many neighborhoods around me are still without power, and they are saying it could be another week. My development is on a bit higher ground than the roads and rivers around me. The major power lines are a quarter mile or less out from our secluded development, off US 1. (Route 206, south of my home)

Severe flooding is all about as you will see in these photos (below Route 1, south of my house). At one point to the right of my house it was under water. We were prepared for much worse, but now my heart goes out to those who are suffering more than I am.

Hubby and I did enjoy snuggling together as we had a back up DVD player and batteries to watch a few old movies. I read this book about Peru I have had laying around, and we also enjoyed resting. Although hubby is like a caged animal when it comes to no internet. He is a big time computer geek and engineer, so he was on his IPad, but at times that was not working.

I took a trip out driving this afternoon, and went to the market to get some things for the refrigerator. The shelves were sparse, no water, no ice for those without power, so I feel extremely lucky to be able to go home and cook dinner tonight. I also found out the pool was open, which I think was crazy!, but hey I put my suit and Emperor Penguin face on and dived right in. It was cold, around 70 degrees my friend Kate said. I was not the only crazy person doing laps. (Route 27, just west behind my house)

What is amazing to me, that Vermont was hit so hard. I hear on the news that they are used to flooding, but this is the worst they have ever experienced. I pray they stay safe and things begin to come together as quick as possible. I just heard our rivers have not crested yet, and because our area is so criss crossed with rivers, it could get worse in the next day or so.

We have family on LI, and they surprisingly (and under evacuate order) came out fine. Hubby's step mom is still without power and a small tornado took down trees and such near her. I have not heard directly from any NYC residents, but would like to see some photos if any were taken. I know the subways were back in action this morning, just delays in some areas for mass transit. Our trains were shut down due to flooding, and lack of movement in and around the areas.

What really disgust me...seeing people walking through the murky rising flood water barefoot and kicking it around like it was okay. We have been asked not to run any water that would go into sewers here, because the pumps are down. Most of that flooding water you see on the news is mixed with sewage water. Uh huh.