Hurricane Irene Livebloggy-thingy

3:30pm – It looks like the storm is finally winding down.  The wind is still strong but it has died down a lot, and though the rain is back, it’s not nearly as strong as it was earlier.  It looks like we’re almost through it, and we’re all safe and sound and we still have power, even though it’s being reported that more than half of the state has lost power at this point.  We’re doing OK, but it was still pretty scary!  Hopefully everyone who lost power gets fixed soon!

1:45pm – I opened the side door and took some footage of the huge Maple tree in our yard swayin’ in the breeze.  It’s a little intimidating, I feel very small under these huge trees as they’re blown around so easily by the winds.  Thankfully we still have power and the tree is still standing strong, only a few smaller branches have snapped off.

12:45pm – Still doing well.  Miss Narrator made a great lunch, vegan frittata with tofu and zucchini.  We still have power and internet, the rain has stopped completely, but the winds are much stronger.  We’ve got a number of broken limbs, but nothing serious yet.  We’re doing fine, hopefully we’ll be through the worst of things soon!  Thanks for all the well-wishes on Twitter too, we appreciate it!  Hopefully everyone else is doing Ok too!

10:45am – New video from the front porch.  We don’t seem to be taking the full force of the storm, thankfully – it looks like we’re on the edges right now.  Our thoughts are with anyone who is facing the full strength of this storm, I know it’s very dangerous further West.

10:30am – The wind and rain are still really strong, the trees are really whipping around. The rain against the roof is really loud, too. I’m going to post more video soon, while I still have internet and power.

9:30am – We’re starting to see power hits, just had about a 30 second power outage and a few flickers but it came right back. The rain is really heavy now, we can barely see across the street, and the winds are very strong.  Lots of downed branches, one of them (about 3 feet long) just bounced off the house, but it wasn’t huge or heavy, thankfully.  I’m really glad we removed all the lawn ornaments and deck furniture yesterday, because these winds would certainly be tossing the lighter things around the yard. 

9am – Winds and rain have picked up considerably, with some really strong gusts.  The trees are starting to whip about, we’re keeping an eye on those, but so far so good.  We’ve still got power and no local flooding issues, not much else to report.

8am – We’re getting some heavy rains now, and the wind is picking up, we’re seeing 30 to 50 mph with gusts a bit higher.  We still have power, there are a few smaller tree limbs down, but no major flooding in this area yet.  I know from local news there are a few areas closer to the water that have been evacuated and some roads that are closed due to flooding, but everyone is safe and sound here.