The Daly Story: Come On, Irene

Well, our beautific idyllic week at my parent's beach house in Niantic was quickly hijacked by extreme weather... Hurricane Irene was set to hit land in Connecticut on Saturday, anywhere from Norwalk to, yep, you guessed it, Niantic. Niantic, you say? You haven't heard of it? Well, neither have most people. It's a really really small town that technically is part of East Lyme, cousin of Old Lyme - who at least makes it onto the map.

Fortunately, Irene struck land south of Niantic, closer to Madison, CT. Before this, though, the weekend was spent with oodles of weather channel-watching and much debate over whether we should stay in CT or head for the hills to Leslie & Jason's Vermont house. Finally, we decided that it really was going to be relatively safe once it came as far north as CT, and that it would be way more fun to see the hurricane than to be a few hundred miles north of it. With three infant/toddlers in the house, you say? Well, worse decisions have been made... and as it turns out, going to VT would have been a lot worse. With all the flooding and road closures, folks up in VT were stuck for days and days in their homes with no way to travel.

We got ready for the power to go out, for the water to come crashing up on the lawn, and for high speed winds. We brought up candles by the boxful from the basement. My dad bought bags and bags of ice, and got out the coolers. We boarded up the floor to ceiling picture windows in the front of the house with wood drilled into the framework. We did all the laundry possible, so that the kiddos would have everything clean and ready to go.

Hurricane Irene hit Niantic around 5am Sunday morning, and it was just beautiful. Huge crashing waves, stormy gray water, lots and lots of spray everywhere. It was amazing. By 9am we were all up and watching the storm from the upstairs (where the windows weren't boarded up), and a few of us braved going outside in the wind and rain. It was pretty spectacular, all in all. The waves were so high at the peak of the storm / high tide that the water was splashing onto the second story windows. To give you some perspective, the house is probably 100 or so feet from the water's edge. By noon, the storm was pretty much over, at least where we were.

And therein lies the completion of the happy part of the story. Naturally, we lost power. And naturally, what with two infants and a toddler in the house, we didn't get it back for 5 very long days. No power meant no fridge, and no hot water. We do have a gas stove, so cooking was still possible. But no hot showers for 3 new moms? SO not okay... but somehow we got through it! I don't think we'll ever forget 2011 Family Week at the beach...!

The boarding up of the windows in process...

Jason watches the storm from the 2nd floor; note the water dripping down the window panes.

Gram & Em, Leslie & Char watching the storm from our bedroom.

Jason (yellow jacket), Leah (in Pops' tommy bahama swim shorts) and Leslie (14 weeks pregnant!!) brave the weather...

The waves hit the sea wall and broke there, splashing up onto the lawn, Pops' gardens, and the house;
this picture doesn't really do the waves justice - they were pretty spectacularly big.