Irene

We knew days in advance that hurricane Irene was headed straight for Western Massachusetts. We have lost power during lesser storms (once for 3+days), so we made sure we had flashlights, candles, ice, gas in the cars and charged appliances (e.g. cell phone, DVD player). By the time Irene hit us, she had been downgraded to a tropical storm. Western Massachusetts got A LOT of rain, but little wind. Thankfully, we never lost power. There was some pretty severe flooding in the area. Our street dead-ends into a park, which flooded entirely. If you wanted to go for a swing, you would have had to swim there... and then you'd be underwater! The park is right next to the Green River, which was raging. A tree took out the footbridge near the park. The larger bridge we take each day was closed as the waters were dangerously high. A nearby nursing home evacuated all of its residents. The highway between Deerfield and Greenfield closed (due fear that footings on bridges were compromised) and Routes 5&10, which we both drive every day, were closed because they were flooded in Greenfield and Deerfield.

By Monday morning, Routes 5&10 were open, though quite muddy in spots. The bridge we take every day was closed, so we had to take a bit of a detour. 91 Northbound is open, but Southbound is closed while they're waiting for dive teams to inspect the footings. All of that interstate traffic has been detoured to Routes 5&10, making it a huge mess. Needless to say, getting to work is not fun.

We were relatively unscathed by Irene and we're very grateful. Only 20 minutes north of us in Vermont, it is a different story. Massive flooding has caused so much damage... it is unbelievable.