Thursday, September 1, 2011

Irene

In case you haven't seen the news, Vermont is under water. Well, not all of Vermont. We're not under water here, we live on top of a hill and if WE were underwater, well then, EVERYONE would be in some serious do-do. The town we live in though had some flooding, and the dam was in serious danger of bursting..so they had to do an emergency release...thankfully they could do it slow enough that it didn't flood the houses downstream.

We actually fared pretty well....we lost this one tree (I thought it was a branch, but no, it was a tree..a poplar..very soft..we lose them all the time) and our fabric sheep shelter.

We left our house and took some pics of the little stream at the bottom of our hill....it was a little swollen...just a little...this is the right side..the road you're looking at is the road we live on.

This is the left side of the bridge...both sides are hay fields...

This is a pic we took driving down our road...the hay field is a lake.

What really sucks about all of this is that there are many places that still weren't fully recovered from the May floods....so now they're dealing with double damage. The great thing about all of this though, is seeing how communities are banding together and taking care of each other. Citizens that were untouched by floods are volunteering their time and equipment to help get supplies in and out of communities that have been cut off from everyone. One such town was talking to a news reporter and telling them that there was no shortage of fresh food because the local grocery store had handed out all of it's fresh produce (free) so it wouldn't rot. There is another community that is holding a community dinner every night on the local green. The local inn makes the food and puts it out..and the community all shows up..to share news and everyone's company. It amazes me...and touches me. No one is shooting at national guard helicopters...instead when the national guard makes it's way into a cut off town, they get applauded, cheered..and thanked. The way it should be.

And now Ill leave you....with 11 fuzzy ducklings:

They weren't bothered at all by all the rain.

3 comments:

Chai Chai said...

I was concerned about how you all were doing, great to hear that everthing and everyone is safe and sound.

Teresa Robeson said...

That really sucks about the rain and storm damage, but what an uplifting story about the towns around you coping together and bonding together during this tough time!

I love your ducklings and soooo want some! We got a batch of chicks in the mail today...that'll have to do for now. We're hoping we'll have more than one broody hen next year that will actually properly hatch a clutch.

Gayle said...

Wow...what a lot of water damage. I just can't imagine. That made me feel all warm and fuzzy the way the communities are coming together. That is awesome.