el huracán Irene

Finally I am connected to the world again.  I’m sure you’ve all seen the news to know that Hurricane Irene did indeed hit our small island.

The power went out Sunday night, and the winds picked up.  I had to close most of my windows, but I put up with some rain coming through the slats in exchange for a breeze. 

On Monday morning, it was still raining and windy, but by later in the day, the winds calmed.  Then it was cleanup time.  We were fortunate not to have too much damage, although people told us that our road was the worst they had seen in the area.  We had some trees down on the property, but no damage to our buildings.  God was our fortress and kept us safe.

 

This river is normally not visible from the road.

 

Thank goodness we found the generator.  Chris and Betsy took turns babysitting the finicky choke lever.

I raked...a lot.

Look closely to find Chris and a chainsaw.

By the middle of the week I was finally feeling better, and I knew it because I started to get stir crazy.  All the work was done, but we still had no power and no school.  We did have some pretty lightening shows though!  

Evening activities by candlelight

Despite how it seems, this photo was not taken in the daytime.

 

We finally started school on Thursday…we had one student…not one of mine.  This is when I actually started to go crazy.

When I was on the brink of boredom, we started telling stories to practice our ASL.

That night, as I was heading upstairs after learning how to play Othello (which is my new favorite game), I prepared myself for yet another night of sporadic sleep and constant sweating.  Before I turned the corner to go up my stairs, I saw yellow flashing lights.  Upon closer inspection, I could see that these were the lights that could bring us relief from boredom and heavy, still air.  The electric company had arrived!!!

We encouraged the men with candlelight and cheers.  They told us they hoped to get the power on that night.  They pulled out a long stick and began poking up at the electric pole by the light of a flashlight.  On their first attempt, they hit something that let off a large blue spark.  On the second attempt, they missed the pole completely.  On their third attempt…they did it!  We had power again.  After more cheers and excitement, they drove away to bring relief to others in our town. 

Even though our storm is over, we are keeping the east coast in our prayers as they weather Irene, too.