Irene: Landfall Pt 1
I have to admit, I thought everyone including the weather channel was overhyping this storm. I knew the track wasn’t good but I didn’t realize how destructive Irene was going to be. I didn’t turn the TV on once because they were being so dramatic (look!! I’m beyond perpendicular!!). How ridiculous. I got my updates from the radio and the internet. It was pretty windy, but my house is protected from most wind directions by small trees and my windows were boarded up. I’m also out of the flood zone so wasn’t concerned with flooding. I did move everything upstairs just in case. As the eye of the storm moved closer the wind blew harder and it poured. Still had power and water and my wife dog and I were hanging out inside watching north shore pretending like nothing was happening. In between storm bands I drove up the street to Bay Drive to see how the sound was looking.There was no sound…the storm had blown all the water west up into the mainland. During that time they were getting pounded with tornados and flooding. It was devastating them while we were out walking around in the mud picking up crab pots.
I then drove over to Colington because I wanted to photograph some of the boats sitting in the mud while the sound was blown out. Sure enough, sailboats were anchored up in the mud with no water in sight. I walked around in the mud and pouring rain to shoot photos. I almost got stuck a few times..it was like quicksand.
After Colington I stopped by the Avalon Pier to see how the ocean was looking and how the pier was holding up. The 50-60 mile per hour winds whipping the sand in my face while I shot photos of the surf was not fun. I dont think my truck and cameras enjoyed it either. I saw a news team trying to report from there and it was pretty funny. About as funny as me trying to take photos in a hurricane.
On the way back I stopped by boat ramp on bay drive. The once floating dock was sitting in the mud with people standing all around it. Quite a few people were there walking around talking about the storm and looking at the empty sound. I didn’t feel quite as bad about driving around. People had their cocktails with them as they played in the pouring rain. It was almost like a regular summer afternoon rain cloud moving through.
Irene was still pretty minor in my mind at that point. I headed back home and edited wedding photos for about an hour and kept up with the storm updates on the radio. After hearing the eye of the storm was north of us, I headed back over to the same boat ramp on the sound to a completely different picture. Check back soon for more.
Nice shots Matt cocktails and hurricane sort of like peas and carrots if you know what I mean. My buddies back in the Harbour said it was like night and day when the wind switched.