As many of you know, Hurricane Irene swept up the east coast on Saturday afternoon and evening, bringing lots of wind and rain along with it. Sadly, our neighborhood didn’t fare very well with high wind gusts slamming a bunch of giant trees down on power lines, roads, and even homes.
Thankfully, our house was spared. But many of our neighbors and friends weren’t so lucky. It broke our hearts to look out from our patio to see that a tree in our neighbor’s yard had fallen onto their home (it easily could have hit ours if it fell in the other direction).
Thankfully although they were both home with their two dogs at the time, no one was hurt. But parts of their house are flooded and shattered, and we’re so sad for them – and anyone else whose family or house has been affected.
When it came to what we did during the storm, we just hunkered down at home between 6pm to midnight when the winds were at their worst. And after hearing/seeing a few large trees come down on our block we decided to sleep in interior rooms, just to have a bit more protection in the event that something fell on our house (since our basement is below grade, we worried it could flood – which is why we opted for interior rooms over lower level spaces). Clara slept in the hallway in a pack and play (since it was insulated by rooms on all sides)…
… and John and I dragged the not-as-heavy-as-ours mattress from the guest room into the kitchen (which is also in the middle of our house).
Thankfully our basement didn’t flood and although we have a bunch of branches and debris to clean up on our yard (along with a few larger tree limbs in the back) we feel incredibly fortunate.
We’re still without power along with what we hear are around 800,000 other Richmonders (ours went out around 5pm on Saturday, so we’re on our third day without it). We’re hoping to have it restored soon, but realistically know that it could be a few more days or even one to two weeks (a statement that they just released alludes to the latter of those timelines). A number of trees on the power lines in our neighborhood means that it might be a while for us, so our blogging schedule may be a bit irregular until our area is back up and running. We also might not be able to keep up with comments, facebook, and twitter as much as we’d like (since you know we’re usually so chatty), but we do have plans to stop in with the afternoon giveaway as usual, and hope that everyone else who is dealing with any sort of storm repercussions is doing ok.
Oh and we felt compelled to check on our first house and were so relieved to see that it appeared to make it through. Although there was a huge tree on the house across the street. Scary stuff.
Between this and the earthquake on Tuesday, we’re ready to be done with natural disasters for a while – especially since it’s rare for either of them to affect Richmond so much (the last major storm in our area was Isabel in 2003, and most Richmonders were without power for about a week). Let’s hope we’re back up and running sooner than that. Luckily a few of our relatives do have power and enough food/water to go around. In fact here’s Clara on Sunday morning after the storm passed and we headed over to Grammy’s house, where there’s power, glorious power (which seems to be a rarity in our city). We joked that all of the chaos drove her into the arms of her cousin John…
… where they watched a video together and had a grand old time.
Thanks so much to everyone on twitter, facebook, and here in the comments who checked in on us this weekend. You have no idea how much we appreciate the love and send it right back atcha. And for anyone else who was affected, we’d love to hear from you about how you’re doing.
Debra says
Luv your blog….I don’t usually post comments, but was thinking of you and hoping you were ok. I know your area has a lot of big trees. I’m in Mechanicsville and we do too, but were fortunate to just have a bunch of debris. I’ll take that over a tree on the roof any day. It was a little scary. Hope your power is restored soon. Ours is back up and running and I saw Dominion power trucks everywhere today. I heard they are bring in about 6,000 more workers so maybe it won’t be too much longer.
Take care!
Deb
Leigh Ann says
I’m so glad that your house was safe, and very sad for your neighbors. I rode out the storm in NC, and luckily did not have any trees down, only branches to clean up.
When I was younger, my family’s home was destroyed in a tornado, which was hard, but EVERYONE WAS SAFE, many sentimental things were salvageable and insurance replaced everything else– so not that bad! Which brings me to my point… should the worst ever occur for you guys, you’ll have the best records for replacement of your things with your house tour videos! Victims of natural disasters have to inventory everything they owned for insurance replacement. So, your house tour videos would make that easy (God forbid it becomes necessary!) You might want to even open up your dresser drawers and shoot some video for personal record, just in case!
Enjoy how beautiful you look in candlelight!
YoungHouseLove says
Wow- I never thought about that but you’re right! I hope your comment inspires other people to make a quick video house tour to throw up on youtube so it’s saved off-site!
xo,
s
Stephanie L says
So glad you all are okay!!!
Jen F says
Hey guys, glad you are ok. I’m bummed for your neighbors too. If you do any neighborhood clean up or neighbor helping, you should blog that-I think it could be inspiring! Also, if you hear of any ways those outside the area can help….let us know. I think you guys could bring a lot of cheer. Love those pics of Clara too. She sits on the couch the way I do…sprawled across, cuddled up to a friend. :)
YoungHouseLove says
We’ll definitely share that if we’re lucky enough to be involved! I think right now there’s a lot of insurance stuff going on for our neighbors (they’re unable to stay at their house so they’re staying with a relative) but hopefully after it’s structurally sound again and there’s a new roof maybe they’ll invite us over to help!
xo,
s
Cindy says
So glad you guys and the house are okay! I was thinking about you guys and praying for you during the storm.
tara says
I am so happy to see that ur house made it and that the family is safe. I live in warwick pa and trust me, on top of irene and the earthquake, during the storm, we had tornado warnings and a crazy gun who just killed 4 ppl running around in the woods behind my house while i was home alone with my 3 month old. ahh it was the most nerve racking night of my life. needless to say we have no basement so i did a make shift bed for me and the baby in the downstairs 1/2 bath. not too comfy, but it did the trick.
YoungHouseLove says
Oh my gosh that’s so scary! Glad you and your little one stayed safe!
xo
s
Caroline says
So glad to hear ya’ll are safe! And that you have family with power! We’re in Raleigh, NC and were really lucky this time – although our beach house & friend’s homes on the coast didn’t fare as well. I’m used to the downed trees, etc that are in your pictures. Thank you for the reminder to be thankful for everything we have. Prayers for all who were affected by Mean ole’ Irene. Hope you’re back home soon :)
Ali says
We were in the same boat as you. Trees and power lines down all over our neighborhood, and driving around, we saw the same thing. Didn’t see any trees through houses, though. I also heard that the four people who died in VA were all from falling trees. :( We went and slept in our neighbor’s house because they have fewer trees and they have two stories, so we slept on the main floor. Those wind gusts were scary, weren’t they? I was truly terrified.
YoungHouseLove says
Yes! I think it was the scariest after the sun set when it was completely dark outside (with no power to turn on outdoor lights) and we’d hear a loud thud and know that a tree fell outside but couldn’t see where it landed. So glad it’s over!
xo,
s
Christina C. says
I’ve been thinking about you guys since we heard here in Virginia Beach that the Richmond area got hit really hard. Thank goodness you guys are ok. Our house was lucky in that we didn’t lose power and our neighborhood didn’t get damaged too badly. So all in all, we have extra food and water and batteries and are safe and sound. Never was happier to see a bright sunny day than on Sunday!
Amy says
Glad you are healthy and safe. No Electricity is supremely sucky, but better than some of the other Irene options, you know? I thought of you guys and was glad to see this post when I got home from work! I’m so sorry for your neighbors. We had a neighbor with a tree in the house and I was too sad for them to even snap a picture. Rebuilding will take a long while, I’m sure.
I posted some photos on my blog. It looks like you had more tree damage than we did, but we had tons of water.(i’m glad neither of us had both!) I’ve got HVAC people coming tomorrow to take a gander at all of the heating/cooling duct work under the house. It sat in water for a good 12 hours, so out it’ll go lest mold grow and then be spread every time the heat or air clicks on. **cough cough** Ugh.
We also lost some electrical in the new (but blissfully spared) kitchen, so the water heater (sucky!!!!), stove, dishwasher and some plugs are out until I can figure out why they went out but everything else is fine (and when I say I, I obviously mean an electrician who 1)won’t burn the house down and 2) doesn’t mind crawling in the disgusting mud pit that is our crawl space. Fortunately my neighborhood kept power the whole time. I’m not bragging, I swear…if it had gone out, the sump pumps wouldn’t have been able to pump and many, many houses would have flooded. Quite a few did, but many were spared. Thank goodness for small blessings.
Do let us know when you have power!! Good luck!!
Aska says
Glad to know you are OK. We are in NJ and suffered a major flood.The water got to half of the firs floor. It was almost as bad as Floyd. What gets met though, is everyone that is now saying how the media hyped the whole storm and are making a big jocke of this now. Be glad nothing happened to you or your houses, because our whole town will remember Irene just like we remember Floyd. I rather have the media hype up a storm and everyone get prepared then not know anyting and not be prepared. Better safe than sorry, right? But like someone in another comment said, material things do not matter. We will rebuld, repair, but those that lost their love ones do not have it as easy as us:(
YoungHouseLove says
Oh Aska, so sorry to hear about the flooding in your home. How devastating. Thinking of you and your family.
xo,
s
CathyB says
In Midlothian, thsnkfully we have power and were only out a few hours on the big day. Lots of huge old oak trees down, many on houses. Mine spared by the grace of god. Large tree fell another way but took out part of my neighbors fence. Their huge tree took out a larger chunk of fence. It was a scary night hearing all the cracking wood and thumps as trees dropped. Hope we are free from mother natures wrath for awhile. Hang in there, good you have family close by!
Poonam says
Hi guys,
This is Poonam from India and I read your blog everyday.
I was so worried about u ppl whn i got the news of the hurricane … I’m so glad you’re okay .. tk cr
Chaucea says
A dear friend of mine has relatives in Norfolk and fortunately they pulled through okay.
I was worry-warting a bit about y’all being so close to the storm, so I kept checking for new blog entries and also the comments of the last entry of your blog to see if you had updated with how you were doing. I did finally notice your status update comment in Tweet Nothings, so that put me at ease.
Glad you’re doing alright. Keep safe! :-)
Belle says
I’m so glad you guys made it through the storm unscathed! I am sending thoughts and prayers to your neighbors who were not so lucky.
Elizabeth says
Glad to read that everything worked out for you and your house. So scary and crazy to see all those up-rooted trees and everything! I wish I had the capabilities to make everything better for everyone…anyway, good luck getting power back. Also, Clara and Cousin are so adorable snuggling like that!
Jennifer says
Stay safe! I’m so glad you’re okay, but it must have been super scary, especially with a baby. My sister and her little boy live in Joplin, MO and went through the tornado last spring. It’s no joke to live through natural disasters. (I was in San Francsico during the big Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989 and it was tough.) Stay safe and make your neighbors some coffee and cookies. Love and fellowship with neighbors and family is really important in times like this. Hugs.
Danette from Oz says
Glad to hear you are all okay. Sending hugs to all of those still waiting out the storm and also to those living with damage.
Emily says
Sorry you’re going through all this. We don’t live in hurricane country, but have seen plenty of tornado/high wind damage.
Colleen P. says
I’m so glad to hear you guys are okay! I read in the news updates that your part of the world was going to get hit pretty hard. I’m with Aska-everyone is saying the media hyped it and now it’s a joke. Sorry, millions of dollars in property damage is not a joke. People losing their lives and homes is not a joke either. If the media hadn’t hyped it, how many more people would have died? In my way of thinking, you cannot be too careful or too prepared, and we should be grateful that we have the warning so far ahead that we can afford to be complacent-50 years ago this would have been a national emergency and hundreds of people would have lost their lives.
Ana Silva says
Thank God you are all OK and your home. Same thing happened to me. All that happened was that I lost power; luckily for only 2.5 days. The neighbor across the street had a few trees fall on his house like a domino effect I guess and we had a 3 tree pile up from another neighbor across the street on the road to my yard. Everyone that I know so far is ok. I feel so bad for those that have damage to their homes. There was a few other around my area that I saw. Anyways, glad you guys made it out safe!
Lara says
Reporting in from Baltimore, Maryland – we feel your pain as we are also without power – lost it Saturday about 9 pm.
Luckily we have battery back-up on our two sump pumps so our basement has not flooded yet. No trees down in our yard we had the one 60 foot mostly dead tree taken down this spring but there are several large ones down along with those precious power lines in neighboring back yards so now they are saying probably no power til the weekend if we are lucky. At least the tempatures are not in the 90’s to 100’s like a couple of weeks ago. Fortunately we do have hot water as we have a gas hot water tank so its not too bad. Good luck hope you get power soon.
Meagan says
Wow! It definitely wasn’t an “overhyped storm” in your area! So glad to know ya’ll (and the house) are ok. I surley think that ya’ll have a guiding hand keeping you safe.
On a lighter note, I found this article this weekend.
http://lifestyle.msn.com/your-home/room-design/staticslideshowtkt.aspx?cp-documentid=30159483>1=32067
and I immediately thought of you when they talked about all the pillows! Ha! What do they know?? (and then they used a pic of your house in the next slide!) Made me laugh. Keep up the great work and God Bless.
YoungHouseLove says
Funny list! And we were surprised at the “no area rug over carpet” rule too. We love area rugs over carpet! Oh well, guess that’s why decorating is a subjective thing, right?
-John
Diane taylor says
Hi guys I am so sorry to hear about mean Irene. I am home still without power on Tuesday am (CRAP) and praying for relief soon. Tree hit our deck but we are ok. We have two generators that We are keeping 6 families going with minimal power (like our sump pumps). we live in Baltimore in an old neighborhood. Praying for both of us, I am so stressed about keeping these generators going! I will never forget being outside at 2am Sunday morning with my hubby trying to help our neighbors. My husband rocks! Good luck guys.
Deb says
Sending every good wish your way. Crazy what nature can do. Hopefully you get to see the lovely neighbourhood feeling that can come out of things like this. Suddenly everyone’s out fixing their gardens at the same time or helping with fences etc. Again – best wishes to all affected.
Ilse says
So glad your OK! How fortunate that your house is also unharmed.
Just wondering, are all powerlines above the ground in america? In The Netherlands their all burried so power rarely goed off. Why would the government choose to do otherwise in an area with so many treed :S
YoungHouseLove says
Hi Ilse,
They’re definitely not above ground everywhere, but I think it’s the case in a lot of older neighborhoods like ours – at least here in Richmond (which is also an older city). My parents live in a newer development and all of their lines are underground, which is probably why they didn’t lose power during the whole event. It definitely would be smart to have them buried instead, but we assume that’s too big of an cost and undertaking at this point. Oh well!
-John
Stacy says
I’m glad all of you are okay.
I’m in MA, but where I am in MA, Irene was a big wind storm unlike the people in the western part of the state that got slammed with wind and rain.
I was here during hurricane Bob and Gloria as well. Gloria seemed like summer breeze compared to some of the Nor’Easters we’ve had in the past few years.
All a person or people can do is bunker down or get out of way assuming getting out of way is safer than staying home. Sometimes leaving puts people in more danger as they are closer to rivers and such.
Anyway, I hope life gets back to normal soon.
Christine Zadravec says
Sign me up
Glad everyone is ok!
Jenn says
Thinking of you guys and so glad that youre safe!
ToTheMoonandBack says
Oh my goodness. It’s good to hear everyone is ok. Living in South Florida we are pretty used to this, although it does not make it any easier when you don’t have power. I pray yours gets restored soon. (((HUGS)))
Jennifer says
Glad yall are safe and had no major damage. Back in April after the tornados we were without power for 6 days in North Alabama…we were lucky to have a friend drive 300 miles to loan us his generator. Yall might look into getting one, I know we are!
Brandan WH says
How scary! We are up in Fairfax and while the rain and wind were crazy, all we woke up to was a lot of leaves on the cars and sidewalks. So happy that you are all safe. Be careful and stay blessed.
Petra says
I was in the suburbs of NY for my sister’s wedding and it rained on and off that night before the worst came into the night/next day. I was joking with my aunt that my sister should name her daughter Irene! I’m not sure how she’d take it…
JoDi says
Wow, you’re neighborhood really got hammered. I’m so sorry for your neighbors and so glad you are all OK. It wasn’t nearly as bad in our part of MD, but there are tons of people without power all over the state.
melanie@myunionjack says
OMG!! I read your blog from London and I’m glad to see you guys were so lucky! My heart goes out to your neighbors, but I love your story about their wonderfully positive attitudes about rebuilding. I grew up in the Midwest–in the “tornado belt” and it’s shockingly random what these massive storms decide to destroy or leave completely alone. Fingers crossed you get your power back soon!
Karen Little says
Hi Y’all, We’re down in Williamsburg and are doing all right though many trees are also down. But we’re so grateful, like you to not have anything harsher than that to deal with. Our son and d-i-law, along with their five kiddoes, live in Moseley and were without power for over 24hrs but are now back on. :) I hope all will be well in your neighborhood soon! Love, love, love your blog and have told many, many people about it. Several newly-weds use your info and pics to inspire and motivate——-though we’ve been married for 40 years this month, we love it too! Hey, we’d love to have you here if you’d ever want to visit Colonial Williamsburg; we have plenty of room and have all the baby/kid stuff one would need, too, with all our grandkids so close by! :) Thanks again—I check in with your blog every day! Karen
YoungHouseLove says
Aw thanks Karen! We love Williamsburg and actually visit every year or so! Maybe we’ll bump into each other one of these days. Haha.
xo,
s
Brittany (Eating Bird Food) says
I’m glad to hear you all are OKAY! Your more than welcome to come over to dinner if you need a hot meal. :)
Fingers crossed that your power will be restored soon.
Tracy says
I’m glad you are safe! We are on day 3 of no power. We used a car battery to pump the water out of our basement. So far so good! I am beginning to think my 3 month old likes living by candlelight!
RVA Born and Raised says
I am glad to hear that your family and house were spared. That picture of Clara and her cousin is the cutest thing I have ever seen!
My family in RVA is still out of power. My grandfather is on the Southside near Pony Pasture and got hit pretty hard. We have kept phone calls brief in order to preserve his precious cell phone battery.
As for good ol’ Annapolis, they evactuated the city, and it was quite a scene to see most of the boat slips empty in many of the neighborhood marinas. Fortunately we faired far better than during Isabel. While many homes remain without power, our house was one of the few that was spared. The scene is similar to that of your neighborhood. We went on a mission Sunday morning with a chansaw to help people with manageable trees and branches out.
Rachel says
My thoughts are with you and your family. Up here in Central Jersey we didn’t do too bad. Still no power (went out on Sat night) and some water in basement but everybody is safe and that’s the most important. I hope you’re able to get everyhing back to normal soon. Thinking of you and sending warm wishes your way :-)
barb calkins says
Very, very scary!! I am just outside DC and we were prepared for the worst, too, but it missed us. We even kept our power, and we are in a neighborhood of gigantic trees where the power goes out if there is a stiff breeze and a passing rain cloud! Phew — very relieved.
So SIGN ME UP! One of those very cool signs would be great for my new home-based business (see FB Page link) or for our 120-year-old Victorian farm home that we raised from the dead near the beach (when we were younger, like you ;-)
Love following you. Painting kitchen cabinets on my list!
Barb
Jasmine says
Glad to read you are all ok. It was the news of the day, also in the Netherlands. It’s a lot of damage in your neighbourhood. Hope you’re having power right now.
(I read your blog almost every day.)
Christina says
Glad you guys are ok! That damage looks SUPER SCARY. Before the storm, we evacuated to my mom’s because I have a tree that I thought might fall on our house, however, it didn’t- but better safe than sorry. We were spared as well (we’re in Northern NJ) but lots of people we know weren’t as far as the destruction is concerned. Everyone I know is safe though which is the main thing. I have a coworker whose development has turned into an island with water all around it. A house exploded 5 blocks from him yesterday (luckily no one was in it)- it was a gas explosion. They are safe though. I have friends without power though we have it- they are telling them 9/1 at the earliest and 9/4 hopefully at the latest for power. I wasn’t able to get to work yesterday with all of the roads flooded and one highway had an exit collapse. I know this sounds scary but we really are ok. And through all of it, we are feeling insanely blessed and grateful. If I’m able to get to work- that means I have a job which I’m grateful for. I’m grateful that my family and friends were not harmed. It’s an inconvenience for sure but I’m glad we are all ok and you guys are too!! :)
Jennifer S. says
We live near your sister and still don’t have power. (I’m at work.) It’s getting really old now. I’m ready to return to the 21st century! BTW, we lived in your current neighborhood during Isabelle in 2003 and were without power for 9 days. A tornado ripped through the hood and I had never seen such destruction. You are right that you were lucky to come out of Irene without a tree on your house!
Tricia Embley says
We survived Hurricane Ike which had a ton of tornados that spewed off of it. It threw a tree into our house where we had vaulted ceilings and no attic space. Which meant water damage immediately and horrible! We had just started remodeling and everything was ruined. In addition to the huge roof damage also to our chimney we had damage to the roof in two other locations. It poured the next couple days which meant our floors, drywall and roof all had to be replaced.. the next 8 months of rebuilding were awful.
shannan says
Ugh this is aweful! Glad to see everybody is safe.
Jenny says
“Mean Irene” is RIGHT!! So glad you all are safe & baby too! How scary. Great pictures though!! Amazing how Big trees with huge roots can easily be lifted out of the ground.
Rhiana says
So glad you are all okay and you didn’t sustain any damage! We are in RI and we were very lucky, we had power, Internet and cable through the whole thing but most people did not. Most are still waiting for power. So many neighborhoods look like a bomb went off. So sad to see so many large trees down. We just did a clean up and we are trying to get back to business as usual.
Fran says
It definitely appears that your area was hit much harder than we were here in New Jersey. So glad to hear that you and your home are OK.
BethanyB says
It good to see that you guys made it though the storm and are all alright! Its such a blessing that your house was spared and I’m so glade you guys are so head strong and positive about this whole event. Its nice to see at least some people can look on the bright side of things you know. Its nice to know all the house searching, home selling, and renovations you two have done wasn’t in vane. :)