[Slip18]

We are all worried about you folks. Are you out golfing or drinking beer? Please check in between sips or putts.

[sitetest]

Dear Slip18,

Here in southern Anne Arundel County, to the west of Annapollis, we are an oasis of calm (and electricity) in a desert of floods, power failures, and impassable roads.

Truthfully, out here the storm wasn't all that bad. We had modest winds (perhaps 20 - 25 mph) most of the night, gusts to perhaps 50 mph, and moderate rain. A few broken branches, not much more on my property. In the neighborhood, there are a few small trees which had been recently planted which fell over, some more broken branches. Leaves and parts of leaves everywhere, especially on my windows, the side of my house, the deck, etc.

We were prepared with a generator to keep the refrigerator, the deep freezer, and (most importantly!) the sump pump going. With enough juice left over to turn on the coffee maker, or the electric skillet. Tested the whole contraption out on Wednesday, but didn't need it.

We're on well water, so when we lose electricity, we have no running water. I'd eventually like to hook that up to a standby generator, but it isn't as easy. So, we filled the bathtubs and had on hand 27 gallons of bottled water for drinking.

We briefly lost power for 15 to 40 seconds at a time perhaps about 15 times from Thursday afternoon till after 1 am this morning.

Today, it's been mostly cloudy and breezy.

To our "right", Annapolis flooded a bit, but not too bad, to our "left", Bowie seems to have taken it hard - my friends there have no power (along with about 60% of Montgomery, Prince Georges Counties, and Washington, DC). Above us, Baltimore took it on the chin, as other posters have related. Below is Southern Maryland, which seemed to be hard hit on the water, but otherwise seems to have survived with a bit of grace.

From our perspective, this wasn't a bad storm, at all. We've had stronger winds, harder rain, rain lasting longer, more damage, long-term loss of power.

Yes, there is some damage, some flooding, and a few deaths and injuries (though it seems some or most of the deaths can be attributed to gross stupidity on the part of the deceased), but Sunday, we were being warned that a Category 4 or 5 hurricane might just march right up the Chesapeake Bay.

In which case, we would have bugged out and seen if we could get some reservations at the Greenbrier in W Va. We'd always wanted to visit there, and I told my family this might prove to be the time to do it. But I told them, we might not find our house in the same place when we got back.

So, all in all, we are appreciative of the relatively more mild nature of the storm, especially for us.


sitetest

[dakine]

Topsail Island was spared, just wind and rain, my BIL was able to go back on island at 7:00 p.m. last night...

[meowmeow]

Hi! We did just fine. The whole top of our big maple snapped off, but instead of falling on the house, it just kind of slid down the trunk and tangled up in itself (thank you, God!). Spent all day yesterday crawling through it with a chain saw. Other than that and a few leaks in the basement, we were blessed! Didn't lose power, but we can't drink our water until Fairfax county says it's safe.

[iceskater]

Hey-

Thanks for asking. We lost power about 9pm on Thursday night. I thought by then we might have gotten through the thing without losing power and then bam - no juice. We lost water which came back on Saturday. Gas hot water heater means that at least we can take warm showers. We are still on a "boil water advisory" until Wednesday.

NO trees down in my yard - none! A total miracle. My neighborhood had remarkably few trees down. I truly thought there would be way more down.

The bad news is we won't be getting our power back any time soon. Mr.iceskater called Va. Power yesterday and we aren't even on the list yet. I'm so frustrated with Va. Power. We're surrounded by subdivisions with power but our little area is just too small for them to deal with yet. The problem is something that will take them 15 minutes to fix but if I have power by Thursday, I'll be amazed. I've thrown away hundreds of dollars worth of food.

Well, it could've been a whole lot worse so I guess I shouldn't complain. At least I can get to FR from work for now.

Haven't gotten through this whole thread yet so I haven't seen how everyone else is doing. Hope everyone else came through ok.

[pgkdan]

Checking in....finally! We're still without power at home and don't expect to have anything before the end of the week. It's hot and sticky in my house and I haven't had a good night's sleep since last week...but at least no trees fell on my home. Power's up at work and I can tell you this, AC never felt so good!!