Hello Irene, Goodbye Irene, Good Riddance!

By the time Irene got to our street she was a powerful tropical storm. It started raining about 11:30 a.m. Saturday and stopped before Noon Sunday. And did it come down.

We were very lucky we didn't lose power and had only a trickle of water in the basement. We didn't go out of the house all day so I don't know how many others fared. But friends down the block, who never had a sump pump, had six inches of water in their basement. They now have a sump pump.

My son, who lives in Monmouth County, does have a sump pump but since he and thousands of others were without power from early morning until late this evening he had a wet basement. It started draining late this evening when the power came back.

Neighbors across the street stacked a huge pile of downed limbs on their front lawn. They must have come from their back yard. The debris was picked up later by a wood-chipping truck.

The strange thing is that during the heaviest rains there was hardly any wind. But once it stopped raining very strong winds came up. We have several large trees in and around our back yard and it was nerve-racking to watch them swing and sway. We did have one limb come down in the back along with lots of leaves. The wind died down late this evening and we'll clean up the mess in the morning.

Having watched Hurricane and then Tropical Storm Irene batter the East Coast and cause untold damage throughout the area, we feel very fortunate to have escaped with nothing more than minor inconvenience.