I implore everyone.......BUY FLOOD INSURANCE. I can't tell you how many calls our agency got on Thursday and Friday asking how they were going to be covered. There's a waiting period for flood insurance and trying to get it 2 days before a hurricane is about to hit.....welll it's not happening. OK....that's my 2 bit public service announcement! :) But seriously, everyone should really question their insurance policy. Don't always assume that what you were given 10 years ago when you first purchased your policy is adequate now. In a weeks time, our area experienced an earthquake and flooding as a result of the hurricane/tropical storm....both of which are not covered under homeowners.
Well, my family and I were personally lucky. We live on a hill. I was on storm watch all night long. About 1am I went out on my front porch and stood under my small peak out of reach of the rain. There was a good wind blowing at that point but it was actually pretty peaceful out there. I went back inside when the lights started flickering. Figured better get upstairs to bed before the lights went out. Many people were still on facebook on their own storm watch patrol. I finally gave up and went to bed when my wireless kept going off and on. I turned off and unplugged everything in case the power went out.
At 4:45am my phone rang. I was sleepy and first grabbed my cell and realized that wasn't the one ringing. Then a bit of panic set in thinking OH NO!! Who is calling this early and what happened???? It was an automated message saying that Branchville Boro may be evacuated. What???? I thought HOW BAD is it out? I looked out my window and we didn't have any down trees, power was still on and it didn't look bad out. I went back to sleep.
When I woke up in the morning I called my aunt who lives on the other end of town and said did they really have to call that early? She said uh yeah! Downtown was bad. We have a brook that runs along town. People were evacuated, some had to be taken out by boat. I finally got out around 11am to see what things were like in town. I thought it was bad then and throughout this week I've seen videos and pictures taken earlier and I can't believe how my lil hometown looked.
Our baseball field was under water, the tennis courts looked like a raging sea. Parts of the road caved in at certain points. Houses were partially underwater. We managed to make it through the night with our power. But after the hurricane passed and the rains stopped, we got hit with the winds that seemed worse than they were during the night. We lost power around noon. It was out until the next day. I feel so fortunate that it was out for such a short time. I know that others are still without power as I type this.
And now they are tracking Katia and not sure what she's going to do. I hope she goes right out to sea. The eastern coast needs time to recoup and rebuild. Get back on our feet.
This is a video of the tennis courts and ballfield:
Here are some pictures that I took that morning, here you can actually see some of the baseball field but earlier photos I've seen.......the entire area was flooded.
Aunt DeeDee
