Carolina Gardening: Irene, 1 by Entlie

Entlie wrote:
Nice picture, Barb!
Well that storm was really something. We lost power at 4 am Saturday, and it came back on at 9 pm Tuesday. We had 13 inches of rain, and over 9 ft. of storm surge, our house is at 10 1/2 ft. The water was about a foot and a half higher than Isabelle, and 6 inches higher than Fran. Winds were worse on the "back side." Fortunately, no big trees down, just some large branches and lots of tree trash. Our generator stopped working, George bought a bigger one and spent a day and a half trying to get it (brand new) to run. After hours on the phone with store and distributor, he got a replacement which started on the first pull. The chain saw quit working and he used an electric sawzall connected to the generator to saw up stuff. The blower quit working (gas tank failed) and he replaced the gas tank with one from an old weed eater. Wow! Lots of stuff gives up in a hurricane! Today the dryer was taking forever to dry, and the vent was clogged with wet lint, probably from rain blowing straight into the vent. Sunspsot Baby is fine - she lost a bolt out of the bimini, and the vane off the wind generator, small stuff. We are very fortunate. Hope everyone else is ok, too. Entlie