Hurricane Irene Battle Damage (A.K.A. some pictures)

Some Photos from the Hurricane this past weekend. I still don't have power at all though or water and make it tough for school and such.
I always have to have a flash light on me and I have to buy food quite often.
I'll probably write more about my experiences after I get my power back. It is interesting living like this.

Most of the damage was minimal or non at my house. Lots of limbs laying around but others were not so lucky. Many tree fell and on power lines knocking out power for over 800,000 individuals around the Richmond area.

So, if you haven't been able to tell from the photos that I have posted on this blog or from what I have said about before where I live, I live back in the woods off of the neighborhood road. We have trees all around my house; Tulip Popular, Sweet Gum, Pin Oak, White Oak, Red Oak, Holly, Dogwood, Hickory and a few pine. Mostly hard woods. Anyways the storm tore up mostly the Popular and sweet gum trees since they are soft wood of the deciduous tree group. Anyways, you would find leaves from those two trees everywhere along with limbs, and there were a few very large limbs that fell.

So for the most part, we really only needed to rake up the yard and sweep our back deck from the storm. 



During the storm, I picked up a lot of limbs during the storm on Saturday. I did spend a lot of time outside on Saturday during the storm and enjoyed it since it was a bit of a thrill. It was quite cold out in the rain, then again I only have PJ bottoms on when I went out. I had to go out and clear the driveway on Saturday around 4pm or so because my mother has coming back from work.


Yea! No trees leaning on the house or limbs piercing the roof of our cars!





My friend had lost of limbs in the front from their Gum tree, but lost a large oak tree in the back destroying their fence.



Sycamore trees have very large leaves and probably acted like sails in that wind that we had. That is why they cover the road over here.



My father and I went out early on Sunday morning (6:30am) to get coffee and warm biscuits at McDonald's. It was out of power and we drove around for a while and found out that a majority of places were out of power. We ended up at a Valero that had a huge line just for coffee and we grabbed some honey and cinnamon buns inside. There was a mad rush for gas there to. Later that day they were out of all of these conveniences. Also 295 was completely deserted of traffic.



New WaWa was out of power till yesterday afternoon...





Not much to do in the house without power so I brought out the bike and started to ride around my neighborhood and others near by to grab some photos.







Oh and about after 8am or so the sun started to emerge from behind some white and light gray clouds. Sunday for the rest of the day was a great day weather wise.







In the neighborhood next to mine there was a tree completely blocking the entire road.




My neighbor that is also in the back of the woods with me had a tree leaning on their garage. They mostly had limbs and shredded leaves like me.



Took a small walk around the woods for a bit, couldn't pass up the day!





This was kinda behind my neighbors house. It took out other trees with it. Back when I was a kid this added so much extra play time when I went down in to the woods. You can climb all over them, I would have at this moment but it was wet to climb and also attracts the largest of hornets.








So not only did the winds take out small limbs and branches with leaves bu it hailed outside our house with acorns and hickory nuts. We have large hickory nuts but the three that you see in this photo at the tip of my hand were larger then I had ever seen and I was wondering if I had Walnut trees somewhere which I had never seen in the woods around my house before. It actually was large hickory nuts that had yet fallen and grew very large husks. They were at least golf ball size and would have hurt like a mother if I got hit in the head with one of them on Saturday.



Later that day I had kayaked on the North Anna where there wasn't many trees down along the river but the waters were up more then normal I guess but not thing like flooding stage really.











So it is Wednesday and has been a few days since it hit the Richmond area but there are still some lights out that have yet to get power and also some peoples homes and business that sustained damage and/or out of power. I am one of them and we have a well so we don't have any running water currently.... That is probably the most annoying part. I have been showering at three different peoples places now and we manually have to fill the toilets to flush them, which is troublesome but it really makes you appreciate the technology that we have now. I mean currently right now I am at the point of just the basics of survival; food and shelter. Lots of people without power have food, shelter and running water so they can shower, get fresh water and working plumbing system. I do know that I am still lucky compared to others who have lost homes and cars. I know someone who lost their house because a tree landed right in the middle cutting it in half basically and also totaled their vehicles.
I will probably write about my experiences of this past week when I get a chance but I am SOO behind on home work right now that it is killing me. I need to read tons of pages and need to print of notes which I can't because I don't have power at home and managed to get off the hook at lab today.
Please let me know how your Hurricane experience went. I know that New England and New York area got it really bad, so please let me know!

Nasty storm coming this weekend

So there is a Hurricane that is heading up the coast of the United States on the Eastern seaboard. It does look bad for some people.
I need to start buckling down the hatches at home. Some things that I need to bring inside before we get lots of wind and water.

There was some storm weather over Richmond this evening. Kinda like an appetizer of what is expected to come in a few days. I drove through it tonight after my 10 minutes of class lol.
I was driving through some rough traffic while taking some of these photos, not the smartest thing that I have done by far.



One side of the sky was dark and the other light.





It was interesting to watch it develop as I drove really.

Hanover Wayside Park (Hanover County, VA) Photos

So on Monday I went to Hanover Wayside park, the oldest county park in Hanover county and a long time childhood favorite to go to! Before Hurricane Gaston there was a pond that was held by a small dam but the hurricane had broken through and now there is no Pond at all. I had caught a huge cat fish there and at that same spot it is just a pile of sand and wild flowers.
Recent renovations to the park has been a new pavilion, parking spots and also the Hanover Veterans Memorial for all of those that are from Hanover County that fought in foreign wars.
I do however regret to say that a lot of the paths through the woods and such that it has been left unattended most the time. Over growth has occurred >_>




This pavilion has been here for a LONG time. Well at least 16 years from what I remember of my life.



So that day I decided to travel around off the paths and such that I really...only use. Kinda made it up as I went years ago lol.



In the creek you can find lots of things. Crayfish, small fish, turtles, rocks, old pieces of asphalt from when the bridge washed out from the Hurricane and also old bottles for the early 1900s that were once buried.





So these flood plain where the water goes when it is way over it's normal levels has some vegetation that is obviously found in wetlands around here.



I remembered coming down to this park not to soon after the bridge gave away and the dam and a lot of trees, plants and such were washed out. Also the creek that went into the pond even changed its direction and cuts differently through the woods. Years later new plants grew in the place where the flood waters were over.



This is the creek now that is right below the bridge at 301.



Most of these plants though are fast growing and get large really fast. They are mostly large weeds and have wild flowers. This plant has berries or some type of fruit that WILL stain clothes...I found out the hard way.



A little blue tailed skink was scurrying around a fallen tree, they love to climb all over my deck out back. Click here for the Wikipedia page.





I loved how the sun beams are cut up and are narrowed down before it reaches the floor of the woods. It is perfect for those low sun light plants that are at the bottom and offers a nice cool climate under the canopy. Felt great.



I love this plant that is scattered all over the ground like confetti on a table top. A nice little red mushroom is peaking up and wants to say hello!









That small clearing with wild grass and such is a real muck area. The ground is more like completely soggy. I remember coming to this spot years ago and it was once part of the actual creek that emptied into the pond but now it is a low area that collects water that comes down the hill in the the low area.



As seen here, what is left of a main creek...




I reached the pond from the west side...or what use to be a pond. Now it is a plain of sand from the flood. With some dirt and time and the creek flowing through it you get this. Lots of plants haha











There are a lot of these paper birch trees all through out the flood plain. They are quite nice :D









I found this up on the hill on a semi-high point. I guess it is a concrete surveying marker. I could not read what was on top of the copper marker, just a few etches in it really.



Up on the hill on the opposite side of the pond area from the park there is a hill that goes up land. From just down the hill, and a few feet up there was a lot of up land plants. Lots of mountain laurel, beech trees and oak.



Poor pond...





Something was eaten and recycled back into nature.







This area was all water years ago but of course that changed. It is now a grove of paper birch trees.



Now what is left of the dam is now covered in graffiti :(





I love this park! Just saying...