Irene - big damage expected

[Rockwall Tim]

I did go you youtube to see the heart-rending videos. My stomach has a knot in it...but if there is something I know, it's that the people there are strong, independent, and charitable to their neighbors...and this state will recover!

[ixl]

People are more important than objects, but this is still heart-wrenching to watch: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=209 ... =1&theater

[WXMAN76]

Thanks to all for posting comments. Early pictures I saw out of the White Mountains didn't look as bad, but still there was plety of damage, again from water not so much wind. My prayers go out to all who were affected by this storm. Vermont and NH will always have a special place in my hearts and it hurts to see the damages occured. While I can take solice in the fact this storm was pretty well pegged and people had a lot of warning time, if they believed what they heard. it is heart wrenching even for us meteorologists to see the wrath of mother nature. it is a curse and blessing to be a meteorolgist. While we love big storms, when they do this much damage, the heart sinks. My prayers to ALL. Stay safe. Let's hope I don;t have to forecast another storm in New England for a long time, but if one comes I'll be here to warn you all.

[ixl]

I just saw some photos from Wilmington. Apparently the Deerfield has already receded and left behind utter devastation. Some are saying it breached the famous "water line" from the 1938 storm that was marked on the side of the police station.

[WXMAN76]

Thanks ixl

preliminary rain/wind totals courtesy National Weather service Taunton Ma (all of New England)

http://www.erh.noaa.gov/box/pns.shtml

[admin]

126 roads are closed in Vermont due to the storm. Several covered bridges have disappeared including the Taftsville bridge between Woodstock and Quechee and the Quechee Covered Bridge in the Quechee Village. The Simon Pearce Glass works was flooded but not the restaurant.
As far as foliage is concerned...there was not major leaf loss. The winds were not that high...just heavy, heavy rain.

[ixl]

About 5.25" here.

I just drove around and most of the flooding has receded.

[WXMAN76]

Thanks for the continued updates friends. This one of the cases I really wished I was wrong. Foxnews reports worst flooding in 100 years. Leaves hung on pretty good here even though we had stronger winds. Let's hope for a great foliage season to pump some much needed money into the state. And with all the damage, maybe we can get some more people to work fixing things up. But this is NOT the way to boost the economy.

[faxmachineanthem]

It really was sad to see the video of the covered bridge sweeping away, even though there are surely many worse things that happened. Hopefully all of the tourism-based businesses have enough time to recover for foliage season. I just sent in the rest of my lodging deposit this morning so I'll be there to pump some money into the local eating establishments.

[Rockwall Tim]

I just made a donation to the Vermont Red Cross...it's the least I could do.

Tony: I'm worried about T.D. 12 possibly following fast on Irene's heels. It looks like upper air patterns may support it coming in to the east coast. Obviously, Vermont can't take any more water for a long time. What are your thoughts on what the end of the week may hold for this new storm?

[WXMAN76]

Yeah I am worried about TD12 making it to the east coast as well. One thing that may be in our favor is there will be a lot of sinking air in her way as we are not in a favorable part of the Madden Julien Oscillation. (MJO). It doesn't turn favorable until around sept 10 for the eastern carribean. so I expect her to devlop while near Africa but then struggle most of the way across. If the system survives the East coast will be open for business again by then. NAO (north atlantic oscillation) stays neutral as opposed to negative. Negative is favorable for cold and snow in the winter, and hurricanes in the fall. This is definitely a watcher but I certainly wouldn't forecast another Irene at this point.

[ixl]

Re 12, NHC has it a 'cane pretty fast, but wouldn't it be hard for it not to be a fish if it hits 20N so far before 60W? (There's some major long/lat benchmark but I forget what it is).

[wentworth]

looks like worst flooding in Vermont since 1927--main road in Jamaica washed out--21 yr old woman dead in Wilmington, 2 men missing in Rutland--Governor on CNN little while ago--big flooding in Brattleboro and Bennington

[Snookman2]

The models strongly favor td12 to be a fish. It's way too early to say for sure but odds are that it will be a fish storm.

[ixl]

I just took some food to donate for the people in the shelters and we stopped to take a look around. It is amazing.

Right near my place is a scene of utter devastation as the Walloomsac River jumped its banks over a wide swath. Amazingly the Silk Road Bridge is intact. Near the Paper Mill Bridge I saw part of a road that had buckled like a vinyl record left in a hot car. There were trees snapped all over with debris in them. I saw homeowners shoveling rocks off their front lawns.

We drive by the Roaring Branch near the intersection of Branch and Gage Streets. I literally gasped as we approached because I could immediately see that the river was twice as wide as it had been before.

Check this out: http://g.co/maps/fvgf

The river doesn't actually follow that course near the bridge any more! See those trees in the backyard of the house near where it says "2 Sweets Ln"? Those trees are all gone and the river is still rushing in a torrent through the guy's backyard. Amazingly the house is still there and the bridge is as well (though it is closed).

Last night I discovered that I had a major hole in my personal preparation for a storm of this sort.

The storm started out seeming like a fizzle here. It was raining, sure, but the winds weren't that bad and we hadn't even lost power. Then we did. It came back on, then went out again. A neighbor told me it could be out 2-3 days. We've never had anything like that before.

We were ready to lose power in terms of things like light and keeping the freezers cold and so forth, but I didn't think about my sump pump. I tried to jury-rig some way to keep the thing going using my wife's computer's UPS but that didn't last long, and the inverter run off the car didn't work either. I spent a couple of hours manually baling the basement and was really upset at the thought of having to do it all night ... a 5 gallon bucket every few minutes without sleeping. Miraculously the power came back after about 8 hours. I cannot recall ever being so happy to see lights in the house come on.. I was literally shedding tears of gratitude. Getting a backup system of some sort will be our first priority.