Tag Archives: flooding

Well that was (not) fun.

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In case you hadn’t heard, we had a bit of weather up here in Maine.

Turn up your volume for full effect because it was crazy loud in person.

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At the time of year when we should be covered in fluffy white stuff, Mother Nature and climate change decided to throw us what amounted to a mini hurricane instead.

70mph wind gusts and rain that came in sideways.

Naturally it ripped shingles off our roof which my husband had to try and cover and weigh down during the storm.

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It was a crazy day of howling winds, torrential rain and of course no electricity.

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After dark, we turned on the battery operated camp lights and had a marathon 6 hour gin rummy game.

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Lord Dudley Mountcatten supervised.

I won.

Around midnight we heard a big crash and called our neighbor to check that she was alright. A tree had fallen across her driveway and she asked if my husband could bring his chainsaw and help her move/cut it the next morning. My husband… being my husband… went down there right then, in the pitch black dark, with gale force winds practically blowing him down the hill.

The man is nuts, I swear.

On his return?

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He cut up the branch of my choke cherry tree that had fallen. Never a dull moment around here.

The next day was calm…. and people in our town still had their sense of humor.

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Thankfully the temperature was above 40 degrees since we still had no power…. and my poor guy spent 5 hours on the roof replacing shingles.

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It was a doozy of a storm and did a lot of damage across our state, mostly due to flooding.

Here are a few pictures from our area…

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Terrible timing so close to Christmas.

Though there really is no good time for storms like these.

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This is not good.

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As you know, we’ve had a wet summer in Maine. For a while there it was literally raining every other day. And though that’s kept our grass a lovely green it also makes for saturated ground that can’t absorb a random downpour … which is what happened the other day.

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I know my blog name is River, but I really didn’t want to see one flowing past my kitchen landing.

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It was a crazy amount of water.

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And before long it was creeping right into the garage.

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We’ve never had this happen before and I’m beginning to wonder if the new smooth driveway is funneling it through the path of least resistance.

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Thankfully it was gone in an hour or two, but I’m glad I didn’t have to go out, that’s shoe ruining water right there.

🥴

A perfectly revolting Christmas Eve.

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I’m sure I’m not the only who’ll be complaining today as it seems the entire United States was slammed by what they called a bomb cyclone event yesterday.

The wind? Insane. It gusted almost 70mph at our house.

The rain? A deluge that flooded roads, businesses, and homes.

Our nightmare started yesterday at 8:00am just as I was about to step into the shower. Bam! No power. Which meant no shower, sandwiches for lunch and dinner and an epic 13 hour gin rummy tournament by flashlight. Temperatures during the day were mild with a high of 52 degrees, but by nightfall it was frigid.

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Thankfully we have a fireplace…. and while it won’t heat the whole house, it did manage to keep the living room at 58 degrees when the outside temperature dropped to 7. Of course my husband the Marine runs the operation.

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Which means throwing giant logs on the top to get it truly blazing.

This does not always end well.

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Because sometimes the logs revolt and pop back out. Giant cloud of smoke, sparks that burned the carpet? You betcha!

But as we sat in the dark enjoying the smell of smoke and scorched Berber, the fun was just beginning. Yes, just as we were about to call it a day and go to bed… shingles started lifting and literally flying off the roof. We watched them sail into the backyard, the neighbor’s driveway and the road. Good times!

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Or not as it turns out.

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Five new leaks as of this morning.

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Did I mention Lord Dudley Mountcatten is utterly terrified of the fire? Positively and absolutely. He fled to the furthest reaches of our bedroom and cried nonstop. Which meant instead of sleeping on the relative warmth of the living room couch, I had to snuggle his highness in the frigid bedroom all night and got no sleep whatsoever because to top it all off? Our neighbor’s wood stove caught fire at midnight.

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Thankfully no one was hurt.

It’s 1:00pm now and we’ve been without power for 29 hours. I haven’t slept nor showered and just discovered it’s not easy to make tea and toast in a fireplace. I have to say …. I’m more than ready to fill the house with electric current. This pioneer woman thing is getting old.

🥺

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Here are a few pics I grabbed from friends.

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Our little downtown park.

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Not sure if you can tell, but the water is right under the bridge.

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Yikes!

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You’re looking at a pier and a parking lot. Or rather, you should be.

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We may be cold, dirty and hungry… but I’m still glad we don’t live there.

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