In truth, the news was making a big deal of it and they had coverage all Saturday warning people. I suppose it's better safe than sorry, but if the news keeps that level of warning for every storm, it will be a case of the little boy who cried wolf. We didn't lose power (although it has flickered a little) and walking around this morning, we didn't see any downed trees or anything. We were ultimately fortunate and I am grateful for that.
The damage we did sustain (that I can see) is isolated to some very minor leaking in our basement that I blame on the rain saturating the soil outside and seeping in through the junction of the floor and the wall in our storage room. This is the leaking we had in the basement from what I assume is saturated soil outside.
More concerning is the reappearance of a leak in our dining room ceiling. When we first moved in, we diagnosed a leak in the upstairs bathroom over the dining room that was due to a lack of caulking around the bathtub. The water would seep under the floor and manifest itself by dripping out the ceiling of the dining room. We caulked and sealed around the tub, patched the drywall, and never had any more problems with it. Until last night. We filled the tub in preparation of losing water because of the storm and left it filled overnight. The water level in the tub this morning seemed to be the same as when we filled it last night, so I don't think any of it came out from the tub. I don't understand how the rain could make it through our roof and then down into our dining room on the main floor without showing any signs of leaking in the top floor. I suppose it's possible that the source of the problem is our neighbors (we are an interior townhouse), but I don't know how the pipes in all these townhouses are connected (if at all). So that leaves me thinking the source of the problem is the bathtub we left full, but then that begs the question why the water level in the tub was the same. Anyway, we need to figure out that problem and get it solved. Here's the damage we sustained with our dining room ceiling, with a piece of the patch that fell off during the night.
Fortunately, the other leak in our living room that we had dealt with in the past during heavy rainstorms appears to have been patched sufficiently. I guess all that caulking and stuff my dad and I did on our awning when they were here seems to have solved that problem. The rainfall we got from Irene is about as much rain as I have seen since I have lived here, so if we survived that without our old leak reappearing, I am happy with it.
Here are some pictures of our preparations. We cleared off our deck to protect our patio furniture and gazebo covering. We didn't want any of it to blow away and turn into unguided missiles and we wanted to make sure our netting and roof for our gazebo wouldn't get shredded by wind or debris. We left the gazebo frame on the deck, but it was tied down and without any surface area, it didn't have any real chance of blowing away. Here's how we left our deck.
Our deck furniture was stacked up in our kitchen. Poor Snoopy was very nervous to eat; he must have thought that the chairs would fall down on top of him.
The roof of our gazebo and the netting found its place in our basement.
It definitely could have been worse and it seems like in some parts of the country and our area, it was.
Since no blog post is complete without pictures of the princess, here are a few for good measure. In the first two pictures, Karina is sitting up unsupported, away from the back of the couch. We love her giggles.
Another big smile while on Mommy's lap:
Glad to hear that you didn't blow away! We have been praying that Hurricane Irene would lose a little of her strength and we were glad to see news coverage of just that. Look at Karina... only four months old and she has already experienced her first tropical storm and earthquake!
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