Welcome to the neighborhood…

Update: the below story was posted Tuesday and here it is Friday, and still no power. Dominion’s business model is stuck in 20th century mindset. It is time they, and all power companies for all that matters, modernize their entire infrastructure so as to avoid having customers out of power for a week or more at a time. Yes, you’d think losing the revenue might knock some sense into their “stodgy” minds, but apparently not. Maybe we, the customer, need to turn off our power one night a week to send the board a strong message. If enough of us did it… I am seriously embarrassed for Dominion employees…

by Helen Tansey

Day three with no power in my area here in Richmond. Dominion Power issued a release yesterday stating 95% of the City will be back on line by Friday evening. We’re not holding our breath. It was 10 days before power was restored during our last hurricane, Isabelle. Here’s to hoping they break their former record.

In the meantime, the T-Room will be providing intermittent updates plus news headlines and videos until power is restored to our office. We apologize for the disruption to our regular readers, but ask you to hang in there with us, we’ll be back up and fully operational soon.

Meanwhile, here are a few photo’s we took first thing Sunday morning. They provide a teeny glimpse into the destruction Irene brought to our little corner of the world, and when magnified, you can begin to get an idea of the damage done up and down the coast of Virginia. Additionally, we are huge fans of the Outer Banks and thought you’d appreciate seeing aerial photos of the numerous breaches to Route 12, the “life line” to the barrier islands.

First, the neighborhood. Folks, in just a two street area we counted more than 30 trees laying atop houses, cars, electrical wires and the street. Around 8:15 on Saturday night, our area sustained a wind gust of about 70 mph toppling the majority of the trees in our area. Just about every neighbor we’ve talked to all mention the 8ish time frame when tree’s simply began to topple.

Thank goodness no one was hurt. Our elderly neighbors have been checked in on and we’re all pulling together to keep an eye out for them. So without further ado, here are photo’s in the neighborhood…

This giant limb is dangling over a bunch of wires a street over from our house. It’s been like this since Saturday night –

Neighbors removed the debris from the roadway so as to make the street accessible, but I’m pretty sure those who drive or walk under the lines pray a quick Hail Mary before speeding underneath…

Here’s a neighbor’s house who lost two huge oaks. You’ll have to look close to see the vehicle buried underneath of the debris –

Here’s the same tree blocking the roadway…

The  next two photos are of downed tree’s just behind our house. The family that lives here left before the storm, but returned around 7ish to check on the house. They saw the one tree laying across their yard, and while making sure of no further damage a second tree fell landing on top of a vehicle across the street. They high tailed it outta there and returned the next morning only to find a third tree crushing the back of there house…

Lastly, this tree slammed down on this house at 8:15 on Saturday night. The family that lives here were in the house when they heard the creak. Both ran for the doors.  Another family member came up from the Peninsula to stay with them thinking he’d be out of danger here, but…

Thankfully no one was injured. Scared to death, yep, but no one was harmed.

Here is the heavy machinery pulling the big limbs off of the house yesterday. Appreciate the size of this tree, and how you might feel hearing this crash on your home while in it…whew!!!

That is a massive tree, folks…massive…yet the kayaks aren’t even disturbed…

Now onto some photos of breaches on Route 12 in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Here are a series of aerial photo’s taken by various local news affiliates of the various breaches.

It’s important for those who have never visited the Outer Banks to understand the importance of Route 12 – the primary two-lane highway that services the breadth of the barrier islands. Having Highway 12 breached results in total isolation which for some of the locals ain’t all that bad, but in terms of goods and services it’s disruptive and mighty costly. Keep in mind these are barrier islands where back in the day the only folks who lived on them were Lighthouse Keepers and their families. The island of Okracoke, which is at the southern end of the National Seashore, is only accessible via the US Coast Guard Ferry system, and they depend on the Hatteras Island Ferry system to deliver goods throughout the year, and during the summer season, tourists and vacationers.

Ocrakocer’s are seasoned Hurricane watchers and help one another out through such storms. But losing the Hatteras Island Ferry, a primary transportation route, will be a great financial loss to the Island and her year round residents who depend on summer rentals as a main source of income.  The same goes for Hatteras Island. She is a fisherman’s paradise and an oasis for those who seek a serious respite from the day-to-day hub bub of this frantic world.

Here is an aerial photo of the the “S” turn breach heading down Highway 12 to Hatteras Island where you see at least four breaches –

And according to a FB’er this is a photo of yet another breach “6 miles north of Rodanthe / 7.5 miles south of Oregon Inlet in the Pea Island Wildlife Refuge” –

And I’ll leave you with an aerial photo of what appears to be the newest inlet on Highway 12 just below Pea Island…

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