Well, between the lot of us that read Liz's journal, I'd say we offer pretty good coverage of most of the Eastern Seaboard. So, my question is this: What did Floyd do near YOU? Torrential rain? High winds? Flood? Tornado or waterspout? Structural damage? Downed trees? Power and/or other utility outages? Misplaced cows? Go on, share, you KNOW you want to.

I live in southern NY-- Rockland County to be precise (which has been placed in a state of emergency). Floyd hit us yesterday with a bit of high wind and a LOT of torrential rain, with the worst of the pounding occurring between 3 and 9 in the evening. We accumulated at least 13 inches in one night, had two dams crumble, and had massive power and phone outages countywide. Luckily, I didn't lose phone or power (I was stir-crazy enough as it was), but the lights *did* blink a few times. Instead, I got the worst Floyding--umm... FLOODING since before this house was built (my grandmother tells me the last time it flooded like this-- actually, a bit worse than this-- was in '38.) According to the high water mark on my car's tires, I had 3 inches of standing water in the garage, and about a half-inch across *every* room of my downstairs. (Luckily, I was prepared-- I moved everything damagable 4 inches off the floor. And boy, that wall-to-wall carpeting soaks things up nicely. :/) There was a good four feet of water in my back yard-- I know, I had to wade through it at one point to check on my grandmother. My greatest frustration was that the computer and the TV are both downstairs, so I had to abandon them while I twiddled my thumbs upstairs.

This morning, of course, it's beautiful (albeit rather windy), and aside from a few small branches (I'm actually rather amazed that nothing big came down) there's litte evidence of last night's destruction. The ground was so dry from the summer's drought that it soaked *all* that water, and this morning it's not even squishy outside. Instead, it's squishy INSIDE. Ugh. But hey, at least the computer's fine, and none of my anime collection got damaged. ^_^

My parents picked Nova Scotia for their fall vacation spot this year-- that's where they are now. I expect that, in a day or two, I'll be able to update y'all on Floyd's parting gifts as he exits our coast.

So, how're things by you?

Liz, how's the dogwood?

-- Karen O. (lisl_1@yahoo.com), September 17, 1999

Answers

::shakes head:: I'm still amazed that the guy who was SUPPOSED to get hammered by Floyd got away with light rain and a breeze. Floyd was the most hyped-up non-event I can remember. I'm glad everyone else seems to have made it through though.

-- Jeff (koros@usit.net), September 19, 1999.

I got off pretty lightly, waist deep water in the street (knee deep in the yard), and was cut off from the rest of the city briefly, mior winds, no power for a few hours. . .

Of course, almost etting swept out to sea was interesting (misjudged the erosion on one sidewalk until the blacktop fell away and I suddenly had an additional four feet of terra very not firma, and nothing between me and Norfolk). *g*

Luckily, not a drop of water entered the house that didn't hitchhike.

-- Richard A. Randall (rrandall@iname.com), September 20, 1999.