Hopefully, the storm is over

Wow, we just had a few days of torrential rain fall. Rhode Island has experienced historic flooding with over 16" of rain in the month of March (our yearly rainfall is around 36"). I believe more than 9" fell in the last 2 days. Several of our rivers have crested at double their flood plain. One of our major highways has closed. Power stations and water plants are submerged.

Yesterday morning, as I took E to school, yards and fields looked like lakes. Water came right up to many homes and the rain just kept coming. Today we saw hoses, tubes, and trenches in yards. There were piles of carpet and foam outside doors, as people are cleaning their basements. And we live on the side of the Bay that hasn't been hit the worst.

A friend called yesterday to borrow our wet/dry vac for another friend who was trying to keep up with the flow into her basement. Another friend has 4' (yes, feet) in her basement. I don't think there is a dry basement to be found. Ours has two small areas, by comparison, of seepage. Our neighbors across the street - 2" of water.

It appears that the weather is now breaking and massive clean-up is underway. I'm running off to call some friends to offer help.

Batten down the hatches for hurricane Bill

Thursday we took are Chicago friends to Newport for a day at the beach. As we drove closer to Newport, a thick fog developed making visibility extremely limited. It was eerie. I've never seen the weather like this here in RI. The waves were pretty big which the kids loved. They body surfed for 3 hours with very few breaks as the lifeguards stood noticeably on alert. We overheard one say that they had never seen the weather change so drastically. They announced that swimmers could go no further than waist deep and began walking the edge of the water with keen eyes. I did not envy their jobs that day. As a mother, this was very nerve racking but the dads were with the kids at all times. Today this particular beach is closed due to Bill.

On the news I saw that Newport boaters were securing their boats to moorings or taking them out of the water. One boater said that RI'ers typically don't worry too much until the hurricane is about 100 miles out. Bill is predicted to pass within 200 miles of Nantucket. It is currently 442 miles from Providence and we are under a severe tropical storm warning. It will interesting to see how the weather develops tonight. Currently, it's sunny (hot) and a bit windy.

Our neighbors have been out on their sailboat for the past week. I hope they've found a place to batten down the hatch until this storm passes.

I've never experienced this type of weather. Being from the Midwest, I saw a lot of tornadoes and funnel clouds. I guess it's nature's way of reminding all of us, no matter where we live, that we have no control over the elements. I'm glad we aren't on the Cape this weekend and that my friends are heading back home...inland.