Recovering From Hurricane Irene
By Shaun Kenney | Monday, August 29th, 2011 | VirginiaNBC 29 in Charlottesville is reporting that 649,000 households are still without power in Virginia, with 20 deaths due to Hurricane Irene. Thankfully, Central Virginia was spared a potentially ruinous one-two punch from both the hurricane and earthquake damage:
“For us, this past week has been trying at the least,” the Episcopal minister said, her clear voice echoing off the high-pitched ceiling of the Church of the Incarnation, Mineral’s oldest house of worship. “There was little, if anything, that we could have done to prepare for the earthquake. And who would have thought it would be followed by a hurricane?”
This little town of about 400 was the epicenter of a 5.8 magnitude earthquake Tuesday that rattled the East Coast, opening cracks in the Washington Monument and awakening the region to fears they had previously believed a West Coast plague. As Hurricane Irene steamed up the coast, its eye drifting farther westward with each passing day, some in this old mining town in Louisa County feared the winds would finish the work the temblor had started.
“We were pretty much like, ‘What did WE do to Mother Nature to come through here like this,’” Louisa County Fire Lt. Floyd Richard said as he stared at the darkening sky Saturday evening.
There are still downed chimneys, cracks in walls and foundations, one elementary school ruined beyond repair, and other after effects on top of felled trees from oversaturated soil and high winds in Louisa, Fluvanna, and western Goochland — and locals are taking the aftershocks and tremors much more seriously than the rest of the nation.
Virginia’s recovery seems to be going on track thus far thanks to preparedness initiatives. The comparative loss of life could have been much more without precautionary efforts. Expect VDOT and others to be on round-the-clock cleanup for the better part of this week.
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About the author
Shaun Kenney is the Chairman of the Fluvanna County Board of Supervisors, former Communications Director for the Republican Party of Virginia, and an active blogger since 2002. Shaun lives in Thomas Jefferson's backyard with his wife, six children, and a modest attempt at a farm in Kents Store, Virginia.
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5 Responses to "Recovering From Hurricane Irene"
First responders, Dominion Power, and VDOT have done a pretty solid job, at least from where I sit, at getting us up and running.
I returned home from a pre-planned trip to Michigan yesterday and had no trouble getting down I-81 and I-64. We also traveled on some secondaries in Williamsburg, Virginia Beach, and Chesapeake, and things look pretty good.
A lot of power has been restored here in Hampton Roads – now it’s clean up of debris. SPSA always has their hands full after a storm, but I suspect the pick up of limbs and logs will go pretty quickly.
I was standing in Arlington National Cemetery during the earthquake. Not only was it strong, it broke water pipes at Arlington and it seemed everyone was on the road to get out of D.C. when I had to go home to Virginia Beach. Then we had Irene who was more serene than they said she would be but still nerve wracking.
We have damage and cleanup here in Virginia Beach, but we don’t have to deal with tremors from earthquake aftershocks like you do. It would be hard to sleep for me Shaun.
My son Nathan (USN) was in Japan for the 9.0 earthquake and tsunami. He comes home for the first time in almost 2 years this Thursday for a visit. We’ll have something to share together after this week.
J.R., I think that the pick up of storm debris is a city/county responsibility and some years ago SPSA and its members agreed that expensive landfill space should not be taken by storm debris, so cities and counties have made other arrangements. But I agree with your thought; citizens and their governments seem to have gotten our respective areas back in shape pretty quickly.
The governor and others are touring the affected areas that are under water. The storm surge is still rising as we speak, not receding in lower VB. Some roads are under enough water to run a boat over them.. https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Governor-of-Virginia/61634046094
Mike, was that policy put in place when you were “representing” VA Beach taxpayers on the SPSA oversight “board”?
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