by the dawn's early light...

I ventured outside this morning to see the extent of damage here from hurricane Irene.

I found this guy taking his morning swim in our pool.  Last night during the height of the storm our pool had waves thrashing in it and looked like it was on a cruise ship during a storm.

The sunflowers did okay.  The rose of sharon bush (small bush near fence) is a little droopy.

Rick's "drainage system" in Ozzy's area did very well.

As expected, the east side of the conservation area is filled almost to the brink.

 

And, one of my fears during the night did not come to fruition.  The west side of the conservation area has less water than it did during our storms last week.

I was awake most of the night tracking the storm and watching for tornado warnings.  We had a few go south of us -- and a few go north of us.  We had a lull in the storm for about a good 90 minutes -- Nicholas and I sat together by an open window during that time.  It was serene, and at the same time a bit eerie as we enjoyed the calmness while watching what was coming at us on the radar on weather.com.  At around 2 a.m. the wind was at its strongest and the noises it made unnerved me.  I woke up Nicholas and Sofia and brought them downstairs to the first floor along with their pillows and blankets.  We set up camp in the front room and I continued to monitor the storm on weather.com until I fell asleep a bit after 4 a.m.  The last thing I remember was that there was a tornado warning in Freeport and Hempstead, Long Island.

Even though last night was one of the worst night's I have ever had -- I am thankful that I can say -- "It could have been alot worse".