HTBS Is Back!

Dear readers and fans of this blog!

HTBS is back! The power came back 40 minutes ago after Hurricane Irene took down the power lines on Sunday morning. The previous post, on Sunday, was actually written on Saturday morning before I was getting ready to meet Irene when she was to hit the Connecticut shoreline on Sunday morning. I sent Mrs B. and our children up to Maine to Mrs. B's mother, while I was going to ride out the storm in our house, like a good sea captain tying myself to the bookshelf that holds my rowing books.

It did not work out that way. On Saturday afternoon, the town called for a mandatory evacuation of us living close to the Mystic River. I waited as long as I could - to the stage when the town police started to knock on my neighbours' doors to have us all to leave. I headed for the 'Community Hilton', the high school in town, where the Red Cross had organised a shelter, a safe haven with food and a cot for each and everyone in a couple of the corridors of the school. The Red Cross staff did a great job and to be useful I helped out with unpacking the cots and putting them together for those who was too sick and old to do it themselves.

After Irene had passed and the roads were cleared from trees and power poles, which had fallen over the roads and streets, making the town impossible to travel, I drove home to the house on Sunday afternoon. Luckily the house was still standing, and no water in the basement! Some big branches from an old tree in the garden had fallen down, but not hitting the house. Of course, the power was still out, as was it for almost the whole entire eastern Connecticut.

But now the power is back & all is well - HTBS is back!