Many people along the East Coast thought that Hurricane Irene was going to be a bust and many thought the opposite.  I was a person who wasn’t going to take it lightly since New Jersey hasn’t experienced an actually Hurricane for many years.  Normally, we get the endings of Tropical Storms so this was something that none of us were really “ready” for.

While some parts of the state didn’t feel the full impact of Hurricane Irene, my area did.  I’m along the shore line by Long Branch and my town was under order to “Voluntarily” evacuate.  Since my order were voluntarily, I decided to stick in my house and wait it out.

The storm hit land fall at around 4-6am on Sunday but before then, the wind and rain was killing us for hours.  Before the initial land fall, I went outside to find that my parking lot was completely under water with cars half way submerged.  I wish I had some photos for you guys but it was pitch black.  We had NO power.  I’m very thankful that I took action and moved my car upland a bit so my car was fine.

Once realizing everything was worse then I thought, I went inside and just waited and waited as Hurricane Irene took a turn for the worse.

Throughout the evening into the morning, there were tornado warnings for much of my area with actual sightings of tornadoes.  I’m glad I didn’t witness any of them since we wouldn’t have been able to see them coming in the dark night.

The next morning was awful.  The flooding was all gone in my lot but a quick drive around Monmouth County really shows what the storm brought to the table.  Many houses have been destroyed with the rising waters and many cars are completely totaled.

Everything seems to be worse then we all thought it would do.  With the new moon, the weird timing of the tides, and the Hurricane winds/rain, flooding is off the chart.  They expect that flooding will only worsen in the next day or so.

I’m very grateful that I lost nothing in the storm and all of my family is safe.  My thoughts and prayers go out to the few New Jersey residents who have lost their lives (literally) and for those who have lost their homes and property.  We never know what Mother Nature will do next and I hope we are all prepared for the worst next time around.

New Jersey will be under a lot of water for the next few days.  In theory, the storm is over but the worst of the flooding is just starting.