Hurricane Irene slams Vermont

My family and I weathered the storm on Sunday in our house in Dorset. From the window, we could see the flood of rain falling from the sky, from 7.30 pm Saturday until midnight on Sunday. There was no wind here until it got dark on Sunday and the rain subsided. We said, "phew, thank heavens that wasn't so bad."

The reality hit when we were watching the Weather channel that evening and saw that the worst reports of flooding and storm damage were coming from Vermont. We watched in shock and horror as the eyewitness videos and photos poured in from areas as close as 30 miles away--barns under water, streets turned into rivers, houses washing away in the stream, roads and train tracks disappearing.

The next day was comically beautiful--the sun was shining and the air was calm, as if Mother Nature was giving everyone the finger. We drove into town and up to my grandparents' house near Winhall to assess the damage. Thankfully we were safe, but a lot of others were not so lucky.

This has been an historic weekend that a lot of us wish we had not witnessed.