Hurricane Irene

Saturday night we were partying until the wee hours as we celebrated the nuptials of Margot and Matt.  Little did we expect to be woken up at 8am Sunday morning with word that we had minutes to evacuate town before the bridge was swallowed up by the overflowing river.  Some people from our crew fled and made it to surrounding towns, but about 10 of us decided to stay put at the Emerson Resort.

No one really expected Hurricane Irene to have such an impact on upstate New York.  All attention had been on the coastlines, Manhattan, Long Island, etc... but it turned out that those areas did better than expected.

In the Catskills, roads and bridges were wiped out by overflowing rivers and creeks, trapping people in their homes and leaving towns cut off from help.   People lost their houses, cars and businesses to floods and raging rivers carrying entire trees like battering rams.  it was really scary and sad.  Luckily we were at the Emerson and they continued to treat us like guests despite the hotel running on a generator and being used as a shelter.  Not to mention, it's not the worst thing in the world to be stuck in a lovely hotel with 10 of your close friends, crappy movies, bottles of wine, and lots of snacks.  

It wasn't until we were finally able to leave Monday that we saw the ongoing destruction.  It took us almost 8 hours and over 350 miles to travel home in what normally would take 1 hour and 50 miles.