The Storm, as Experienced

At our house, the main effect of the storm was about six hours of extra work, divided almost evenly between putting things away on Saturday, and bringing them back out and raking up Sunday. Saturday I put away pretty much everything--porch chairs down the basement, plants, tools, garbage and recycling cans in the garage, and so on. About all that I left loose outside were a door mat (too soft to cause damage if it blew) and the bird bath (unlikely to fly off). Today I brought most things back out, and then raked up a couple of big bags of twigs in the yard and the alley.

We had drizzle from 9:30 on Saturday morning, then rain from about 3 in the afternoon till about 8 Sunday morning. The water went around the house, mostly; a little got into the north side of the basement. We did not lose power except for a few second around 7 on Sunday morning. Matters could have been much worse.

It was our impression, looking out our windows or standing on the porch, that wind never got that strong. Across the street, by the light on a neighbor's house, the rain seemed generally to be within 20 degrees of vertical. None of the gusts that we were awake to see brought it anywhere near horizontal. We had discussed sleeping on the first floor of house, or even down the basement, for safety, since there are some big oaks near the house. At 10:15, though, the desire for a sound night's sleep took over, and we slept upstairs, in bed.