Understandably, people are taking seriously the possibility Hurricane Irene will impact us in a big way. Here's a message received today about the Danville Route 2 Project:

DANVILLE ROUTE 2
ROAD PROJECT

TRAFFIC ALERT 8/25/11 – 2:00 pm

With the expected arrival of Hurricane Irene over the weekend, crews will be working on completing some drainage work in an effort to avoid the flooding issues on the project that were experienced during the May storms. To complete this work, crews will work on Route 2 past 4 pm.

An extension of work time on Friday past 2:00 pm may also be required if storm preparation work today is not completed.

The contractor will make every effort to expedite the work and open up two-way traffic as soon as possible.

Traffic control personnel will be present on Route 2 to maintain alternating one-way traffic within the work zone. Please expect delays.

Contact Francine Perkins, Public Relations Officer, FRP Enterprises, LLC with any questions or concerns with regard to this project at 802-479-6994 or for a more up to date schedule visit www.roadworkupdates.com.

All along the east coast people are getting ready for this storm, and people here at Joe's Pond should be doing the same. While it probably won't have as serious an impact on us, being inland, as it will on coastal areas, we can expect a large amount of rain and strong winds. This combination does lots of damage, not only uprooting trees and disrupting electrical power, it will likely bring high water and damaging waves on the pond, so people should be sure their boats are preferably out of the water or well secured, and everything under cover or tied securely so it won't get blown around.

I've been in touch with JPA President Tom Dente. He and Camilla are at their home in Connecticut, taking whatever measures possible to secure their home there. Irene is expected to track a bit west of Middletown, CT, where they live, and this puts them directly in the path of the storm with winds there predicted at 75-95 m.p.h. They are on the Connecticut River and have experienced spring flooding - no word on what flooding predictions are that far inland in this storm, but I imagine it could be a big factor.

Tom is also keeping an eye on things here at Joe's Pond. He said GMP is certainly aware of the potential for high water from this storm. They will lower the water level as much as they are legally allowed, but whether that will be sufficient to prevent damaging flooding, we simply can't tell. The best we can do is prepare for high water and damaging winds and hope Irene decides to head out to sea.

We will be putting away deck furniture and removing our flag. I always like to have drinking water on hand in case we lose power, and some extra for flushing the toilet. We have plenty of food - but if the power is out for an extended period, what we have in the refrigerator/freezer could spoil. I decided against bringing in any more garden produce for the freezer. It's probably better to leave it in the garden although some things could get damaged if there's hail. The storm is not expected to hit here until sometime late Saturday, and tomorrow is going to be a fairly nice day - the calm before the storm which we can use to prepare.

I'm wondering how our area towns will do in this storm. Any large amount of rain could be a problem since there's lots of new material in place from the flooding that we had in May, and much of it probably hasn't had a chance to pack down with use or have much vegetation in place to hold it from washing again. It could mean that a lot of that work and material will be destroyed again. That could mean devastating expense for towns and property owners - again.

Fred is working hard to get his wood piled. He'll probably get some braces on the pile before this weekend since there's only one course so far and it would be too bad if the whole darned thing fell over - not unusual for wood piles to do that, of course. All it takes is a strong wind, a minor earthquake, frost, water or gremlins. We usually blame Woody when things go bump around here, but sometimes he's obviously innocent, so we know the gremlins are at work.

We wish everyone well and want you to stay safe - this is not the way we'd like to celebrate the end of summer, but once we have everything secured and preparations made, all we can do is make the best of whatever happens. We're sure to have some nice weather on the other side of this thing.