Tropical Storm Isaac

Rain, rain, and more rain... My weather station recorded 11 inches, but so much of that time it was so windy, that I think we probably got more than that... The highest gust recorded up here was 79 mph. We got the first rain bands about 12:30 Friday afternoon. The wind didn't start picking up until 4 or 5 pm. By 7 or 8 pm, we were getting gusts up to 60 mph. The wind and rain was coming from the northeast, so we were constantly sopping up water at the front doors. Around midnight is when the worst of the storm hit... then the wind just roared and the rain pounded against the doors and windows with a fury! When the eye went through at 3 am, it got so quiet all of a sudden, that I believe it woke me up. Then storm returned again with a fury, this time all the wind was coming from the south side... It seemed like the north side of the storm packed the worst winds, because we didn't have as high winds after the eye went through, but we were still getting 60 mph winds. By Saturday morning it was still very windy, and pouring buckets of rain, but it was a LOT calmer... All of a sudden the 30/40 mph winds seems like just a breeze! It rained all day Saturday, through the night, and off and on throughout the day on Sunday... Today is a lovely day with sun and clouds. Still quite breezy, but oh the sun feels SO good!!!!  Here in my area, gardens are destroyed, a lot of animals died from exposure to the weather, my neighbor's house roof went, and lots of trees were snapped off, the roads are washed out and impassable. But thank God that there wasn't worse damage!!! Around here the natives almost always tuck their houses into the side of the mountain, and I definitely can see the wisdom of that in hurricane season!!! If their houses would've been exposed to that wind, there wouldn't be anything left to them I'm afraid. There's one area not far from here that they tell me looks like someone just swept it with a broom... The whole hillside is cleaned off, and there's clothing and debris scattered all over the place... I'm still hearing reports from other areas, some places got the wind and some didn't... Everywhere had rain... Some people were flooded out, houses were washed away, bridges washed out... It's very discouraging to the mountain people to have lost their crops, and to the people living in tent cities since the earthquake it's discouraging as well... Haiti needs your prayers!