Last night and early this morning lots of thunder, lightning, and rain as Tropical Storm Henri passed through. My weather station didn’t record much wind, but nearly 5 inches (125 mm) of rain. After the rain stopped, I went for a walkabout down Grandview Road to the single lane bridge over Rock Brook. Normally, Rock Brook is a quiet stream. It was running hard today. A tree had been washed onto the side of the bridge. We could get some more rain through the day and overnight. Somerset county has reported several locations where roads are closed due to flooding.
Tropical Storm Henri. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.
Daily Electric Energy Used (48.4 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (9.8 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Rainy most of the day. A deficit of 38.6 kWh.
Weekly Electric Energy Used (396 kWh) from Sense. Weekly Solar Electric Energy Produced (226 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. A deficit of 170 kWh.
I slept in a dark house for the second night with the windows open. The house was getting hot inside. Several PSE&G crews spent the morning and afternoon examining the downed power lines. It must have been considered a complex repair since there were often more supervisors than actual line workers. Power was restored at 17:21. My house and next door neighbor were lucky in that we could be restored before everyone else further down the line. That is a good thing since the last outage report on the PSE&G website indicated power to the house wouldn’t be restored until Sunday. Once the power was restored the priority was making sure that the Geothermal HVAC system came online an started cooling the house, and the LG fridge/freezer was on and cooling. I ended up throwing out the food in the fridge, and then cleaning it with dilute bleach. The food in the freezer was still cold, so only lost a few things that melted. This shows that the insulation for the freezer is pretty good. The water on the floor must have been external condensation or a unplanned defrosting that helped keep the food cold. The network, servers, and computers all restarted without any problems.
Daily Electric Energy Used (26.7 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (2.8 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Not much sun left after the power was restored. Geothermal HVAC busy. A deficit of 23.9 kWh.
Tropical Storm Isaias Aftermath and Summertime Backyard Nature in New Jersey.
Last night I slept in a dark house with the windows open. It was silent in the house, but you could hear several of the neighbors generators running all night. Power from PSE&G remained off all day. Even though I have solar panels, I can’t used them for safety reasons when the external power is off. By mid-afternoon there was a puddle of water under the fridge/freezer. I don’t know how much food I will lose. I am able to continue working with my computer since the Range Rover can be setup as a WiFi hotspot and has 115 VAC outlets.
In the morning two crews from National Tree Service arrived to clear the two downed Oak trees blocking my driveway and Grandview Road. They worked until mid-afternoon. The cut up sections of the tree were pushed to the side of the road and into my front yard. I set up my Garmin VIRB-360 camera to record the activity. The following nearly 6 minute time-lapse video was extracted from the 8483 images.
After the trees were cleared I took another set of images to create a “blue sky” Little Planet view of the front yard. As well as the remains of the trees, brush, and rock wall that will ultimately need to be cleaned up.
Tropical Storm Isaias Aftermath. Little Planet View of my Front Yard after the Tree Crews Cleared the Downed Oak Trees. Composite of 27 images taken with a Leica CL camera and 18 mm f/2.8 lens (DAVID J MATHRE)
Individual images used to create the above Little Planet view. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.
Views after the Tree Crews Cleared the Two Downed Oak Trees — East Oak Tree, West Oak Tree, Neighbor’s Rock Wall on the other side of Grandview Road. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.Tropical Storm Isaias Aftermath Day 2 — Post Tree Clearing. Rock Wall on the other side of Grandview Road. Composite of 4 images taken with a Leica CL camera and 18 mm f/2.8 lens (DAVID J MATHRE)
Even thought the power was off, I still could set the camera up to monitor the patio birdfeeders: Downy Woodpecker, Blue Jay, Black-capped Chickadee, Brown Thrasher, American Goldfinch, Chipping Sparrow, Song Sparrow, and Northern Cardinal.
Afternoon at the Birdfeeder. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.
During the night the clouds were moving fast. The first heavy rain squall passed through about 05:15. It started raining again at 09:00 with heavy bands at 11:15 and 11:45. The weather station reported 3.19″ of rain up to the time it stopped collecting data. The wind started increasing at 09:00 with sustained winds of 18 mph and gusts of 34 mph. Power to the house failed at 11:06. The weather station continued to report data until 13:25 via WiFi when the UPS for the network went offline. By the time the weather station stopped collecting data the relative barometric pressure dropped from 30.0″ to 29.4″
I reported the power failure to PSE&G online at 11:21 and was told it would be restored by 18:00 the next day. I could hear several of the neighbors generator running. A neighbor texted me that live power lines were down and arcing in the street in front of my house. I took some pictures from my front door, and the back door of the garage. Even though it was still raining the arcing 10 kV power lines started to burn the asphalt. It took a while until the power company de-energized the lines. After the lines were de-energized I went to check out the damage. The two large oak trees at the head of my driveway had fallen. The oak tree on the east side of the driveway broke above ground and fell onto my rock wall and crossed the street ultimately landing on the rock wall on the other side of the street. The tree missed my mailbox with the troll that lights up at night, but did block my driveway and the street. The oak on the west side of the driveway fell while pulling the root ball out of the ground. These were two of the largest trees in my yard.
Downed Power Lines Electical Fire on Grandview Road in front of my House. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.
Little Planet View of my front yard after Tropical Storm Isaias. Composite of 22 images taken with a Leica CL camera and 18 mm f/2.8 lens (DAVID J MATHRE)
Individual images used to create the Little Planet view of my Front Yard after Tropical Storm Isaias. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.
Front yard after Tropical Storm Isaias. Montgomery Township Volunteer Fire Company, District 1, Car 46. Image taken with a Leica CL camera and 18 mm f/2.8 lens (DAVID J MATHRE)Front yard after Tropical Storm Isaias. West side side oak tree across Grandview Road, composite of 4 images. Image taken with a Leica CL camera and 18 mm f/2.8 lens (DAVID J MATHRE)
East Side Downed Oak Tree; West Side Downed Oak Tree; Downed Power Lines Damage to Grandview Road. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.
