Hurricane Irene's arrival to Belltown/Stamford means a Loss of Power for nearly 48 Hours. Good bye and Good night Irene.

The Wrath and  Aftermath of Hurricane Irene

Tree limbs Strung Out Along Belltown Road in Stamford 

Hurricane Irene arrived in Stamford with a fury in the early AM hours on Sunday August 28.

Heavy rains were accompanied by 50 MPH winds.

At about 4AM, the lights started flickering and at 5:20, we lost electricity in our area!

Not only our area, but also the ridges (High Ridge and Long Ridge Roads) were also hit hard with no power. An early estimate was that over 20,000 homes were off the grid.

At about 8PM on Monday night, I drove down to Bulls Head Diner to get a WiFi signal only to find the parking lots at the Bulls Head Center, the Diner and the next door Home Goods and Radio Shack stacked full of cars.

Irene turned out to be a boon to the numerous restaurants in the Bulls Head area: the diner, two Chinese restaurants, a brick oven pizzeria, middle eastern food and Indian cuisine. It was truly a culinary night on the town for Stamfordites.

Perhaps, I would be able to get a signal at the Starbucks further up High Ridge!

Continuing my journey up High Ridge to High Ridge Shopping Center near the Merritt, I noticed the entire 2 mile strip to be without power.

To my disappointment, Starbucks had a sign on the window alerting its faithful that the store would be closed pending the return of power.

However, the Boston Market next door to Starbucks was running on backup power and had long waiting lines to place orders. Across the street, the Parkway Diner was jam-packed with cars, not a space to be had!

Jennifer (missing a few letters in its neon sign) had a bright red OPEN sign!

Before returning home, I visited an Optimum hot spot in my neighborhood - hoping to log on - only to find it too congested to access.

As I returned home, I followed Glenbrook firefighters on their way to extinguish a fire caused by a malfunctioning generator. Luckily, only the generator was fried to a crisp with no further property damage or injury to life.

Then a miracle!

At exactly 4:10 AM Tuesday morning, our area was back on the grid.

Let there be light!

Let there be internet!

We were without power for about 47 hours, considerably less than the 5-7 days predicted.

And the constant buzz of many generators has finally been silenced.