Glad to hear you are okay, PV. That evening was pretty frightening. I'm in Fairfield County, and my husband left Stamford at exactly the wrong time. Watching the news reports (we get NYC stations) all they kept saying about CT was how horrible the rain was over the Merritt Parkway between Stamford and Bridgeport... guess how my DH drives home? Boy, was I glad to see him walk in the door that evening! I can't imagine what it was like to be in the thick of things! I bet the restaurants loved it though, lol - just think of all those stranded LIRR riders who decided to just go to dinner before they went home, lol Beats sitting for hours in Penn Station! I am glad we finally got some rain though... :) Dee

Everyone is so kind, thank-you. Our crawl space next door got flooded but most of the water stayed out of the home we live in, and we now know what we need to do to keep the rest out (if we ever get another heavy rain that is!!). Our back yard is so totaled. The biggest problem is that the land was sinking anyway - total errosion and I had a terrible time with the city trying to get them to document the errosion (caused mainly by other homes around us re-directing their rain run-off down their back yards and downhill into our property). The city just doesn't want to have to deal with this - even though the excess run-off onto private property is a code violation. Hopefully now they will supply us with rip-rap and I can have retaining walls/terraces built and fill in the low lying areas for good. I think the land has sunk all it can now after all the heavy machinery that has been on it! The back yard STINKS to high heaven. The woodland soil was stirred up and all the old bacteria has been brought to the top. In the long run all this will end up being for the best, I think. The old diseased/damaged/uncared for trees are almost all gone and I can plant new, healthy and well cared for native trees and shrubs back there when the land gets corrected. The house is fine, no damages and we've had rain enough to prove that the roofer did a good job with repairs to the roof. The contractor that recently remodeled our home made sure we had services like roofer and the tree guys come out the very next day and take care of our home which was great. We are very thankful we are all fine, and so are the pets. They still run to the basement whenever a wind kicks up which is funny!! GGG

Tom, I try to avoid being actually IN the sun as much as I can, since I'm always too hot and I've had skin cancer five times. BUT...having said that...having no sunLIGHT is terribly depressing. I'm feeling SAD, myself, even though I know I don't have it to the extent I need treatment for it. But four or five days of unrelenting darkness and grey skies is just too much. I've definitely been feeling depressed. If last night's storm had happened the FIRST night of the rain, it probably wouldn't have upset me nearly as much. I was just outside between showers and looking around more closely, and I think MOST things will survive with some damage pruned off, and some cleaning up. Lots of debris removal will be forthcoming, and there are several plants that I don't think will make it. But the yard won't be as barren as it was after the freeze or anything. And the things that didn't get smashed are going to be really green and happy. It will all end up okay. Just some extra work, and a few replacement plants. Joey still looks like a goner, and I'm seriously worried about my rudbeckia submentosa, which really got flattened. And some of my coleus got broken back to ground level. Those will sprout again, I'm sure. But Joey and the rudbeckia...well, we'll see. I just can't wait to see a brighter sky. When I was younger, I used to love rainy days and living in the northwest was very appealing. I don't think I could do it now, either. I need me some SUNLIGHT!!!!! *Tom and Marcia, doing the Sunshine Superman dance, here* Marcia

Haveing been through a few cyclones, we have taped up lots of our split branches and they knitted well, and the ones we could not tape we tied up to the main trunk with string or rope and had lots of success. But if they are completely snapped off I would just neaten up the break so nothing can get into it. And no I would not remove the tree, as five years is a long time so give it a chance and see how it goes as long as its roots are intact it should be OK. MM.