Your Stories: Hurricane Irene

Amid the post-Irene cleanup and damage assessments Sunday, Scotch Plains and Fanwood residents shared their thoughts and experiences with Patch. Here is what readers submitted through email (AlanN@patch.com), Facebook (www.facebook.com/scotchplainspatch) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/spfpatch):

"The storm was pretty bad last night with strong wind and rain. Our entire street, Sycamore Avenue, lost power since 3:30 a.m. There are power lines and tree branches on the street. We still have no power. Don't know when power will come back. My wife, son, daughter and myself are fine. Just worried about not having power for long periods." William Rivera. Submitted at 8:12 p.m. Sunday via email.

"No power until Sept. 5th!!!" Doris Schroeder Eckstine, posted on the Scotch Plains-Fanwood Patch Facebook page.

":-(" Ivy Fowler, posted on Facebook at 10:02 p.m. Sunday.

"I used to live in Florida and have been through 12 major hurricanes. Irene wasn't much compared to some of those yet the power was never out for more than a day. There we saw repair crews out working as the winds subsided and they worked around the clock. Real effort was made to get ready for hurricane season. Old trees trimmed. Power lines kept clear. Transformers protected from flooding. I can't imagine what would happen in NJ if we took a hit from a real hurricane. The kind where it takes weeks for the trees to stand back up afterward. If the best our public official and utilities can do is restore power in a week after a minor storm like Irene, that is a pretty sad state of affairs. Maybe they should use some of our tax dollars and take a trip to Florida and ask them for some tips on how to avoid this sort of thing in the future." Tony Klimas, posted on Facebook at 11:18 p.m. Sunday.

"I live on Ridgeview Avenue. We had two trees go down plus a telephone pole. By some miracle, both trees missed my car and my neighbors. But my car got trapped between telephone poles and the tree."  Mary Beth Hambor, submitted via email at 8:12 a.m. Monday.

Help us tell the community's stories – contact us through any of the links above, tell us how your neighborhoods are faring, keep us posted on the latest local road conditions, and feel free to include any photos and videos you've taken.