Having no power and my son's new camera were the impetus for driving around for several hours on Sunday, capturing some dramatic images of Irene's wrath.  

It was eerie driving around on the almost deserted streets.  So many roads were closed that it became a game, trying to navigate from point A to point B. We felt like survivors on the day after a nuclear attack - nothing looked the same. 

My son got out of the car in the middle of a deserted and closed section of Route 10 to walk around and snap photos. We drove from Millburn to Livingston and East Hanover, to Florham Park, and then to Springfield and Union. The destruction varied but the devastation was universal.  

Surveying these towns was at times upsetting and surreal.  An enormous downed tree in Short Hills that ripped up the lawn like carpet when it fell, a white van submerged and abandoned on Route 10 in East Hanover, a tennis court underwater in Florham Park, a car floating in the parking lot at Wendy's on Route 10, water up to the lip of the loading dock of a commercial building on Rahway Avenue in Union, an entire section of a neighborhood underwater in Springfield off Morris Avenue. It was hard to take in the ferocity of Irene's power.   

It was odd how one house or building could be underwater and the house or business next door, seemed untouched.   We have been reminded just what a force of nature really is.  And we appreciate just how fragile and random life really is.  And hopefully, we have also been reminded what is truly important.