VIDEO: Irene's Storm Surge Hath Fury

It was probably pretty stupid to be out in the during tropical storm Irene but it's my job to document! I can tell you that I survived but my camera did not do so well.

Around 9:30 a.m. on Sunday, Aug. 28, I woke up from a morning nap (you can only imagine what my night was like if I was napping at 9 a.m.) to find water rushing down Crouch Road from Long Island Sound in the section of town.

I jumped in my brand new rain boots (purchased at the evening before) and prepared to brave the storm. What I did not know was that the current was fierce and my mid-calf red rain boots would become useless in a matter of moments.

Sailing down my road were wood beams, I imagine they were parts of docks or garden edging swept away with the rising tide. A propane tank, a lawn chair and a recycling bin also sailed past me. Neighbors who never had boats before, now had them porch-side and one home was treated to a dock, we believe may have come from Pine Orchard. Refusing to release itself from a utility pole was a chained New Haven Register newspaper box, which danced and bobbed in the crashing waves.

When I arrived at the beach, the bravest of my neighbors beside me, I witnessed the waves splash as high as the power lines. At high tide, around 11 a.m., the surge was so strong that it was lifting the roadway and the New Jersey barriers from their rooted places.

Mother nature was fierce and powerful. Save for the two young men who had no respect for her and insisted on dancing along the shoreline, we all watched in awe at what an act of God or nature can do.