Thanks for the prayers and good thoughts, dear gentle readers — we made it through the storm without losing our electricity. It stopped raining around 11 am. By early afternoon the skies were clear and it seemed like all the trees and plants were sparkling. So we are safe.
Note: This was originally posted on August 28, 2011. My web host lost it on Sept. 17, so I am restoring it manually. I could not recover the comments.