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Sunday, 6 pm, White River rages under South Royalton Bridge. Bridge closed.

Mother Nature is a force to be reckoned with and Vermont is in the full throes of clean up after seeing her rivers and brooks turn fierce on Sunday as Hurricane Irene made her appearance.

Sunday, 6 pm: The White River over runs its banks into Vermont Law School parking lots

Here is a sampling of photos from Sunday, the day of the storm.

And from Monday, the blue-sky day that followed.

You can’t make a disaster photo beautiful, nor should you try, so I didn’t frame these in my usual Twigandvine way. Straight up heartbreak.

Sunday 7 pm: Route 14, South Royalton closed as the White River rises.

Sunday evening: Route 4 Woodstock, under the Ottauquechee River, to the right Woodstock Farmers' Market is submerged. This is a mile from my office and I am friends with the owner and staff of the Market, one of my favorite places.

Monday: Woodstock Farmers' Market. Photo: Julia Carlisle

Monday: The White Cottage on Route 4 in Woodstock. Photo: Julia Carlisle

Our house on the hill fared well. We lost power for 30+ hours, and so we are grateful. All around us the valleys are reeling. Our own town has suffered a great deal of damage, house losses, flooding in the school, roads damaged, bridges washed away. We all woke to clear blue skies and sunshine on Monday and already I could hear a chainsaw at work. In town the bridge was reopened (closed when the water was high and raging on Sunday evening). Everyone with a tractor or work equipment was out clearing mud and debris.

Monday: South Royalton Bridge with water lower, but still much higher than normal. Note the high water mark on the reddish cross beams.

Monday: this bridge on the road to my parent's house in East Barnard has washed out completely.

Monday: so we portage with our bikes and go in to see them and also my brother. Both houses fared well, but my brother's house is on the brook and was a close call.

When I wrote my clock post before the storm I had no idea what was coming, and so this follows the cheerful optimism of a fun DIY with a bit of harsh reality.