I'm not an official East Coaster, but I was on Long Island for a wedding (I lived my whole life there until 11 years ago when we moved to Georgia). The wedding was luckily on Friday, so wasn't affected by the storm. The grooms parents had to rush back to their home the next morning as they were being evacuated. And out of town guests were stuck at the hotel since the airports closed on Saturday. I was stuck an extra day, just got back this evening. The poor bride and groom haven't left for their honeymoon yet. I was staying at my Moms, she had some minimal damage, two branches off a large Rose of Sharon broke off. So on my vacation, I was drafted into doing yard work. I can't get away from it!

Here in eastern Massachusetts, we've escaped any significant difficulties. We are not in a flood zone at all and most trees around our property are not in a position to damage the house, maybe the garage, but just a small branch down near the back lot line so far. We are staying in and being productive which has been pleasant. I actually was hoping for more rain than we got. I think I might have gotten 3 or 4 inches only. The local ponds were looking a little low the other day and I have shrubs in the yard that have browned leaves, so the rain has been welcome. Hoping that others have fared as well. Trudi, the only tree that ever came down in our neighborhood in 30 years here, was a willow tree. I've always heard they come down easily. At least they weren't large enough to fall on your house. I imagine you are already thinking about what you are going to plant. :-)

Brooklyngreg: Look, you have had a history of hijacking threads with your religious, over the top bible thumping. I can probably count on both hands the times I've seen it in some form or another. Honestly, I think its just time for it to stop. I'm sure many others agree / feel the same. Honestly, its really just downright rude, inconsiderate, and almost condescending in a way. Like we are all going to go to hell or something if we do not share your same beliefs. Please. If you read my post, you would see, and probably agree that not everyone believes as you nor agrees with you. You have been asked by me, and at least several others on here to just cool it on the religious zealot like proselytizing. We do not do it to you, or anyone else, and all we are asking is that you do not do it to us. Isn't a simple "god bless" or something similar sufficient. Im all for faith, religion, spirituality, etc. In fact I encourage it. But I also understand and realise that each persons faith, religion, spirituality, etc is a very individual thing, and I respect that. That is why you do not hear me speak of my own personal beliefs. Not so much because I'm afraid of offending anyone, but really, they just probably do not want to hear it, and probably already have their own spirituality, and that is great. Someone else beliefs etc... are for them to decide, not you, not me, not anyone else, and that is also to be respected. I'm just not sure why you can not grasp that concept. This is EXACTLY why I said save it for your personal blog, or personal facebook profile, or some such other platform that is YOURS and YOURS only. Furthermore, I never called you any names, nor been nasty. I've simply asked you, as an adult, to please just stop. You call me a hypocrite? Really? For what? Because I (and probably many others) do not come here to have your bible thrown in our faces? Please, Get over it. Its not that Jesus is not welcome here, its that any and all religious proselytizing is just not wanted here. I would say the same thing to a Jew, A Muslim, A Buddhist, Hindu, or anyone else doing the same thing. So please, I'm asking you again nicely just to lay off of it. Isn't it your very own religion that says "judge not, lest ye be judged?' Well, it sure seems to me that you are judging those that do not share your religious beliefs / convictions. Anyway, all the best, and I hope you fare well through this big storm. cfa_li, Yeah I saw that report too! I always look for palm trees when they are doing tropical storm / hurricane reports, even if they are not in "tropical' areas. LOL! I thought it was cool to see and know that the rest of the country was seeing that there are in fact palm trees in Va Beach! Pretty cool. I think it would also be pretty cool to have a report from say, Long Island, with palm trees in the background too. =o) Anyway, hope everything goes well for you up there.

Well, after a rather harrowing night, the last half of today turned out to be amazingly beautiful. Perfect weather to be outdoors, and for all the clean up. That said, I'm sure most people were not exactly having 'fun' today though. It seems like the absolute worst of this storm and its damage occurred from about Cape May, NJ, south along the coast to Va Beach, and inland to the big cities west of those points. The Damage seems to be less severe the farther north you go from NC/VA. For us here in the DC area, well, I have to say I was 'surprised' at this storm. The damage left behind was just about as bad as Isabel in 2003, maybe slightly less. From about 30 miles west of DC, to the coast the damage is what is being called 'major'. The most common are trees being blown on homes and going through them and crushing cars. The sheer number of trees down around just the DC Metro is staggering. Probably in the thousands. Lots of roads / streets were blocked and many still are. No real structural damage to most buildings from winds alone, other than a couple buildings having roofs partially peeled back / loss of shingles / some siding / gutters ripped off. Some minor to moderate flooding from storm surge along tidal waters which capped out at about 3-4 feet. The far worst of the flooding came from the massive rains. Ranging from 3-4 inches 30 miles west of DC, to 5-8" right in the city, to 10-12" 30 miles east and much more the farther south/ east you go from here. Lots of river and creek flooding causing road overwashes. My rain gauge maxes out at 5", and was full by 1:30 am. I'm guessing we got 1-2" more than that here. Reports of 4-8" in the immediate metro area were commonplace. Over all, it was probably 'worse than expected' in our area. The absolute worst of it came in the period from midnight to about 5am, when we were having sustained winds of 40-50+ and gusts 55-75mph. The worst part was pretty much like a 6 hour long severe thunderstorm. It would come in waves. Backing off to 40MPH or so for a few minutes, then big huge gusts around 55+, then every 7-10 minutes or so we would get a period of several minutes where the sustained winds were like a gust that just would not stop, and then an even higher gust on top of that, topping out around 70+. The wind reports all around our region were pretty consistent, with the highest gusts just west topping out around 55in places 30 miles west, to 65-70 inside the beltway, and 75-80 30 miles east and south along the Chesapeake Bay. about 40 miles west of D.C., almost no damage to speak of. Just some heavy rains at times, and gusty winds of 35+, but nothing very bad. It was a very sharp cutoff line between damage and almost nothing. The thing that made this storm worse, was its size, and slow movement. Had this been a quick event, we probably would not have seen nearly the damage. But, because this event was very protracted and lasted for 20 hours, most certainly lead to more damage. Isabel in 2003 was in and out fairly quickly. She was here less than 6 hours at her worst. The other difference, with respect to storm surge anyway was that it was less here because the storm passed to our east this time, in stead of to our west. This was a east, northeast, north, and northwest wind event here, which helped to push water more OUT , than in on top of the storm surge itself. Partners mother in Smithfield VA had a pretty bad night, as I suspect most did in SE Virginia and Eastern NC where the damage reports are much worse. No power since 6AM Saturday morning. They lost two large trees in their yard, but fortunately both missed the house. Their neighorhood is literally littered with trees down, and quite a few homes damaged by them. The pictures coming out of Va Beach, and the NC beaches are by far and away the most incredible. Even along the MD/ Delaware beaches there is quite a bit of damage. Tornadoes caused damage in both Lewes and Rehoboth Beach, DE. As for my yard, well, just 1 large tree limb from someone elses tree is in it, and most things that were not either VERY HEAVY and/ or tied down , did blow over. It looked like a war zone, but fortunately nothing was really damaged except for a clay pot with my rosemary bush in it. The palms, well, 2 got knocked over, but the big 8 foot pigmy date came through it like a champ. I tied it down with rope and rebar and it went no where. Ill post some photos in a bit. I hope everyone made it through OK with no significant losses / damage!