We're still waiting for it up here, but I am hearing it has lost alot of energy.

Hope everybody faired well!

For us in MD (west of Baltimore), it was much less than we were told it would be. The power was on & off all night, but never out for more than 30 seconds each time. We also had a few "brown outs", but, again, not for long (My kids are very disappointed...I'm sure school will start on time as scheduled! :-)

While it was less than was anticipated for us, others were not so lucky...my thoughts and prayers to all of you who were hard hit!

We are out at sea on an island off MA. Mostly very high winds now and some flooding expected later today. Just waiting to hear when the ferries might start running again.. either tomorrow or the next day....all depends on the wind.

We were lucky this time but send our thoughts and prayers to all who were caught in the crosshairs of Irene. Be safe and take care.

We are in Central NJ and Irene was supposed to hit here around 8am... but it really didn't. We had a huge amount of rain followed by high winds at around 3am... but fortunately no downed trees. My house is surrounded by about a dozen large trees so I was fortunate. My greenhouse also escaped any breaks. All in all very lucky although I did not sleep all night worrying about those trees. I hope that everyone is safe and well today.:)

I'm in Brooklyn, but not in a coastal, evacuation area. Like Buehl, the inland experience here was not as great as some pre-hurricane forecast models predicted. Still, there was much more wind and rain than a typical big storm. And, of course, the news reports and advisories building up to the storm likely fueled our imagination and raised our collective blood pressure over the Irene's intentions.

As such, and living as I do in a century old house that borders a park, I dared not allow myself to go to sleep until well past 4:30 a.m.! That's because I was transfixed by watching the huge old trees in the park, on the surrounding roadway and in my yard, all swaying and bending precariously in the roaring wind as occasional flashes of lightening and thunder lent further dramatic effect to the scene. This, while listening to radio reports of the hurricane's progress -- which included a tornado warning in the midst of it! I kept imagining that one of those trees was going to come crashing down upon my house, or that of my neighbors, parked cars, etc. But, by the grace of God, no such catastrophe occurred on my block. We also experienced no power outages. (Insert sigh of relief here).

I did suffer some very minor roof leaks but nothing that looks like a call for roof replacement. The better news is that my basement (which got wet during a major storm we had only 2 weeks ago) seems to have completely escaped flooding this time around. Woo hoo! Yard clean-up will be one PITA, but I'm not complaining. It could have been so much worse. And, indeed it was for many others here in the NYC metro and elsewhere who were more squarely situated in this hurricane's path of destruction. For those folk who felt Irene's wrath more strongly, I send out my prayers and many, many well wishes.

Thank goodness that you are all well and whole. Another day or so, and then, the clean up.

Good thoughts are still coming your way.

We made it through and did not lose power. Lots of people near us did, so we caught a break. We did find out how wrongly graded our screened in porch is. It collects water by our back door and we have to push it uphill to go out by the screen door. Just another thing to add to the list....

We live about 30 miles north of Virginia Beach, VA, directly in the path of Hurricane Irene.

We made it through the hurricane fine. We had a brief power outage (about 3 hours) after we got some outer bands of rain, but power was restored & stayed on throughout the brunt of the storm. Landline phone service went out for a couple of hours today (the day after the storm), but has been restored.

We just had yard debris -- small tree limbs & lots of leaves -- to clean up. Others in our area did not fare so well. Many still have no power -- 86,000 in our local area still have outages. Those living close to the water or in low-lying areas had flooding, which happens fairly often here. Some damage from downed trees & collapsing roofs. There was unfortunately one death in our area, an eleven-year-old who was killed when a large tree fell on an apartment.

Southwest of Boston here. We lost power for just 20 minutes. We had nasty winds and hysterical rain, but nothing more than a regular bad wind storm with lots of "yard debris" like Redhead.

Our hens didn't seem particularly bothered, but unfortunately, we did have two fruit trees topple over (out of of "orchard" of 8, LOL!). They're only a few years old and toppled over at the root, so I hope when we right them tomorrow they'll recover and survive!

I'm north of Albany (150 miles north of NYC)not too far from NY/VT border and while we had almost 8 inches of rain here, and considerable (almost 3 feet deep!) flooding in our farm fields, it had started to recede by evening. The oddest thing for me was that the rain was entirely vertical; we kept the windows in the house open all day through the storm, despite the downpour. I could see the trees up in our woodlot flailing around, but down here on the little plateau where our house and barns are there was almost no wind. No damage or flooding in the house or barns, but I was up until 5 am battening things down, working outside long after the rain had started. Lost a two century-old maple tree along the farm driveway which gave up the ghost in the most graceful way, completely avoiding our power lines. I will miss that tree.

The prodigous amount of rain we've had locally has swollen all creeks and rivers to record levels, far exceeeding even major spring ice jams. The small power-dam in my town is threatening to collapse tonight, which has some of my neighbors fearful of losing their homes. We are all praying it will hold.

L

We did not lose power which we sometimes do even in a small rain storm.
My daughter's flight for her student trip abroad was postponed. Not good for her, but good for me. I get to spend a few extra days with her:)

Very lucky here. No basement flooding, the lights flickered but stayed on and the two large trees right in front of my house stayed put. Two other trees on my block did get damaged--one very big trunk snapped, which means there was a hurricane-force gust. I swear, it seems like almost every street in New England has at least one broken or downed tree, even in downtown Boston.

The effects were highly variable in this storm. A couple of towns over, many, many trees went down. Of course Vermont completely drowned and whole towns washed out. A strange weather event to be sure.

One thing I'm hearing this morning on TV and in newspaper website comments that I don't like: People saying the storm was "overhyped." Yes, 15 or more people are dead, $4-7 billion in property was damaged, but I personally didn't have any problems so it's no big deal. Pity storms can't be more discriminating in whom they kill.

Well we finally we got our portion of the storm, and it was lack luster at best (not that I'm complaining, I guess Irene was tired by the time she got all the way up here from beating on all you guys down below). We had alot of wind (quite a few trees down) and power outages, but the rain was nothing. It was actually some of the lighter rain we had this summer. My husband and I being a white water kayakers (him much better then myself) we were hopeing for a bit more rain then we got! Liriodendron, from the sounds of your creeks maybe we'll have to come for a visit.

Any Maine/NH residents that can comment on the amount of rain they got? We are heading down on vacation in a couple days and were hopeing to bring out boats...

We had lots of trees going down in our neighborhood. From our casual observation as we walked around yesterday it seemed there was a lot of grace at work, as the trees seemed to land across sheds and driveways, yards, roads -- no houses that I could see (but plenty got hit in other parts of town). Still, the force of an 18" diameter oak tree limb blowing off a tree that's 50' high is absolutely deadly. That's the size of limb that came off the tree that sits between our house and our neighbor's house. Fortunately it twisted oddly and landed in a relatively safe position (across a mostly empty driveway), but had it gone another 30 degrees in either direction it would have been in their kids bedrooms or ours.
The ample warning that came before the storm meant that most people were clear of vulnerable places like that, which was a big relief as I thought through the "what if's". I guess people can call it over hyped if you want, but it absolutely translated into saved lives for many.

I agree Kris ma. It did seem overhyped, but like you said it forced people to prepare. There are alot of people around my neck fo the woods (which didn't get hit anywhere near as hard as what most of you got) are without power. Some of those people will likely be without power for almost a week. About 90% of people around here cook with electric and are on wells so need power for food and water. The simple act of stocking up on food that can be cooked on a bbq (as long as they stocked up on propane), doesn;t need to be freidgerated, or can be eaten raw along with lots of jugs of water will have them going for a long time!

We lost power about 11 pm on Saturday night, and it has not been restored yet! :(

I suspect those saying Irene ws over yped haven't see what she could do or what she did do elsewhere. When you have a 500 mile wide storm, it is not going to wipe the same path across those 500 miles -- Thank God! The varied damage patterns are pretty typical, and the people checking in are those lightest hit. Those harder hit won't be able to check in for days. From what Marcolo is saying, I'm sure the folks of Vermont don't feel it was hyped. And had all these trees lying between houses fallen a few feet differently, a lot of those less impacted would be singing a different tune too.

I think I commented earlier here on how Rita went through here -- they eye passing basically right over us, but we were on the dry side of the storm and just had a carpet of pine needles and leaves -- maybe a few downed trees, and a fine mist. Not even any real rain. Five to ten miles to the east, those folks were devastated. You can't tell as they sit out in the gulf or ocean which 5 miles you are going to be in. It's easy to feel you overprepared and question whether you'd do it again, but it's the cheapest insurance available. You just have to prepare, count your blessings and help each other through the aftermath.

I'm relieved to hear so many back so quickly with light damage reports, but it will be those who return last who probably have the greatest damage.

In a different area of Brooklyn, NY than Marthavila, but same result - lots of wind and rain, a very uneasy sleep/doze Saturday night into Sunday morning, but no damage at all. We had an inch of water in the low-lying corner of our basement, but that drained away on its own this morning. Never lost power, phone, internet/cable, though I had my water stockpiled, flashlights waiting, nonperishables at hand.

On Saturday AM, DH and I hauled a number of large planters from the roof which contain his rooftop tomato garden and our neighbor's rootfop vegetable garden. What we couldn't get down through our hatch, we secured as best we could, and everything looks like it came through the storm relatively unscathed. This morning's task is getting all the plants back out by strapping them to our homemade pulley system and heaving away, oh joy. I will miss the smell of the sage and basil plants in the spare bedroom. :)

We're in upstate NY, and up at the cottage we got high winds, and a light mist of rain. There were lots of branches down, one tree that took out the neighbors power, and very high waves. I posted some pictures here on my blog.

Back home we got minimal wind, but lots of rain. Enough rain to swell the Susquehanna River far enough above flood stage that we have flood warnings through Wednesday. When we dropped off DS1's friend last night, his mom said that they were without power all day, and that Broome & Delaware counties had been in a state of emergency all day.

I agree that this hurricane wasn't Katrina, but that doesn't lessen the blow for anyone with a home destroyed or loved-one killed in the storm.

lascastx,

I agree: our fellow Gw-ers with really bad damage are still dealing with that and likely have no power yet. Pray they all still have re-habitable homes!

Preparation and evacuation aren't as "sexy" as dramatic tales and pix of devastation, but they work to keep things as manageable a possible. No one could predict with absolute certainty how wide, or how bad, the areas of maximum destruction might be.

And individually, it doesn't matter. If you are, as I was, fairly unscathed, that's great, but many very well-prepared and/or evacuated people will be dealing with personal catastrophe for a long time, unfortunately. I'd wager that they don't think the storm was "over-hyped", even if they have time today to entertain such Monday-morning quarterbacking.

It just depended on the vagaries of Mother Nature and geography. There's no question this was a huge, and in some places, very fierce storm, especially for places in the NE that rarely see this particular kind weather.

I hope to see more check-ins from people as they get power back over the next few days.

Good thoughts sent out for all those not yet back on-line.

L

Car in river.

Old covered bridge washes away.

Cheese company gone.

Typical tree damage in Mass.

Northern NJ. We had 8 to 10 inches of rain on Sat, heavy wind gusts on Sunday. A lot of flood damage in NJ, some in places where they have never flooded before. I didn't have any damage, but we are under evacuation notice. There is a major river at the end of my street that is predicted to crest on Tuesday afternoon to the highest level since the 1903 hurricane. My house and most of my neighbor's houses that were built in the 20's and 30's are elevated enough that we will be OK. The 'newer' houses in the area that were built in the 60's will have major flooding.

I also don't get the 'over-hyped' comments that I am reading about in the news. Some people lost their lives, some people lost their homes. Areas were devastated. I guess that didn't provide enough entertainment for those looking for a larger disaster.

Anybody seen a post from palimpsest this a.m.? I know PA got hit unexpectedly hard--Irene wobbled quite a bit.

I turned on the news this morning. The Today show featured an old story about a missing white woman in Ohio and Dick Cheney's new book. All the important people have agreed with each other this was no big deal. So sad that the hurricane didn't collapse Rockefeller Center on their idiot, blow-dried heads. Now, that would be worth replaying over and over.

Northern Connecticut here. We received a massive amount of rain causing some local flooding, but very little wind. Power went out at 8:00 yesterday morning and we were very lucky to have it restored at 5:00 this morning. Thank goodness for the generator to keep our sump running or we would have had a completely flooded basement.

We were lucky, but other areas of the state didn't fare as well.

I can only thank God it wasn't worse. I am still without power and hot water on Long Island, NY, and probably will be for the rest of the week. Basement flooded a bit and even a bit is more than I can bear. Back up battery on my sump pump was a God send, but still not enough to get it all.

If this storm was in the winter, the damage would have been tremendous in the northeast. I am thankful it was not worse and I will be sure to include a generator in our remodel plans (more $$$ deviated from kitchen). I do not get the overhyped sentiments expressed by the lucky ones who were passed over by this storm (more so in venues other than GW) and the selffish attitudes of those who were spared damage. If you were not afected, I am happy for you, but please do not belittle all those who suffered from this storm by saying it was "overhyped" and people over reacted. No one can precisely predict what mother nature has in store.

Also, I have declared this pasta week as I cannot trust the "fresh" foods in my local shops. Even if the shop dissposed of all perishables (not likely) who knows how the distribution centers and warehouses handled the food?

Be safe and enjoy this beautiful, post storm, weather.

We're in seacoast area of NH. Had about 3 inches of rain. Winds did not get as bad as we expected. Our power has been out since 1:00 Sunday afternoon. Sounds like it will be several more days. The University I work at closed today. We were fortunate to have no damage. Hubby is talking about getting generator as this is becoming at least an annual event. Amazing how beautiful it is today.

> I do not get the overhyped sentiments expressed by the lucky ones who were passed over by this storm (more so in venues other than GW) and the selffish attitudes of those who were spared damage

It's partly political. There's a group agitating to do away with the National Weather Service as an example of government waste.

We're in RI. About 1/2 of all households were/are without power because Irene knocked out a major transmission line. As some have said, it doesn't make for exciting photos, but the impact is tremendous. We count ourselves lucky to have gotten power restored recently (after 32+ hours). Some in RI won't get power back until the end of the week. Like NHBaskets, we're doing the "let's get a generator" dance, so we can have water (we have a well) and the sump pump will run. Nothing like a hurricane to pinpoint what's important!

Here is a link that might be useful: Story about RI

Richmond VA wasn't supposed to get anything but a few inches of rain as the coast was going to get the hit. They certainly got hit but at one point, we had winds higher than they did. We had 45-65 mph winds driving a hard rain for 12+ hours. It pounded the windows so hard I was actually afraid to stand near them. Some flooding but mostly damage from falling trees & power outages for 70% of the metro area. I'm in the oldest historic district in the City & we never lost power & the houses remained basically unscathed - go figure. Quite a difference than when Isabel went through & we lost power for 10 days!

I don't know how anyone can say this storm was overhyped; just because it didn't hit them doesn't mean it wasn't devastating.

I am in north central Connecticut. We lost power first thing yesterday morning and I feel very fortunate to have it back by 5:00 am this morning. I see the crews working to get power to homes. It took my husband two hours to get home tonight. Usually it is a half an hour ride. The flooding has caused many arteries to Hartford to close.
Funny thing , we finished out kitchen Reno of Friday ( pics will be coming) and found out our new range and refrigerator are not hooked up to the old generator:(. However, the new microwave and under cabinet lights are hooked up to our generator. I need to find that electrician's number before a snow storm happens.

We were very fortunate in Delaware and we did not lose power. Many did. Many had water in basements. Overhyped? It wasn't overhyped when we were all huddled in the basement during the tornados passing through. And tell that to the two young men who my son worked with who lost their lives. Also, the 20 year old girl who worked with my DIL at the Cracker Barrel over the bridgein NJ who got scared and went out driving to her boyfriends. Calls him to say the water was coming in her car and it was up to her neck. Called 911 but no one could get there in time and she was found the next morning still inside her car drowned. Even my GC said it was overhyped. Tell that to all the families who lost loved ones. I am just thankful that we were prepared

I'm on Central NJ. The rains began Saturday evening and continued up until late morning Sunday. Water started coming into our basement at 10:30 Saturday night...we began using our 2 wet-dry vacs and called for reinforcements. We worked all night all the way through 3PM....yes 3PM Sunday...until the water stopped coming in. We do have a sump pump, however the water was coming into and overflowing the french drains on the other side of the basement. We lost power several times, but fortunately, only briefly. We then didn't have any internet service or TV service from Sunday through Monday afternoon. My son didn't have any electric power until today. It was a very unpleasant storm. My neighborhood has tons of trees and debris....it looks as if there was a tornado or extremely high winds because of all the tree damage right around me. We had been under a tornado watch as well as high winds and rain. Entire neighborhoods are now under flood watches for the next several days and people continue to be under evacuation orders.

We are still trying to recover from our overnighter and finish drying out the basement. You can't even imagine the amount of water we drained out.
I'd rather we never saw another storm like it and don't think it was overhyped at all.

Helene