Good luck to all in Irene's path!
 

My fellow enthusiasts,

Good luck to you all in Irene's path. I'm in lower Westchester County, NY and we're preparing for the worst but hoping for sunshine!

Hang on tight guys and gals! I hope all of you get through it safely.

First it's damn earthquakes in the Northeast, then it's hurricanes. Maybe the Rev. was correct...rapture, anyone?

North Carolina's coast will probably take the worst of it. I just came back from Wilmington NC 30mns ago where I helped a friend to prepare her house for the worst. Already hard rain and strong wind when I left.

Wishing everyone well over there!

In my neck of the woods, it'll just be a nuisance, with breezes and some showers. We could use the rain but it's going to stay east along the I-95 corridor.

:iagree: on the Good Luck...

We got our azzes kicked by 'Canes Ivan & Frances, in 2004, way up here on the Mtn. It was not fun...
So, I hope the Weather Guessers/Sensationalists have overstated it for most.

"The better part of valor is discretion", as Shakespeare wrote, for those of you in its path, imo.
Buena suerte, mi amigos.

I drove out over to Clayton to go karting this afternoon, then headed over to Smithfield NC just to see what all the hubbub was all about. The rain didn't seem particularly heavy although there was some minor flooded ditches (I guess it started raining last night non-stop). Quite windy though, I'd estimate sustained winds of around 60-70km/h (45mph) and then frequent gusts much higher than that.

Inside the car though, I guess perhaps German cars are just stable? There was the occasional tug on the steering wheel but I didn't really notice the winds while driving aside from the wildly flailing trees and road debris.......Interesting thing: I finished filling up my X3 and no more than 20 seconds later, the power went out in the entire area.

All the hotels in Raleigh and Smithfield were packed. I feel for those who had to evacuate; hotels in Roanoke, Harrisonburg, Charlottesville, Lynchburg, Danville were all booked to capacity. Thankfully, I read that many of the hotel owners graciously offered discounts to those who had to leave.

http://www.wset.com/story/15341923/d...icane-evacuees

Interestingly, there's a sharp cutoff in areas affected. Everything west of Raleigh looks normal, but drive east, there's leaves everywhere and full storm drainage ponds.

still raining over here but its not too bad. Very windy and rainy but hopefully it doesn't get any worse

I heard people saying Irene is just over hyped.

@tombrownzz

Yes, the hurricane wasn't as bad as forecast. But that why it's called a forecast; it's based on models using on historical data and simulations.

Some of the TV channels get carried away but when don't they? They want watchers...

I think that all the precautions taken in the NY metropolitan area were prudent. I can tell you that there were some really strong winds last night and a LOT of tree movement... All of our local highways were closed today because of downed trees.

My power has been out for over 12 hours now and I'm currently using a portable generator. Don't know when power will be back.

anybody have pictures?

OBX/VB took the burnt of it, but it wasn't horrible, as hurricanes go. Did some grilling, had a few drinks, and played texas hold-em by candle-light for a bit last night.

Getting ready to go by good friend's speed shop and get the X5 off of the rack. 4Runner has leaves and crap on it. 3000GT's (garage ornaments) are clean as always. Found "a" shingle on the ground which may not even be mine. Power is back up, cleaned the yard, and now it's time for a shower.

Hope you coastal guys are doing well with getting things normal again. It could have been worse, that's for sure. Great practice run for Philly, NYC, etc.

CFO's out of power and is conserving battery life on the iPhone, so my update is a little stale. All I know is that her chainsaw is at the ready. Our house fared well for Maine, which had some bad floods, lots of bridges down and lots of trees down, but most of the new urban sprawl had a little more of a problem with flooding and damage