Irene

[Josef W. Segur]

SciManStev and I are wondering what tomorrow will bring as Hurricane Irene comes ashore. The model forecast tracks leave it uncertain. The most westerly forecast brings it directly over my location tomorrow evening, others threaten Steve more though I'm not certain where in New Hampshire he lives. It's large enough that we'll both get a lot of wind and rain no matter how it tracks. Should be an interesting experience. 
                                                         Joe

[Mike]

I hope everything goes well for both of you.
Steve is a close friend of mine so i worry.
He mentioned elsewhere Irene could hit his area also.
Fingers crossed.

[Raistmer]

Ouh...   

[arkayn]

Stay safe.

[Jason G]

Should be an interesting experience. 

If it's the first time for you it can be a harrowing experience.  Just remember to have the windows taped, stay down, and listen to emergency broadcasts in case of evacuation order.  We used to get quite a lot of these (well Cyclones we call them when rotating the proper way  )  in North Queensland when I was very small.  Best of luck & stay safe, I'm seeing various news of places that have been hit already, so I guess if it hasn't passed over you already then you're still to cop it.

BTW: these things tend to have an 'eye' of calm that can pass over, leading the curious to go outside for a look.  Don't do that, the other side comes suddenly & is responsible for most casualties that way.

Jason

[Cosmic_Ocean]

BTW: these things tend to have an 'eye' of calm that can pass over, leading the curious to go outside for a look.  Don't do that, the other side comes suddenly & is responsible for most casualties that way.

Jason

Quite true.  I'm too young to remember Hugo back in '89, but everyone else that I know that remembers it said that it went from sounding like a C-17 was constantly overhead at low altitude to dead silence in about 15 seconds as the eye passed over.  It lasted about 15 minutes and then there was a faint whiff of some wind, and it was back to a 130mph roar in 30 seconds..with the wind going the opposite direction.

Regarding Irene, this time last week, it was looking like it was going to be a direct hit for here, but things changed and I got nothing more than excellent kite-flying weather.

[perryjay]

I live in Florida so a cat 1 doesn't bother us much. We are pretty much ready for anything it can do. Anything above that we do watch out though. Sat through one where we sat out on our back porch and watched a billboard snap and fall on a convenience store. Interesting seeing the telephone poles they were using for uprights snap in two. That poor store got it from the front and the back. The billboard came down on the rear and the awning over the gas pumps blew down and hit the front. Our apt. building was over 90 years old so we figured it could take a cat one with no problem. It did, all we lost was a couple of limbs from an oak tree in the back and a few shingles. The biggest limb landed right next to my pickup truck. Had to cut it out. Only cracked my windshield so I was lucky there. It was night time when I first saw it and it looked like my pickup was a goner. I was parked right next to the outside stairs and the limb landed on the outside side of my truck and the top of it was supported by the stairs.