A Not so Welcome Irene

It's Sunday morning and Hurricane Irene has been slamming Long Island for the past few hours now. I'm hoping that the worst is over, but the strong wind gusts that come even with a tropical storm can be very dangerous, and so we wait for it to pass.

I woke up this morning in a sweat, immediately realizing that my power had been cut off during the night, halting the cooling power of my air conditioner. An electrical wire going from my house to a telephone pole across the street had snapped and is now lying across my front yard. The trees all around are dancing to the wind, swaying ever so precariously towards crashing seemingly at each strong gust of wind. For some strange reason, the power in my home is not completely cut off, thankfully. The electricity is still working in the upstairs part of my house, where I now sit in my air-conditioned office keeping a careful eye on the dancing trees just outside my window.

From the looks of things, Irene is now a tropical storm, still potentially dangerous with strong winds and heavy rain slamming an almost 500-mile wide path of destruction. Tornadoes are an unfortunate possibility, as well, and watches for those have been posted for Long Island through tonight.

Though it's way too early to venture outside, I can plainly see that things are a mess. Branches and limbs of trees are strewn all over the place and an almost 30-footer crashed to the ground in my backyard about an hour ago, narrowly missing my car. As soon as it is safe to do so, I will be heading out to check out the damage.

If any of you are currently experiencing the effects from now Tropical Storm Irene, please stay indoors and be safe. New Englanders and Upstate New Yorkers have yet to experience the full wrath of the storm head on, so anyone up in those parts need to be prepared as well. Stay tuned for another update later on today...

Please check out Waiting on Irene