And is downgraded to Category 1.
It’s still a humungous storm in terms of size, though. How is everybody doing so far? It’s not expected to hit New England till some time tomorrow, so all I see are some clouds.
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Previously a lifelong Democrat, born in New York and living in New England, surrounded by liberals on all sides, I've found myself slowly but surely 
August 27th, 2011 at 1:30 pm
Anybody know any good live cams in the hurricane area? Lots i try appear to not be working. Maybe power issues.
Here’s a decent one in Nags Head NC.
http://www.nagsheadpier.com/piercam.htm
August 27th, 2011 at 2:22 pm
North Carolina hits back.
August 27th, 2011 at 4:23 pm
I’m about 30 miles north of Philly, and there’s been a very light breeze with a light but persistent drizzle for about the last two hours, although the wind is starting to pick up a bit.
I do think the warnings, preparations, evacuations, and shutdowns were justified. They were done based on the best available information at the time. Evacuations and subway shutdown decisions are not made lightly, since they cause disruption and take time. It’s much better to do them too early than too late, or not at all.
Brendan Loy said it very well in his latest post:
(And get a load of the “weather truthers” in the comments!)
August 27th, 2011 at 4:24 pm
Let’s try that link again.
August 27th, 2011 at 5:57 pm
Damned nice of the Girl to miss us’suns in Central Florida.
Batten down those hatches, NeoNeo.
August 27th, 2011 at 10:22 pm
My father was a junior at Norwich Free Academy in 1938. When the Long Island Express approached, the coach cancelled football practice and told the guys to take their helmets with them and help whom they could.
Interesting stories followed.
My grandfather ran a Mohican market and, my father found to his surprise they had an arrangement with the local militia to bake bread, the bakery being on the second floor.
See “A Wind to Shake the World”.
My father and a number of families had the custom of sumering on Bluff Point. Outdoor plumbing and indoor running cold water. But on the shore. The hurricane cleaned the cottages off completely and, with the war, nothing was rebuilt. It’s now a kind of park.
August 27th, 2011 at 11:30 pm
I’m just west of Philadelphia and it’s been raining since, oh, noonish? We’re just getting the higher winds now. Power still on.
August 28th, 2011 at 1:55 am
I live on the SE VA coast. It was not as bad as was expected and is weakened still. I lost power a few times, but it has always come back. The lower side of the hurricane (west to east air flow) seems to have the heavier winds. Last hurricane in 2003, we lost power for 6 days.
An 11 year old boy was killed when a tree came through the roof of his apartment complex. For those in the path, don’t take it lightly, please.
August 28th, 2011 at 3:40 am
Sitting in Lower Manhattan, in Little Italy. We’ve had bands of heavy rain with ponding in the streets and gutters, some strong wind tossing the trees vigorously. My main concern is that the ground here is saturated from a seven-inch rain two weeks ago; trees are vulnerable, and there’s a giant Chinese sumac in our courtyard that’s very close to my windows. I love the tree; it’s so green and beautiful. I also want to keep my windows intact!
Funny scenes in the grocery stores: the yankees are going nuts over this like southerners do over a four-inch snowfall. HEre’s hoping it’s just a tropical storm when it gets here. (actually, it already IS here, just the outriding bands of rain that precede the eye, which is, after all, the intermission).
A friend had an interesting idea: “What if the government overreacted because they want to test out some of their anti-terrorism scenarios without freaking us out? This storm would give them the perfect cover.” It would make a bit more sense of Mayor Bloomerpants’ decision to shut down the transit system a full day before we even have heavy weather.
We in NYC should call this “Hurricane Bloomberg,” because he’s inconveniencing us a LOT more than Irene. There’s a loooong list of edicts and forbidden activities. And it’s a perfect example of the Leftist, nanny state, “for your own good!” control-freak approach to governance.
August 28th, 2011 at 4:40 am
Yes. The most infuriating thing about “mandatory evacuations” is when the authorities prevent people from returning to their own homes afterwards “for their own safety”. That is unacceptable in a free society.
A much better way to handle evacuations would be to strongly recommend that people evacuate vulnerable areas, and announce that 911 service will not be available during the emergency and that those who choose to stay do so at their own risk. That would let individuals decide for themselves what to do. That would, of course, be anathema to nanny-statists.
August 28th, 2011 at 4:47 am
See Brendan Loy’s most recent post:
Irene: Watching the Surge
It’s pretty sobering reading. See also this comment from that link:
You won’t hear me defend Bloomberg very often, but I think shutting down the subway was the correct move, given the forecasts. I guess we’ll see.
August 28th, 2011 at 11:37 am
I’m in downtown Boston at around noon on Sunday. The wind is whipping up to gusts around 45 mph and there’s rain, but it’s not expected to get a whole lot worse and it is officially a tropical storm. Considering a lot of our subway is above ground, shutting down the “T” seems to be the right call.
It was funny watching the Weather Channel (which I believe is owned by NBC) and how they were pushing the undercurrent that this was a “once in a lifetime storm” caused by “climate change”. I haven’t seen a single mention of the fact that two stronger (or at least as strong) hurricanes that I lived through as a kid hit Long Island/Southern Massachusetts in 1985 (Gloria) and 1991 (Bob)(these people always cite storms from early in the 1900′s). Considering there haven’t been any major hurricanes hitting the US in several years, a lot of this hysteria is also a case of having something real to talk about instead of depressions forming off the coast of Bermuda.
I chuckled as one commentator on the Weather Channel, in responding to another’s comment that the storm was likely to be downgraded to a category 1 or tropical storm by the time it hit New York, breathlessly said, “Throw out the categories as you know them! This is still one of the largest and deadliest storms to hit the Northeast in history!”
Get that guy a regular commenting segment on MSNBC with Chris Matthews! Way to stick with the narrative in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.