Major Hurricane in the Mid-Atlantic and New England

So a major hurricane is due this weekend in the Mid-Atlantic and New England area. Everybody ready? They say right now, Hurricane Irene is larger than Katrina. Hope "they" are wrong.

I can tell you we breathed a big sigh of relief when Irene decided to bypass us.

Good luck to all you guys in the path - please stay safe.
At least it bypassed my parents in Florida, and the Florida people here. Tough start to the hurricane season.

Sandy

An earthquake and a hurricane on the East Coast in the same week! What's up?

The White Mountain National Forest will be closed tomorrow 8/27 6PM through midnight Monday 8/29. White Mountains NH. Can't imagine what it would be like above the treeline in a hurricane (the treeline is ~4500 ft which is much lower than the western mountains due to extreme weather even in the summer). My two sons, who are experienced in hiking in the White Mountains had to retreat from their planned hike earlier this week when the wind started reaching 50 MPH with gusts 80 MPH (not due to the hurricane, just normal bad weather in the Presidential Range NH). Wind chill was 20F (though they were prepared for the cold, you are never prepared for the force of the wind especially on an exposed ridge). Wonder if the wind speed will break the record of 231 MPH (1934) this weekend? World's Worst Weather BTW - the weather observatory buildings at the summit are chained down. Too many people underestimate the ferocity of these mountains because of their less than impressive altitude. Death on the Mountain

Here, just outside of DC, the hurricane was pretty mild, however, we just got our power back after 5 days. I'm thankful we're not in NJ, VT, or upstate NY. It's pretty ironic that the thing I missed most was web access and the many hours processing photos and enjoying NPN.