Hurricane Irene and Moving Onward

*Sigh* I am tired.

Among the consequences of Hurricane Irene was the power that usually runs not only my computer but my wireless router. I feel like there's been a lot of "this wasn't as bad as the hype predicted" running around in the wake of the storm (like on The Oatmeal), but it's a little hard to take that seriously when you can go outside and see the pair of power lines flanking your driveway that have been sheared off a few feet down from the top.

There's no doubt that this was a weak Category 1. This wasn't another Katrina. But even a Cat 1 verging on a tropical storm can flood rivers and knock down power for entire regions. Which Irene did, and did with a vengeance. Power is still not back at my house, I am told.

I have to be told this because I essentially followed the storm back up the coast. I am back at school now, waiting for classes to begin. Which is nice because now I have power. Packing up in the wake of the storm and having to drive up the coast about a day behind it was tiring all in itself, but certainly survivable.

The other half of "not much damage" is that everyone was warned. The earthquake was sudden, as was the stronger one in Japan back in March that created a tsunami and devastated the Touhoku region. Irene gave everyone plenty of time to prepare... and perhaps because of the hype, people did.

Just a thought. The biggest danger moving forward is actually fairly simple; the next time the Weather Channel hypes up a storm, I could see a lot of people saying, "well, the last time you all said this, it really wasn't that bad". I would hope that we don't allow that kind of complacency, no matter how much hype there was.