Well, it’s over.  Irene has left the building.

Sadly, this unwelcome visitor left behind too many tragedies and horrible devastation to the towns she spun through.  Where I live, in upstate New York, well, we were fairly lucky.  It could have been so much worse.

At home, we are currently functioning on generator-power with no restoration of electric service promised in the near future.  Through the pounding storm early Sunday morning and most of that day, we plugged along with the hum of our gas-driven power plant.  And…we had cable television and internet, a rare occurence during any storm.

                             

Irene was soon downgraded to a Tropical Storm but warnings for tornadoes and flooding were broadcast into Sunday night as the once massive hurricane headed away.  Just as we relaxed a bit, the winds started to increase and, much like in the early morning hours, trees started to bend, creak and lean dangerously in the direction of our home.  Sometime after that, we finally lost our cable connection which remains down for the count at this moment.  
                                  

For now, the only internet access I have is here at work, which wasn’t up until this morning and I’m trying to catch-up on blog reading while trying to look busy.  Of course, one of the first things I noticed was a news item about another hurricane threat coming off Cape Verde…Tropical Storm Katia.

I hate her already….

Now, as always after a major event, the debate about local New York, and other, governmental hysteria in demanding evacuations and closing down mass transit being necessary is all over the news. 

Stupid, stupid media analysts, once again! 

If the lack of decision and prompt action during Hurricane Katrina didn’t prove to teach us all something, what would it take?   Any storm is unpredictable and there should never be any hesitation to safeguard human lives…at any time.  Homes can be re-built, some possessions can be replaced but people cannot. 

So, for today, this is my sneaky blog post, written while the husband head honcho wasn’t looking over my shoulder in my office.  I’ll close with heartfelt prayers for everyone adversely impacted by Hurricane Irene.