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Extreme Weekend: Me, Myself, and Irene (Through The Night)

As Saturday morning rolled in, light rain fell from the sky almost as a subtle (and mean) tease from Irene. In her vicious way, she is letting us know that she is on her way, and will take her time in doing so. A cruel calm before the storm if you will. However, as the light rain fell, my tag team partner and I made ourselves comfortable in our apartment as we will be nestled here for well, the entire weekend, and possibly Monday. 

As Irene neared, the reports on her status as she weakened in overall strength, but grew in size, lent to the overall anticipation and fear of what to expect from a hurricane. Can this city handle one? What will become of the Subway system? How does such a storm affect an area with large skyscrapers? 

All of these questions became huge red flags as reports of deaths from Irene's path became known. 

Nonetheless, as 10:00pm rolled in, reports of tornadoes touching down within Irene's path become known, and the most rain I've ever seen in my entire life filled the city. As the wind howls and the rain whips into our windows, Irene has already affected our household as our apartment building has a leak somewhere, and being on the top floor, we are immediate victims. 

And as this is expected throughout the night, into the early morning, I truly cannot wait until this is over. Put aside the sheer inconvenience of home repair and a lost leisure weekend, weather such as this is indeed truly destructive. I cannot fathom how my family in the islands annually, and sometimes routinely, experience such weather. 

Extreme Weekend: Waiting on Irene
Extreme Weekend: Goodnight (Morning), Irene

Irene destroying our windows frames
[Blog side note: The two kayakers that were stranded in the Hudson River during the storm earlier this evening are complete morons, and should be fined to the fullest extent possible. Just blogging.]

With most of the Irene's worst expected early tomorrow morning, I will have a long night ahead as my tag partner call it quits until the morning. A night which includes keeping an eye on several leaky areas in two of our windows, and catching up on some pro wrestling and maybe a movie or two. 

About half way through my first hurricane experience, and not even through the worst, and I'm already hoping it is my last.
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