The path of Irene .....

Irene has hit the East Coast. We've had our television on the Weather Channel all morning and it's pretty darned windy. Poor Mike Bettis is about to be blown away on that beach he's trying to stand on. The damage reports are already coming in, and they've announced a death already too.

What amazes me is the live shots of New York City. At 10:30 am, Times Square looks like any other day. Big screen TV's still on, people wandering everywhere. And 90 minutes until just about every form of transportation ceases in the city. It's kind of irritating to see that some people just didn't get the grasp of Katrina when it tore through New Orleans. It's just taxing on all of the rescue workers to have to worry about tourists wandering the streets.

Since I'm such a weather geek, I've watched the "What Would Happen" episode's that involve New York City. The wind is going to be incredible, if it hits like they say it will. I couldn't - for the life of me - imagine being in that city when it hits.

Sure, it's a pain to have to pack up and head West. It's costly too. But what cost is your life? I mean, come on .... I'd jump in my car and drive if I knew that a hurricane was headed my way. I say that, though, yet I have never headed for a basement yet when a tornado siren goes off, so what exactly would I do? Judge not.......

My family went through a 204 mph typhoon in the early 1960's, and I'm guessing my parents didn't have much choice then but to hunker down and wait for it to blow over. I have several memories of that happening to us, even though I was very young. There were lots and lots of people at our house. Apparently we had the largest house at the time, so all the air force wives brought their kids and hunkered down with my mom, sister and myself.

I remember the bricks flying through the window in the room where all of us kids were sleeping. We had been upstairs sleeping and all the moms came up and got us and brought us down into the living room. I remember the confusion, so it must have happened pretty quick. I don't really remember the brick that came through the window and hit my mom, breaking her back. But I do remember the ambulance driver closing her hand in the ambulance door as they took her away.

He wasn't really an ambulance driver - just someone they 'recruited' at the hospital because they ran out of drivers. But they managed to get her to the hospital, just as the roof was blowing off. I never do remember going to see my mom in the hospital though. My next memory would be the next morning, after the winds had died down. Us kids were allowed to go outside, and the street crews were on our street tying all the trees back up. Every single tree was laying on the ground with the roots sticking up. The road crews were picking them up and tying ropes to them so they would stand.

It was the most wind I've ever encountered, although one time at the C2H2 Farm we had a pretty good wind come through. It was enough to send me to dad's porch .... but not the basement.

So, heck, I guess if I was in the path of Irene .... I guess I can't say what I'd do. But, I know one thing I would do, the same thing I'll do from our little farm here in Kentucky. And that's pray. Pray that loss of life and loss of property is at a minimum by the end of Sunday, when Irene should be just a bad rainstorm......

Have a great weekend everyone. And if you've got a spare minute, you might say a prayer for those in the path of the storm too.

Pam