Irene

9:50: AM: Irene made landfall two hours ago in eastern North Carolina. It’s been raining here in central Virginia all morning. Ten minutes ago the power flickered momentarily – not a good omen. I optimistically set the time back into the blinking digital clocks.

11:00 AM: CNN says more than 200,000 people are without electric power. It’s breezy now but not yet a strong breeze. My home has aluminum awnings which are composed of individual slats mounted to a frame. Every other slat is permanently mounted, while the in-between slats slide into place and are therefore removable. The last time a hurricane passed by, several removable slats were blown out of the awning and I had to go out into the yard, in hurricane-driven rain, and fetch them before they could blow away. Irene will be passing by tonight. I’ll cross my fingers that the awnings stay intact.

1:40 PM: The wind is gusting strong enough to litter my yard with leaf-bearing twigs from the pecan tree growing at the corner of my lot. I have the refrigerator at its coldest setting in case I lose electric power.

1:55 PM: The National Weather Service says the wind speed is 28 mph (45 kph) gusting to 43 mph (69 kph).

2:00 PM: The red ‘X’ marks my city. The center of Irene hasn’t entered Virginia yet, but my city is definitely inside the storm.

2:40 PM: My electricity just went off. It came back on after 20 seconds. When the TV came back on, MSNBC was reporting 400,000 without power in North Carolina and Virginia. Irene is still 5 or 6 hours from Virginia.