Irene

Castleton State College near Rutland, Vermont
Sorry I had to remove the video that I previously had posted here. But there are some amazing videos in the article I have linked below.

I was listening to NPR today, about Hurricane Irene, and the commentators were wondering if the storm had been "over-hyped". I guess they were hoping NYC would be devastated; a meatier news story, perhaps? (In case you don't know, I live in the lower Adirondacks of northeastern NY, but I was born in the City so I have a serious attachment.) Frankly, I give kudos to the mayor of NYC and the governor of NY for acting so quickly to make sure that the people in our biggest and most amazing city were kept safe and I do not think their actions were too extreme.

I'm a big NPR fan, but they upset me today with all this talk of "over-hyping". Perhaps they haven't seen the videos from my neighbor to the east, landlocked Vermont? Or from 5 minutes north of my home in Lake George, a resort community that has seen massive flooding? Or a little further to the north in our beautiful Lake Placid region of NY? Or along the Mohawk River less than an hour to the south of me? Or east into Granville? Or how about Connecticut? Or to the south along the whole eastern seaboard of our country? So the big cities, NY and Boston were spared from major damage, thank goodness. Still, a lot of people have been devastated by this storm, so whether or not the winds were as high as they expected, or whether or not the subway tunnels flooded, I do not think preparing to save lives from a storm is over-hype. ** Check out this article, with more photos and videos from places like Wilmington Vermont, the Catskills of NY, western Massachusetts, etc.

Anyhow, I want to send my prayers to my blogger (and other) friends who have suffered losses due to flooding, or downed trees, or wind damage from Irene. If you haven't done so, check out the two videos posted here and here by Barb from Barbara's thought of the day, who is located in Vermont.