Hurricane Irene Open Thread

Here's what I've been reading this morning...

Guardian—Hurricane Irene claims lives and leaves trail of destruction:

New York breathed a sigh of relief on Sunday after hurricane Irene passed over without major damage to the city, but the storm still caused deaths, serious floods and power blackouts affecting more than a million people as it swept up the north-eastern seaboard of the United States.

...The biggest impact was felt on Sunday night in upstate New York and New England where many communities suffered devastating floods after rivers burst their banks and Irene's torrential rains fell on ground already saturated by unusually high downpours earlier this month.

...President Barack Obama warned the storm and its aftermath were not over: "This is a storm that has claimed lives. Our thoughts and prayers are with those who have lost loved ones," he said. "Many Americans are still at serious risk of power outages and flooding which could get worse in the coming days. I want people to understand that this is not over."

CNN: Irene leaves damaging and deadly floods, rushing waters.

AP: Hurricane Irene leads to at least 25 deaths.

Reuters: Irene power outages swell to nearly 4.2 million.

CNN: Hurricane Irene damage could reach billions.

Despite the loss of life, and catastrophic damage the extent of which still remains to be seen, there was no shortage of assholes making jokes about how Irene "failed to deliver" and variations thereof. The grand prize of haughty fuckery goes to Howard Kurtz for declaring the storm "A Hurricane of Hype." See Brad Friedman for everything that needs to be said about that.

My heart goes out to everyone who lost people and/or property in the storm.

When he thought he might lose electricity, Deeky jokingly texted me, in reference to my constantly losing power, "not that I'll get any sympathy from you!" But, seriously, no one has more sympathy for what is erroneously called "an inconvenience" than I do because I constantly lose power. It's not merely an inconvenience (although it's that, too): It can be dangerous, since virtually all communications require electricity now; it can be costly, if your food spoils; it can be scary and frustrating, especially when you've got no idea when the power might come back.

I hope those without it get their power restored soon.