A lot of people were saying Irene was 'hyped'. Though, I expect that if they had a half foot of water in the basement, parts of their back yard submerged in over a foot of water, and out of power for several days, they woud think otherwise. We have so many turbo-charged storms along the coast for past 3-4 years, I take each one very seriously now.

Spent the day lugging citrus and palms into the garage, same as last year. Weather is humid and tropical. Debating whetter to take in tall queens--currently bungeed to a fence. If prediction continues to have an extended period of hurricane force winds, nothing containerized will remain outside. Irene was not so bad for wind, but for rain --in what was already a record WET year (80 inch total for 2011). This year, the ground is drier but there is more concern about te wind. Still, this one will bring over a foot of rain to places. Also, this is a very, very slow mover once in comes ashore and may even do loops in the track. All signs point to a big storm, but Mother Nature has the final say in the matter.

Bradleyo, your yard is so manicured and neat, I have huge piles of leaves all over. Will wait till after te storm to do cleanup.

I find it hard to believe people wouldn't be taking this storm seriously near you. They are definitely hyping it up here, it shouldn't be bad for us although everyone is up in arms because they keep saying snow in the higher elevations. Well, that isn't Pittsburgh, we might get some flurries, but of course the stores are packed with people filling up on milk, bread and toilet paper. Best wishes for the storm.