Hunkering Down for Irene

As if the earthquake weren't dramatic enough, New York is getting ready for another natural disaster. At least we have advance warning about this one. Hurricane Irene is predicted to start hitting our area on Saturday night, and most of Sunday is supposed to be pretty bad.

It looks kind of pretty from up here.

This will be my first hurricane, though I experienced a tropical storm or two in Tokyo. I'd planned to go to my dear friend Shannon's bridal shower in DC, but after reading predictions about 90 MPH gusts of wind, relentless rainfall, and near-certain flooding, I decided to call it off. I didn't want to be in a top-heavy bus in the middle of all this, nor did I want to use a vacation day because my bus was cancelled and I was stuck in DC. So I'll be staying here in New York for the weekend, equipped with a flashlight, extra batteries, a fully charged phone, and some books and games that do not require electricity. Several friends have contacted me to share tips or express concern, which has been thoughtful, but I'm not worried. 

While weather will be poor for sunbathing or kite-flying, I think as long as I stay inside and am prepared to lose power, I will be fine. It will be interesting to see what happens though. I wonder whether subways and buses will be running for people crazy enough to go outside. I think we will probably lose some trees, too, as all the rain we've had lately has made them a bit less likely to stay rooted in the ground. Part of me is hoping that power WILL go out and that I won't have to come to work on Monday! (Although if there is no electricity, I wonder how they will contact us to tell us to stay home...) Yesterday, I got an email informing me that the race I'd entered for this weekend - before I knew about Shannon's party - is not cancelled yet, but that it likely will be, and that we should keep checking the website and our email for updates. I also got an email from the tutoring company I used to work for encouraging tutors not to put themselves at risk to get to appointments and to reschedule Sunday appointments for other days whenever possible. There is a lot of speculation about how bad it will be and whether all the dire warnings are just media hype to get people to take it seriously. I guess we'll find out soon.

Either way, wish me luck! I promise to take lots of pictures and post about it as soon as I can.