Irene

This visible image of Hurricane Irene was taken from the 
GOES-13 satellite on August 26, 2011 at 1:40 p.m. EDT
Credit: NASA/NOAA GOES Project

It is Friday night and it seems to become more and more certain that hurricane Irene will pass through New Jersey. If we are lucky, it will stay off the coast, but some prediction models have it passing right through the middle of the state. The shore and everything close to the shore is going to get the worst beating. Our apartment is about 33 miles away from the shore (about 53km), so we won't be directly affected by what happens there.

The winds in our area are going to be somewhere between 40 to 100 miles per hour (65-160km/h), this ranges from a light Tropical Storm to a light Category 1 Hurricane. I guess tomorrow the forecasts will be more accurate. Tropical storms are common around here during summer, and we are confident that the house we live in will protect us even from the stronger winds.

With the infrastructure being what it is around here (many of the power lines are above ground on flimsy wooden sticks) we are expecting power outages. To be on he safe side, we stocked up on water and food.

We are now waiting to see what happens next. I will be posting updates here and on Facebook when we know more. The first winds are going to arrive Saturday night.