Irene's Quiet Visit To Maryland

Growing up, I always had a fear of high winds. It was so bad that sometimes even the sound of my sister's hairdryer would send me running down the hall. I was in my mid-twenties before I became comfortable around a leaf blower. So, it should come as no surprise that the mention of a hurricane would tweak my anxiety level.

Earlier this week, when the news reporters started talking about the devastating potential of Hurricane Irene, I felt those childhood fears coming back. When the storm actually started to surface yesterday, I felt like the a crew member of the Andrea Gail preparing to ride into The Perfect Storm.

A moderate rainfall began around 3 pm. According to local weather reports, we should expect to see the "worst" part of the storm between 8pm on Saturday night and 2am on Sunday morning. The winds began to pick up around 10 pm, but they were not much stronger than what I've seen during summer thunderstorms. When the hurricane was downgraded to a Category One, my Florida friends began to ridicule Maryland's sense of urgency. Calling us "wimps" and 'sissies" for getting all up in arms about 30 mph winds. Might I remind the Florida folks that we also experienced a 5.8 magnitude earthquake earlier this week!

Nonetheless, I stayed up until midnight, but I still didn't see any major effects of this "hundred year" storm. I fell asleep wondering if I would wake up to fallen trees and a collection of lawn furniture in the pool. This turned out not to be the case. When I woke up around 6 am, the wind had indeed picked up, but other than one small fallen tree in the neighbor's front yard, there were no visible signs of damage.

My biggest worry was that the power might have went out during the night and I wouldn't have a pot of coffee waiting for me in the kitchen. I was ecstatic to discover that the pot was indeed full of freshly brewed Folgers.

After getting some caffeine flowing through my veins,I flipped on the local news channel. There I found one of Baltimore's legendary weathermen explaining, "The eye of the hurricane has passed us but we are not out the woods by any stretch of the imagination. The winds have reversed direction and the trees and other structures will now be stressed from another angle. I'll tell you folks, this is going to be bad. Trust me when I say that the worst isn't over!"

 It was like watching the anti-Christ brag about the pending Armageddon!

I sensed that the storm predictions for central Maryland were overestimated and the news reporters were desperate to keep people tuned in. Let's face it, people don't get as excited when you tell them it's going to be seventy-five degrees and sunny.

The cynical side of me wonders if Irene was over hyped in order to drum up sales for Home Depot and other supply chains. I mean, how else would they ever sell all of those sandbags, plastic wrap and duct tape??

And although I definitely don't question the evacuations of places like Atlantic City and Ocean City, I have to wonder if the lost tourism will outweigh the cost of actual storm damages.

In the end, it looks like the Baltimore area dodged a bullet with Irene. And personally, I couldn't be happier about it. Let's face it, this thing could have been a hell of a lot worse. When a hurricane fails to live up the hype, it's always a good thing!

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