A week or so ago, Louisville had some straight-line winds of ~ 60-70 mph... they lasted all of 10-15 minutes.. and, power was knocked out for more than 150,000 people for several days.
People forget: A hurricane doesn’t HAVE to be a Cat 4 to cause significant disruption in urban areas that haven’t seen this kind of weather in 70+ years.
Thankfully, Irene seems to be sucking in dry air from the west and southwest quadrants. Looks to me like she will NOT be getting much stronger. But, people will KNOW, and remember that she was there.
Somehow, however, it just seems the media has run away with the coverage, and the govt. has taken extensive measures and overly dramatized this. Don't get me wrong...I am not downing the need to be alert and prepared, nor the damage that can result. It just seems we never had this kind of continual alarm for hurricanes that were expected to be even more destructive. Maybe it is because of the size of Irene, and how slow it is moving, thus remaining on land and dumping so much rain... or that it is going to hit New York, New jersey areas. It is a nasty storm, but does not seem to be the worst we have had.