Check “Go through a hurricane” off the bucket list

ETA 3: Just found out a good friend’s apartment was struck by a falling tree during Irene. He’s ok but sounds very scary. Just another reason to take these things seriously – but with wine.

Though, would “hurricane” really be on my bucket list? Somehow I doubt it.

With all the hype and lead up going into Hurricane Irene, the biggest question I think most people will be asking as this storm moves through NYC and dies up in New England is: Did it live up? Well, for me at least so far, it has been way more action than I’m normally comfortable with. Yes, Irene could go away now. Please.

It wouldn’t have been so bad had, at last count, three of my windows not started to leak at about 1AM this morning. I got a broken 4 hours of sleep with no AC (as it’s currently being flooded by a leaky window) and every 15 minutes I have to empty out bowls of water. Could have been so much worse of course. During the one small period I did get sleep, a tornado cell passed right over me – just as well I wasn’t awake for that.

So now the eye is about an hour away from the city. Everyone is carefully watching the Battery to see if the surge will flood Lower Manhattan. It’s so interesting watching these news reports. First of all, parts of New Jersey now are already seeing sunshine (NOT FAIR). Some areas got blasted and some hardly got anything.

There is standing water outside my apartment. I’ll say – at least up to now – the rain has been much much worse than the wind. I can hear a little but nothing more than a bad storm. The rain however, I’ve never seen it rain so hard for so long in my whole life. Crazy.

This has all been an interesting experience and I’m kind of glad I stayed up to watch most of it through the various TV stations. A few things that absolutely astound me:

Unless it happened when I was asleep – and I highly doubt it – I never heard thunder or saw lightning during this whole night. I was expecting really severe thunderstorms and at least Sunnyside didn’t get them.
The moisture outside is seeping into my apartment. It’s not just humid, it feels wet in here.
White water is so much scarier than clear water. White water rain is not something I need to see again.
How many people did not evacuate when told to. They are saying perhaps 50%. I know this was all very hyped up but you can bet if the Mayor or someone told me to evacuate, I would have been gone without a second thought. It’s just not worth it.
On HBO this morning, they had a documentary on about Hurricane Katrina. Here’s a tip: don’t watch a documentary about a hurricane while going through a hurricane.
Social networking has been my best friend during the storm

So I’ll be back once the eye goes through. Little nervous that sustained wind will finally knock my power out. Thank goodness, I at least got to make coffee this morning.

ETA: Ok, so the “eye” hit Coney Island at 9am. Now Tropical Storm Irene is pretty much falling apart. Hopefully that means my part of it is nearing an end. Thinking of all my peeps up there in New England, have already heard of some losing power. Stay safe guys!

ETA 2: Don’t let my reports fool you, a lot of places here are under water and are a mess. MTA probably won’t be up till at least tomorrow midday at best case scenario. Thanks Irene.