As Vivian Brown said the other day, "We are hyping up this storm and rightfully so." Some folks are only looking at the small picture with Irene, it may only be at Cat. 1/2 once it gets past the NC, but she is massive, coming close to Katrina's size and even more bigger since the eyewall replacement cycle hurricane force winds extend out well over 70 miles and tropical storm force winds nearly 300 miles. My concern is not more so the winds for the NE, it's the rain. Irene reminds me so much of Ike, it has a very low pressure equaling out to a Cat. 4, but winds are lagging. Ike was able to do some amazingly devastating damage despite only having Cat. 2 winds. In the case of Irene, the damage risk is much higher because you're talking about
-Irene affecting a very large real estate of population.
-Over saturated soil in the NE making it more easier for trees to fall even if you only experience weak tropical storm winds.
-Flooding/possible high storm surge in some areas.
Noone should be underestimating what Irene has the potential to do. With Irene and any hurricane you should expect the worse and hope for the best.
