Initial Summary of Irene Damage / Other Reports

As of this writing, 10 people have been confirmed dead and over 15,000,000 commercial and residential customers are without power along the East coast in the aftermath of Hurricane (and Tropical Storm) Irene.  

I'll be a bit more specific in a later post, however I wanted to give you a snapshot of some of the wind damage (mostly to trees and power lines as expected) and peak wind reports by region.  The images below start with reports in North Carolina, and then work Northward, ending in New England.  Flood reports are not highlighted here, only wind specific wind speed reports and wind damage reports.  There were thousands of reports, I tried to choose those which were representative of any given area on the images below:

Widespread flooding also continues in the aftermath of Irene, with rivers not even expected to crest for days or even a week before the waters subside.  The purple and red colored icons on the following images show where moderate to major river flooding is either underway or forecast this week:

The damage surveys have just begun.  When it's all said and done (including the flooding), damage will no doubt be in the tens of billions of dollars in association with Irene.  Thankfully, the death toll wasn't nearly as high as it could have been, particularly with 50+ million people being directly affected.  We certainly have that to be grateful for.  Of course, to those who did lose a loved one, that is little consolation, and our thoughts and prayers go out to them.

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