HURRICANE!!!

IRENE
The Storm of a Generation

Irene. Irene. Irene. I-Reeeee-eeeen.

Wait... sorry that's Joleen. But we're all rather glad that the Hurricane didn't quite live up to expectation here in Chapel Hill.

Yes, that's right, despite that huge swirling mass that you can see in the picture above as the storm graced the East Coast with its presence, we're all ok. It was strange actually - I admittedly slept through a lot of the rain, waking up quite late after a crazy night on Pritchard Avenue - but it was pretty much like that infamous day in Edinburgh all those months ago.

If you remember The Windy Day, it was a Thursday and it seemed like the sun never rose it was so dark. Trees were uprooted, branches snapped in the wind, slates came off rooves, people buttoned up their Barbour jackets as tight as possible and donned their heaviest boots to reassure themselves that they wouldn't fly away. It poured and poured. We pushed against the horizontal winds as they lashed out around us and laughed and joked as thunderous gusts bellowed above us. We thought it was insane. We were insane. We just giggled as we dashed through the Meadows and as the Boreads tried to push us back down the steps from DHT.

Well people here weren't joking or laughing. They were sending out warnings about moving electricals away from windows, hiding valuables like passports in places far away from the door, memorising routes to safe places in-case-of-evacuation.

But it was no worse than Edinburgh here.

Of course, that's not to make little of the effects Irene has had on the rest of the American East Coast.

For some people it's been terrible and there are people here whose friends and/or family were moved out of the danger zone or who chose to flee the coast before the storm hit.

I just wanted to make sure you all knew that things in Chapel Hill have continued as usual (despite some very heavy rain and some gusting winds) and no one needs to worry (if any of you were). In fact it's now a beautiful beginning to another Carolina Blue day right now and probably a Carolina Blue Week. As they all say here: God must be Southern.

My thoughts are with those who have been effected by this event.


Je serai poète et toi poésie,
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