Irene has wound down to a disorganized rain blob leaving behind sections of New England in much better shape than she could have. The storm has passed, and nothing left to do but clean up. The LA Times has a nice photo collectionof storm damage and had this to say:

The main New York power company, Consolidated Edison, didn’t have to go through with a plan to cut electricity to lower Manhattan to protect its equipment. Engineers had worried that salty seawater would damage the wiring. And two pillars of the neighborhood came through the storm just fine: The New York Stock Exchange said it would be open for business on Monday, and the Sept. 11 memorial at the World Trade Center site didn’t lose a single tree.

There is flooding and some power outages all the way through Vermont, but it could have been worse. Then again you can say that about practically every hurricane. One funny thing though, a buddy of mine who works in DC was sounding a little smug about dealing with an earthquake and a hurricane in the same week. Comparing this to a serious earthquake or major hurricane would be like my fellow Texans comparing one of our one-inch snow flurries with a major nor’easter. Don’t get cocky.