I survived Irene

Sounds more like the Left Reverend.

Our soil absorb the 8 inches of rain pretty well. Thankfully the local creek did not flood. We lost power for 8 hours. We were very fortunate.

For anyone who thinks this was a mild storm because NYC didn't end up like New Orleans is ignorant.
Drive an hour in any direction from my place and you'll find small towns wiped out of existence from flood waters. Tell them Irene was over hyped. Relatives in CT won't get power back until next Wednesday, yes 10 days without. Tell them it was just a rain storm.

Glad you and your family are alright Bassman.

You know a good torrential Thunderstorm could do the same thing it does not a take a Hurricane. in fact new Orleans and surrounding area's may get 10 to 20 inches of rain this coming week from the current tropical depression Lee

What's your point?

Irene wasn't a hurricane when it hit here. Any storm that drops 10 or 20 inches of rain in a couple days will do damage. August was already wetter than normal before the tropical storm hit. Sometimes the storm hits hard and sometime it fizzles out, but I'm grateful for all the warnings so I can make the preparations I think are necessary.

We lost power for only an hour and had a few branches off the trees but otherwise escaped unscathed.

Rain storms don't need a classification as such. Sometime they just go crazy!

In May 1984, a storm cell centered itself over Tulsa, OK where I was living at the time. The cell stalled and just kept rotating over Tulsa, in the space of 8 hours from 8PM til 4AM, it dropped 10-11 inches of rain! Worst flooding in over 50 years!