Hurricane Irene - CAT 1 (Aug 26 - Aug 28 2011)

Saturday, Aug 27, 3pm: Yesterday afternoon Hurricane Irene was the size of Texas and a CAT 3. According to all the reports, as of 9am it was about the size of Europe (the bands stretch that wide)! Irene is actually bigger in size than Katrina but has been downgraded to a CAT 1. As more time goes by, the smaller Irene is getting; thank goodness.

This is excellent news for us in Northern Virginia (NOVA) & DC area. We will probably only see tropical storm weather and not the full brunt of the hurricane; unlike my friends in Norfolk, Virginia Beach, and Hampton Roads. I’m worried for them.

I didn’t feel as optimistic when it was a CAT 3 but now I’m feeling a bit safer here in my high rise! I will probably sleep through the worst of it since the worst won't hit us until this evening.

This is just so boring. I won’t go into details but my last Typhoon was a blast! Typhoon Shanshan of September 2006. Now that’s how you ROCK a Typhoon. Ahhh Okinawa, how I miss you. You just don’t know!

I was also in Huntsville, Alabama during Hurricane Katrina but only the tail end of it hit us; or the very outer bands. Very little damage to Huntsville; downed trees, power outages, and that's about it. Of course with my name, I wasn't exactly welcomed in the south that trip:) I made sure everyone called me Kat and not Katrina.

Sunday, 28 Aug, 1030am: So last night around 8pm the fire alarm went off. I jumped up, grabbed my emergency bag, and flew down the 26 flights of stairs avoiding the elevator. I get to the lobby and find out it was a false alarm. I wasn't too thrilled about this news but also thankful for it; it wasn't a real emergency but still pissed I had to run down those stairs!

I went to bed at 10pm but didn't fall asleep until midnight and at 1am I awoken to creepy sounds coming from my apartment building. It was eerie; you know the sound I'm writing about. Imagine standing up and you hear your bones pop/crack and then groan. That is the sound but much louder. It creeped me out being in being my bedroom because the crackling and wind was so loud.

I went to the living room and the sound wasn't so bad. First I tried sleeping on the floor in my entry way but that didn't last long; then I tried to sleep on the couch but couldn't relax. Finally around 3am I fell asleep again and only slept a few hours.

We didn't sustain as much damage as we could have; I'm so thankful that I didn't lose power or water. The rain and wind wasn't that bad (by my standards), it could have been worse, what freaked me out was the sound my building was making. I know it's just the wind but dang.

I've heard from most of my friends in the metro and Norfolk area and they seem to be safe and accounted for; which makes Mama Kat feel much better!