Only a glancing blow from Irene ...

Hurricane Irene blew in yesterday with some heavy gusts, minimal rain, surf, trees down and power out in places here on Cape Cod. We only got the eastern edge of the storm, fortunately for us. Others in the Northeast were less lucky, with the storm barreling up the Hudson River Valley and dropping as much as a foot of rain on some very small creeks, turning them into destructive rivers.

Dee's sister Ellen, visiting from Schoharie, N.Y., near Albany, with her husband Russ, heard last night that their village and nearby Middleburg were both evacuated because Schoharie Creek was expected to be well past flood stage. This morning it's apparent that it went about ten feet beyond flood stage, inundating downtown Schoharie, including the building that houses Russ's law office. Farmers in the beautiful bottom land along the creek have lost their season's crops, tractors, trucks, barns, herds of sheep. As exciting as the storm was for us here, it's a disaster for the Schoharie Valley.

Russ has headed back to New York to see what he can do there. Ellen will go later. All of Dee's siblings were here on the Cape for the Sunday wedding in Newport, R.I., of our nephew Jason. That wedding was canceled because of the storm, apparently with no new wedding date. The honeymoon, we hear, is still on.

I'll attach photos of part of yesterday. Always fun to go out and watch a hurricane. From the top: Surf on Buzzard's Bay at Wing's Neck; Dee's sister Marcy and our niece Rhobie in the surf;

Dee (right) and our friend Tammy, both trying to fly; dealing with the wind, with Mike, Tammy, Rhobie and Dee.