Did Irene Live up to the Hype? and Is the East Coast out of the Woods yet?

There has been a lot of talk about Hurricane Irene not living up to its expectations and the precautionary measures taken by the government as being too extreme.  Yes, Irene was anticipated to be a lot worse and would have been devastating up and down the eastern seaboard if it didn't dissipate but, it did create major flooding and widespread wind damage which created havoc.

This shows how widespread the effects of the hurricane was.  The effects spanned from North Carolina all the way to New England.

Rainfall

1. Virginia Beach Va., 20.40 inches
2. Jacksonville, N.C., 20.00 inches
3. Bunyan, N.C., 15.66 inches
4. New Bern, N.C., 14.79 inches
5. Williamstown, N.C., 14.27 inches
6. Leonardtown, Md., 13.35 inches
7. East Durham, N.Y., 13.30 inches
8. Washington, N.C., 13.11 inches
9. Plum Point, Md., 12.96 inches
10. Ft. Eustis, Va., 12.52 inches

Wind Gusts

1. Mt. Washington, N.H., 120 mph
2. Cedar Island, N.C., 115 mph
3. Fort Macon, N.C., 92 mph
4. Sayville, N.Y., 91 mph
5. Hatteras, N.C., 88 mph
6. Conimicut, R.I., 83 mph
7. Barrington, R.I., 82 mph
8. Buxton, N.C., 79 mph
9. Soyosset Mobile, N.Y., 79 mph
10. Cape Lookout, N.C., 78 mph

I want to hear your input on this issue.  Was the Hurricane over hyped or was the measures taken justified?

There is going to be some nicer weather weather for the hurricane effected areas given those areas some relief.  The question is will the nice weather last?  People may have to be monitoring the weather in the next week because we may have another hurricane on our hands to worry about.

This map shows that conditions are favorable for more tropical development.