While the models never exactly agree (have a look at the National Hurricane Center’s page on Irene for an overview), there seems to be general agreement that Irene is going to get at least awfully close to North Carolina, and then continue up the coast. Some are predicting that it’s going to bash right into New England on Sunday, and that we could face our first major hurricane since Bob which pummeled us almost exactly 20 years ago on August 19, 1991.
Let’s hope they’re wrong. But this is an obvious time to ask if your community is ready. Hopefully your emergency managers are preparing, with the emergency response plans already assembled. With some luck this will all be a non-event, but for now we’ll all have to just wait and see.