What Irene Hath Wrought

Today is Monday, August 29. Here are five things you need to know today.

1. Most anti-climatic hurricane ever? For Charlestown and pretty much most of Boston, yes. -- and at least one car in the Navy Yard felt the wrath of Irene. My sympathies to whomever owns that vehicle and anyone else with damaged property as a result of the storm.

2. And we should count ourselves lucky. Sunday afternoon, 500,000 homes in Massachusetts were without power -- mostly on the South Shore -- and about 5,000 of those were in Boston. NSTAR promised power would be restored within the week. That's right, the week.

3. I'd like to have a moment of silence for this tree. I heard it was a 65-footer outside the Public Garden near Cheers. It went down early in the day Sunday and Patch reader Gerry Dube submitted a photo of it. What a beauty. So long, old tree. 

4. If you think Irene was a joke, take a look at the wreckage some of our neighbors to the north (way north, in Vermont) experienced. Here's a video from the town where I used to live, Brattleboro. Whole homes were washed away by a flooded river and whole businesses in the downtown area have been wrecked. Let's count ourselves lucky.

5. All that said, judging by today's weather forecast, you'd never know a hurricane blew through here yesterday. Sunny with a high near 79.

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