My prayers are with those in the path of this awful storm. Hope you and your are safe.

Fred: 6 months before Bruce stroked, my friend and I were treated to vacation from some friends we had helped out. 10 days on the beach in South Carolina - condo provided. We worked for months getting ready for it. We drove down and brought a lot of provisions with us. We scheduled a few things, but mostly it was the pool or the beach and nice dinners. 5 days in Hurricane warnings. We were forced to evacuate on day 7. We got up to Philly and spent the rest of the weekend there. But you are right. We so needed and looked forward to that vacation.

Then 4 years later: a horrid winter, two hurricanes both in October, 30" of snow last winter. I have always been good with storms. We grew up on the beach in Connecticut, evacuated at least once a year - LOL. My Mom made great effort to sit with us and explain what Mother Nature was doing and how to accept and even come to love the NE changes. But you are right, somehow it seems we are getting hit harder and more often.

Now of course, it is all on me to prepare. Bruce is glad to go along and help out as best he can, but the mess and clean up are mine to figure out. And that of course, makes it more stressful.

It is 8:30 pm EDT right now and finally the wind is dying down. There were glimpses of the full moon as the cloud cover is being pushed through. It was beautiful. Fortunately it is warm 64 degrees. New Haven was hammered just in the last hour and our shoreline is again devastated. 400,000 without power and the utilities can not start work until the wind is below 40mph and that is not expected until noon tomorrow. Some of these poor people have just finished new foundations from Hurricane Irene.

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers. Debbie

A friend of mine is on vacation on Virginia Beach - not a hurricane landing, but enough to ruin the vacation. I have 2 friends in the New Jersey/New York area, that I'll worry about. My son used to live in Stewart, Fl and that was exactly where a huricane landed, blazed thru Florida then fell down and came back around the tip and right thru Steward again! That was a hard waiting periof for a worried mom, while they hunkered down with no utilities!