WE SURVIVED IRENE! Even though Irene was not a hurricane, the tropical storm did a lot of damage to the town of Highlands. Multiple trees were down as well as multiple powerlines everywhere. We had a mud slide like the ones you see in California on the news. The whole side of the hill gave away, came down the slope into peoples houses. The houses have up to 4- 5' of mud in them! I feel sorry for those people having to clean that mess up. There are also reports that the mud slide knocked some of the houses off their foundations, making them unsafe to live in now, but that is not confirmed. The whole town was flooded. Some people had up to 5' of water in their homes. people are just emptying the contents of their homes and putting it on the sidewalk to get picked up. Everyone is still trying to dry out. My marina, house and boat made it throught the storm with no problems. The house was a close call with water up to the fourth step, almost getting ready to come in the front door!! But I lucked out when the tide changed and the water receded as fast as it came up. It was bad here, but it could have been a lot worse if the winds were higher like first predicted. So...........Let's go fishing!!!