It was a long couple of weeks for us. After watching and waiting for Irene to approach the coast it became apparent that out beach house was going to take a direct hit. The eye went over Cape Lookout with a 20 mile radius. This put it directly over our place. Sure enough, Atlantic beach and Morehead City was the place of first landfall in the US. Cindy left Sunday morning at 4 AM. She stopped first at her sisters home (my wife was born and raised Cateret County, Outer Banks) in Williamston, NC. No power there and flooding. The next morning they opened the bridge up to the island if you had an evacuation pass (which she had) but still a manditory curfew after dark. I booked a flight for after work on Thursday to help with clean-up. Low and behold... we were spared. Just lost shingles and siding. After removing the board-up, we enjoyed the after storm calm of the beach and I got some photography in. We tried to volunteer at the Red Cross but the nearest post was 3 hours away. We couldn't help with clean=up at the worse hit areas of Nags head and North because the roads were literal gone to the ocean and non residents not permitted. We were lucky. We drove back last night.. 18 hours, and arrived at 8 this morning. The only productive thing I have done today is work on these panoramics.
The top photo (in B and W) is taken at Taylor's creek. Famous as the docking point for Black Beard. His prize ship the Queen Anne's Revenge is sunk about 5 miles from here and about 1 mile from our beach house.
The middle photo is taken at Morehead City, NC.
The last is of Oceanana Pier, Atlantic Beach.

Errick