Hurricane Irene is certainly on all of our minds. As you know - oomph has named its tables after all its favorite places and coincidently - every one of those places is currently in harms way. 
Harbour Island in the Bahamas is bracing for a direct hit tonight. It is a small low-lying island that will be battered by the storm surge and wind. Then Irene moves on to our favorite New England towns. We will be battening down the hatches, pulling the boats and filling our tubs with water.
1938 was a devastating hurricane in New England. For most, there was no warning - no weather channel, no satellite pictures, no CNN to sound the alarm. Decorative household barometers appeared to drop suddenly without warning. Even the fisherman accustomed to changing weather dismissed their trusted gauge as broken. The 1938 hurricane arrived suddenly on a summer day. Passenger trains full of people were washed away. Summer houses on beaches vanished. There are places that still respect the high water marks left by the surge 73 years later. Katherine Hepburn narrowly escaped with her life as her home in Fenwick was washed away taking all her possessions including her 1932 Oscar Award! Even Vermont was not spared from the raging of the storm.
We wish all those in Irene's path safe harbor - Southport, Fairfield, Fenwick, Essex, Edgartown, Newport and especially our beloved friends in Harbour Island. Stay safe - we are thinking about all of you.