hurricane irene

Hurricane Irene may end up being one of the 10 costliest catastrophes in U.S. history. Industry experts currently put the storm’s damage at $7 billion to $10 billion; however, much of that destruction may not be covered by insurance because it was caused by flooding and not winds. Flooding is often excluded from standard insurance policies.

Despite the country’s diligent precautions, Hurricane Irene left a path of destruction in her wake. It was enough to even scare Spider-Man, who sounded a little intimidated by Irene during this interview with a local ABC reporter. Even superheroes need to evacuate sometimes.

Before weakening to a tropical storm, the first hurricane of the season hit the Eastern seaboard with torrential rains, strong winds and floods. Hurricane Irene made landfall on Saturday in North Carolina, moved northward along the coast then slammed into Little Egg Inlet, N.J., as a Category 1 storm. Despite predictions, Irene then lost steam as it lumbered toward New England.

Whenever natural disasters strike, news stations often send out a few poor saps to report from the scene. With Hurricane Irene, we typically saw wind-whipped, rain-soaked correspondents in various locations talking about the storm’s fury. But if there’s an award for Most Deserving of Hazard Pay, it has to go to Washington, DC Fox affiliate WTTG’s Tucker Barnes.

The Weather Channel has never really needed a delay button before, but it may want to look into getting one now. During a live broadcast from Hurricane Irene-ravaged Virginia on Saturday, reporter Eric Fisher was unexpectedly upstaged when a dude dressed in swim trunks ran behind him, pulled his trunks down and gave “weather front” a whole new meaning.