Highway 12 at Rodanthe was breached and several hundred yards are torn up quite badly. The Sound side storm surge was historic on both the island and mainland sides. Probably more damage was done inland by the wind than on the Outer Banks.

The East Coast really is fortunate that Irene was not a major hurricane when it made landfall. Think of how far up the coast it went without much degradation. Here in North Carolina, we were pretty impressed with the execution of Emergency preparedness plans, by the high numbers of people who headed the call to evacuate, and how smoothly the evacuation plan went. Resources were in place, agencies coordinated well, and personnel knew what to do. The post incident recovery and rescue efforts also appear to be responding quickly and in a coordinated manner.

The Incident Command System, developed by FEMA in partnership with many, many governments, agencies and emergency organizations seems to have come of age, at least in North Carolina. I think the key ingredient is Drill, Drill, Drill. North Carolina made a commitment to do so, and it paid off.

Was recently at a Hospital Incident Command System training. The instructor was part of a team sent to the Gulf Coast after Katrina. He said one of the biggest problems with dealing with the aftermath of Katrina was that in the state to which he was deployed, they had done minimal training and practice at the State level, and all was confusion.