I remember before it happened, a lot of people weren’t concerned - Irene had been preceded by forecasts of gloom and doom, and it arrived at the Jersey Shore as just a rainstorm. And then, the day before it hit, I decided to drive down to Spring Lake to see what the waves looked like. The ocean was turbulent in a way I couldn’t remember seeing before - it was truly an angry sea. Coupled with the fact that the wind was already strong on the beachfront, I suddenly knew the worst case scenarios were going to play out - this thing was a monster.