Well, I arrived at Heathrow, still not really knowing if my plane would even be taking off! But it did, and the Pilot kindly updated us that there was no way he would ever fly us into a hurricane.. and that Irene was not due to hit Washington till much later that evening!
So I arrived at Dulles airport in the pouring rain (after a very scary landing!). I took a Taxi to my apartment, which was lovely, and awaited the arrival of Irene. However, after a 7 and a half hour flight, exhaustion set in, and I manged to sleep through the whole thing!
The next day the sun was out, and you would only have known that Irene had hit because of the broken branches everywhere. (see picture below, if you look closely you can see the broken branches)
Sucessful meetings with the Air Transportation Board and the FBI followed.. as did a very moving trip to the Pentagon Memorial, and before I knew it it was time to take the train to NYC!
