Hurricane Irene

Hope their storm liquor stocks are holding out.

Because, OMG, we've been blown clear up to Maine - and look where New York is!

UPDATE: MassDOT announced after the T announcement that trains and buses would run until 8 a.m. to let health-care workers get to their jobs.

Irene, Saturday morning. Source: NASA GOES.

The National Hurricane Center reported at 5 a.m. that Irene weakened overnight but that it still expects the storm to be at hurricane force when it lands on Connecticut and that it will have a large "wind field" as it moves inland. Since it'll be going across western and central Massachusetts, that means they'll get more rain, but we'll get more wind here in the Boston area.

BUT WAIT: Shortly after 8 a.m., Pete Bouchard tweeted:

With Irene ashore in North Carolina, New England dodges a bullet. No landfalling hurricane here.

Bouchard writes we can still expect high winds, lots of rain, downed trees and power lines. On air this morning, he was preceded by an anchorperson who promoted an upcoming feature on hurricane winds with some video of a reporter on a beach:

Standing on the beach, so you don't have to.

Channel 5 sent John Atwater out to report from a harbor on hurricane preparations.