Storm debris blocks trail path in a Virginia State Park

Hurricane Irene first made landfall in the United States at Outer Banks, North Carolina on August 27, 2008. The storm had peaked at a Category 3 hurricane as it passed through the Carribean, but it had fallen to a Category 1 hurricane by the time it reached North Carolina. The storm continued to hop up the Eastern coast and made landfall in nine more locations. Irene became the seventh costliest hurricane in United States history, causing at least 56 deaths and estimated damages around $15.5 billion. 

A Category 1 Hurricane should not be taken any less seriously than one of a higher categorization. The storm brought in severe rain and winds that cause widespread flooding throughout the Mid-Atlantic and New England. Many rivers reached hundred-year flood levels and flooding in Greene County, New York reached five-hundred-year levels. Along Northeastern stretches of the Appalachian Trail, closures lasting days or weeks had to be enforced as the vast flooding caused dangerous conditions on the trail. One example was in Green Mountain National Forest of Vermont. The park was closed as "many river and stream crossings are unsafe and roads, bridges and trail sections are washed out."