Last Sunday there was a hurricane in the United States. In America, we give each hurricane a name. The first hurricane or tropical storm of the year has a name that begins with "A", the next storm name begins with "B". The 2011 names are Arlene, Bret, Cindy, Don, Emily, Franklin, Gert, Harvey and Irene.

The hurricane was only a Class 1 hurricane, which is the weakest category, but it came very far north this time, which is unusual. Usually, hurricanes hit Florida or inside the Gulf of Mexico. This time, Irene went all the way to Canada!

My parents and family live in Pennsylvania, which is between New York and Washington DC. My younger brother lives in Manhatten in the middle of New York City. Nick's parents live in New Jersey, which is east of Pennsylvania and south of New York, next to the Atlantic Ocean. Luckily, Nick's parents were on vacation last weekend, visiting my uncle in another state, very far away from the hurricane.

At my parent's house, there was a lot of rain and they lost electric power for about 35 hours on Sunday and Monday. My dad said that a branch fell down from a tree and cut the power lines. Everything is ok now, but my parents have experienced an earthquake and a hurricane in the same month!