Despite some blustery winds, heavy rains and widespread power outages, the Seacoast survived Hurricane Irene relatively intact on Sunday, Aug. 28. 

Irene had been downgraded to a tropical storm by the time it reached New Hampshire, and its most significant effects were felt farther inland and in the North Country. Tens of thousands of PSNH customers were without power and more than 275 roads were closed across the state as of Sunday evening.

Trees were downed across the Seacoast during the storm, causing outages and some road closures. Portsmouth opened its regional Emergency Operations Center at Fire Station 2 from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Others were directed to a regional shelter operated by the Red Cross at Sanborn High School in Kingston. 

Emergency officials reported four serious injuries due to the storm as of Sunday afternoon. Falling tree limbs injured two people in Wolfeboro and one in Bedford, and another citizen was hurt in Concord while walking in the storm. Officials urged residents to wait until the storm was completely over before cleaning up and to get structural damage professionally assessed before attempting repairs.

The skies were sunny and cloudless by Monday morning. Gov. John Lynch spent much of the day assessing storm-related damage around the state.