14 Images

Sending a message to Hurricane Irene

A bar just outside the mandatory evaucation area advertises drinks ahead of the arrival of Hurricane Irene. (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)

Lyllis Wickersham paints a sign that reads, " Don’t be mean Irene”, onto the plywood on the window of a business as it is secured against the winds of Hurricane Irene. (Joe Raedle / Getty Images)

Passers-by walk near a restaurant with windows boarded-up with plywood in preparation for the arrival of Hurricane Irene. (Steven Senne / Associated Press)

A tavern’s windows are boarded preparation for Hurricane Irene. (Stephen Chernin / AFP/Getty Images)

The window of Serenity Spa on 6th Avenue in New York. (Andrew Burton / Getty Images)

A sandwich shop in Frisco on North Carolina‘s Outer Banks (Nicholas Kamm / AFP / Getty Images)

A man rides a bicycle past a boarded-up store in Ocean City, Md. (Mark Wilson, Getty Images)

Sign outside an insurance office in Pompano Beach, Fla. (Amy Beth Bennett / Sun Sentinel / MCT)

Carlito Carranza puts up a sign board announcing a hurricane party at a restaurant in Kill Devil Hills, N.C. (Charles Dharapak, Associated Press)

A church sign comments on Tybee Island, Ga. (Stephen Morton, Associated Press)

A sign in Cape May, N.J.. (Mel Evans / Associated Press)

There’s still time for last-minute sales in Ocean City, Md.. (Karl Merton Ferron, Baltimore Sun)

Weathering the storm in Nags Head, N.C.. (Charles Dharapak / Associated Press)

An oceanfront cottage in Nags Head, N.C. . (Scott Olson / Getty Images)