Tropical Storm Irene hits Long Island: 3 years later

This day three years ago, Long Islanders battened down the hatches at their homes or emergency shelters. It was pre-Sandy and though many were no strangers to damaging storms in the past, news of Tropical Storm Irene (at the time thought to hit us as a hurricane) had been threatening.

Supermarkets had sold out of essentials, windows were boarded up and families and friends gathered to ride out the storm together.

We went to bed to whipping winds and woke on Sunday morning as the storm made landfall in New York. Later in the day, we ventured outside to downed trees and widespread flooding, power outages and property damage.

A year later we'd be facing superstorm Sandy, but at the time the damage was the worst we had seen in years.

Long Islanders are taking to social media Thursday to mark the occasion. Click the link above to see their memories of the day and its aftermath.