Living in the mid-Atlantic — that really populous region between the media focus on North Carolina and New York — we saw a long night of hard rain and wind from Hurricane Irene, but nothing disastrous. Many power outages and several deaths, many from falling trees, were blamed on the large, slow-moving storm as it cut a path up the East Coast, but New York was spared the impact that many feared — a fear that drove the city to take the unprecedented natural-disaster step of shutting down all public transportation. The storm also spawned a handful of tornadoes that touched down and damaged homes along its route. The Associated Press sums up the damage:

Hurricane Irene fell short of the doomsday predictions of record-breaking storm surges in North Carolina and Virginia. But a slow-crawling storm that spread out hundreds of miles was still hurling heavy rain and high winds at a wide swath of the East Coast a day after its first U.S. landfall, vexing official attempts to gauge the full damage toll on the region.

Irene’s storm surge had triggered scattered flooding in coastal areas after coming ashore Saturday in North Carolina. It plunged at least 2.7 million residential and business power customers into darkness and roughed up one of the most densely populated areas of the country. Initial reports suggested light damages in many areas from Irene, a lower-strength hurricane when it struck the U.S.

But Irene inflicted scattered damage over such a broad area that the total damage — and costs involved — were not yet known. Authorities also said teams would be deploying later Sunday, particularly in more remote areas, to assess the extent and severity of those damages after Irene, which was blamed for eight deaths.

Find detailed updates by region at The Weather Channel’s site. Read more about the world’s worst hurricanes.

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