Sunny skies in Rehoboth in wake of Irene

Hundreds of onlookers, residents and visitors hit the Boardwalk in Rehoboth Beach Aug. 28 to survey Irene's damage.

What they discovered was minimal damage to America's vacation destination. By Sunday afternoon, the sun was shining and many businesses, including Gus & Gus, Dolle's, Thrasher's, Louie's and The Purple Parrot opened their doors to show Irene who won the weekend.

Kristin and Bill Conway brought their two sons, Grant, 3, and Pierce, 1, from Milford to check out the storm damage. The family spent Saturday night in the basement, just in case Hurricane Irene decided to drop a tree on their house.

"We just wanted to check out the weather and make sure the beach was OK," Kristin Conway said. "It wasn't as bad as we expected. The tornadoes were the scariest part."

They were happy to see the hurricane did not damage the Boardwalk or beach, other than spraying sand, leaves and branches on sidewalks and streets. Pierce happily danced on sand that had washed up on the boards.

Milton residents Steve and Dawn Stachow also came down to Rehoboth to make sure the beach was OK.

"Just wanted to check things out. Curiosity," Steve Stachow said. "We were up all night last night because of the tornado warnings and stuff like that. We were fortunate. We didn't lose any power."

"We're glad to see it's still here," Dawn Stachow said of the beach.

Linda and Richard Detwiler of Lancaster, Pa., were planning to stay in a Rehoboth hotel from Saturday until Tuesday. When storm trackers showed the hurricane could be nasty in Delaware, the couple decided to stay home an extra day before heading down.

"The damage was worse in Lancaster," said Richard, holding the couple's dog, Sabrina, on the Boardwalk. The couple said they love visiting Rehoboth, and even a hurricane couldn't keep them from enjoying a long weekend.

Mike and Jennifer Tregis live in Kent County and decided to beat the cabin fever setting in by heading to Rehoboth on Sunday.

"We wanted to get out of the house," said Mike, who said the drive down was easy and that he saw very little damage in Sussex County.

"The waves are a bit bigger than usual," said Jennifer, with the couple's 8-month-old daughter, Kelsey. "We didn't see much damage ... just some to the beach shacks."

As morning drizzle turned to afternoon sunshine, businesses in Rehoboth started opening up.

Dolle's owner Tom Ibach said, "It was a big nothing. We've had nor'easters worse than this."

Still, not all businesses were unaffected. Several of the Catts and Lynam beach chair and umbrella rental shacks were destroyed on the north end of the Boardwalk. One stand on the south end filled with sand and had the door ripped off its hinges.

Catts and Lynam worker Brian Mack said, "Really, we were pretty lucky. We got all our stuff out in time. Just got a couple chairs, couple umbrellas. The other side wasn't as lucky."

Worker Tim Blackburn said, "Our shacks just got sunk in and filled with sand."

Mack said four of the seven shacks got beat up, but the they should be cleaned up and open for business Monday.

"We still got some damage, but not as bad as I thought," Mack said.

"We've had the triple threat this week: the hurricane, tornado and earthquake," Blackburn said.