Storm Update

Eastern NC .... 

Power finally went out at 6:30 this morning. 

I waited till 7 to fire up the generator. 

we have rain (2" ) over night, mild winds, no trees down round here that I can see.  one piece of siding came off... but it's the same one that comes off every time... I really need to secure it better this time...

more rain and storm force winds expected for the next few hours... probably the rest of the day. 

Ceiling fans and lights running here.... the cable went out, but the internet rocks on... for now.  We have fiber underground. 

They are saying on TV before we lost the cable that the center is about to make land fall and the winds on the shore are under Cat1 levels..... 

Kinda like the storm that wasn't.... but I'm not complaining too much about that... biggest problem will likely be flooding from the surge which looks to be around 10 feet..give or take...  Even on the ocean front, on the TV, they could not show any damage beyond shingles missing.... (so far) .... and hopefully that's all it will be. 

Anyway...  looks like it might be a boring day.  Stuck in the house... feed the generator, and if the internet stays on..... I'll be hanging out here every now and then.

yeah, that now seems to be the focus of the TV talking heads on the local and weather channels... 

Here in NC they are "reminiscing"about Floyd...... it wasn't a big storm, but it followed another storm that saturated the ground then Floyd came in nice and slow dropping something like 15" of rain..... and we had floods that this state had never seen. 

Locally in Wilson... closest city to me (9 miles) and on the same street as my in laws live, we could stand in their front yard and look down the street and only the roofs of the houses in the bend were visible.  Entire neighborhoods and some smaller towns were totally devastated.  

I love the mountains. 

A few years back one of the hurricanes dropped significant rain in the mountains and washed out quite a few of the roads and places on the Blue ridge parkway. 

I was up there a few weeks after that for a bike rally in the mountains, and of course, the joy of a rally in the mountains is riding the roads. Several were closed, including parts of the parkway.... but I still found places to ride and scrape the floor boards a bit. 

October is a nice time to be in the hills.... enjoy.

Wow... in a sailboat off the coast.... 

When we have visited the light houses along the coast, there were some interesting things there about the old rescue crews with the guns and lines they used to rescue ships that ran aground in the storms. That was in the days before radar when the captains didn't know if what was coming was a small storm or a hurricane. 

That section of the coast is called the "Graveyard of the Atlantic" and for good reason....  there are hundreds of wreck sites off the coastline. Some can be seen from the shore at low tide on a good day. 

Power came on again after less then 2 hrs.... so for now..... we have AC running again. 

My neighbor's flat roof had the wind get under the membrane and peel it back.  Some roofing tacks and 10 minutes had it nailed back in place until the storm ends. 

Guitarhacker


Anyway...  looks like it might be a boring day.  Stuck in the house... feed the generator, and if the internet stays on..... I'll be hanging out here every now and then.

Wow...  That would probably be one of my fun days...
 
A day without Bapu is like a day without becan...

Guitarhacker


well the power started blinking pretty heavy for about 15 seconds...then .... poof... gone. 


So I'm back on the generator.   The county emergency services has "robo-called" us twice.   Basically saying, stay home. Duhhhhh! 

The second call said stay home and don't bother to call us ...cause we're not coming. They say it's too dangerous to come out with the firetrucks, police, and ambulance.... 

uhhhhh  excuse me?  What? 

Isn't that what they do?  As if running into a burning building is safe? 

"I'm with the Government.  We're here to help."  Yeah, right.

The wind has shifted to a more Westerly direction from the Northerly direction it was coming this morning....... that's good news, but this thing is taking it's good old time getting outta here. 

If your main complaint is boredom, I'd say it's pretty good news. Glad to hear it. I hope everyone else is safe and dry.

I guess they're taking Irene seriously. Yeah, it's hard to imagine 2+ counties getting evacuated like that. I spoke with my mom today. It was raining already. The main thing she's worried about is one of the tree falling on the house and causing damage. I've got my finger crossed that that won't happen. I haven't heard from my brother and sister yet. They're all away from the coast by 10-15 miles and above sea level. So the storm surge shouldn't be a problem for them. I'm curious to see how places like Sea Bright and Sandy Hook do. Parts of them are below sea level and the sea wall is about 10 feet high. I don't think 10 feet will be enough. Best wishes to everyone that is dealing with Irene. Stay safe.

Good luck, Phil. Stay dry.

Guitarhacker


The wind has shifted to a more Westerly direction from the Northerly direction it was coming this morning....... that's good news, but this thing is taking it's good old time getting outta here. 

That's what I remember most about the one we had here in '87.

It was relentless and seemed like it was going to go on forever.

I wouldn't be too keen to knock the emergency service setups either, they will be out there doing their utmost for those that need it as soon as is possible.  Trouble is they are not equipped with vehicles that are immune to falling and fallen trees and the like.

Maybe if you paid enough tax to support an outfit like Thunderbirds then you'd have 100% coverage in any eventuality, but poor old Scott and Virgil Tracy would have NO free time left...

Bub


My sister has been emailing me updates. It's pretty bad in North NJ and supposed to keep getting worse, but they are going to get hit the least. She said they evacuated 95% of Cape May and Atlantic and Ocean counties. Can you imagine that?

I don't have to imagine that as the family used to spend a couple of weeks each summer in Wildwood. An inch or two of rain will flood things there.

So far, all good down here in Manhattan. Was a bit weird to see this place so absolutely quiet when we went out for a little walk after dinner last night.  We could hear birds singing - that was, uh, odd.  Heavy rain when I went to bed at 3 am. 

I was expecting to be awaken earlier this morning so it was quite a surprise when I finally woke up and looked outside - people walking their dogs, and all. Of course, there are strong winds, but, it actually reminds me of our usual weather in my little hometown by the sea, up north.
Poor folks in NJ didn't have it that easy I hear though. :(

I am not diminishing the loss of life and tragedy that has surely befallen some during this large storm.

But as an outside observer it all seems a little strange to me.  Reports coming live from the boardwalks of the most likely areas to be devastated?  Man, you can't get near the beach here if the wind kicks of let alone on the seafront.

I'm glad if the storm isn't as bad as expected and that the evacuation plans were on the cautious side as I am sure many were saved from loss and injury.

Why is it though none of this contingency was seen in New Orleans when a historically major US city was almost wiped from the map and is still unlikely to re-emerge as the unique community it once was.  Coverage is greater for this than was seen for New Orleans even after it was learned that NO had been truly devastated.

Another observation after watching several US news channels is, does the storm stop dead at New York or are parts of Canada likely to be affected?  I didn't hear where it was headed after mentioned once.

Jonbouy


I am not diminishing the loss of life and tragedy that has surely befallen some during this large storm.

But as an outside observer it all seems a little strange to me.  Reports coming live from the boardwalks of the most likely areas to be devastated?  Man, you can't get near the beach here if the wind kicks of let alone on the seafront.

I'm glad if the storm isn't as bad as expected and that the evacuation plans were on the cautious side as I am sure many were saved from loss and injury.

Why is it though none of this contingency was seen in New Orleans when a historically major US city was almost wiped from the map and is still unlikely to re-emerge as the unique community it once was.  Coverage is greater for this than was seen for New Orleans even after it was learned that NO had been truly devastated.

Another observation after watching several US news channels is, does the storm stop dead at New York or are parts of Canada likely to be affected?  I didn't hear where it was headed after mentioned once.

JB:
American reporters aren't afraid to go where the story is going and our government doesn't put limits on them in cases like this. Basically called freedom of the press. Also it's called Americans insatiable thirst for what's happening while it's happening. We like our new coverage raw & bloody, as it were and reporters aren't afraid to go there.

Katrina response - don't get me started on that. It was a comedy of errors and the inability of the infrastructure to handle the amount of people to be evacuated. Don't know what you mean by the sentence: "Coverage is greater for this than was seen for New Orleans even after it was learned that NO had been truly devastated". Katrina devastated plenty of people and the human and physical cost for Irene is still being tallied up. Plenty of people and structures have been/are in dire straights by Irene. As the winds come from this storm there are more and more people losing power to their homes and businesses because of tree limbs and such coming down and knocking down power lines.

Not everybody's news coverage showed where the storm was possibly headed after it went through the East Coast of the USA. Some did show that it was possibly headed up to Canada and not necessarily the Maritimes but inland Canada. One of the biggest hurdles to predicting where this storm will go and how far it will go is how much will it weaken if/when it stays over land. When a hurricane hits land it loses power and only strengthens when over warm water. And remember that the path shown for a hurricane is the cone of probability for the nucleus/eye of the storm and not the outer limits of the storm itself. Storms winds can exist hundreds of miles outside that cone.