Well, Isabel has arrived. They’ve closed all the schools in the area and the roommate doesn’t have to go in to work (though takaza does due to his company’s moronic policies). They’re saying the storm isn’t really taking a westward turn which is good news for us, though worse news for our friends in Virginia Beach (batten down the hatches, dmlaenker, and geniealisa). On the bright side, the wind fields show that the worst of the winds won’t reach Richmond (good news for you, zenwolph!). Here in Raleigh, we’re supposed to get up to 4″ of rain and 20-40 MPH sustained winds with gusts up to 50 MPH. We should be OK, but fuzzytoedcollie and serenthia, y’all let us know if you need any help for anything!
Man, it looks like Atlantic Beach is kind of ground zero for the eye coming ashore. It’s weird because that’s right next to Emerald Isle, a beach that we visited a few years back at the kind invitation of me_not_you and wildmouse. I remember being struck by the fact that you had this long, thin barrier island twenty miles long with a bridge on each end; if a hurricane came through there, that’s not a lot of ways to get off the island (granted, a hurricane doesn’t exactly happen “suddenly” so I guess there’s lots of time to get out). Now a lot of that is probably going to be underwater – that’s what happens when you have 20′ – 30′ seas and 12 feet of storm surge.
This is amusing – watching the local news as they show the poor bastards that they’ve sent into the hurricane, one reporter commented that the largest population on the Outer Banks right now is the fifty satellite trucks with all the other poor bastards. Must suck to be low man on the totem pole when the disasters come through.
I’ll keep it in mind. We should fair ok though. Got water a candles an canned food an stuff…of course we get to spend today at work as well, so we’ll get to listen to the storm pound down on Intrex’s steel roof (with no real insulation below it) I hate when the central air leaks… 😛
Work weather
So, if things get hairy this afternoon at all, I can take something to work on from home so no personal/sick time needs to be lost. Yay?
Well, at least there are fun things to look forward to
I’m hoping that’s the case too! Though the winds, for me personally, are not my biggest concern. It’s the water. Living in a basement apartment (which has a history of flooding in intense rain situations) is what cocerns me the most!
Either way, it will be what it will be! No turning it back or off! :
No problems so far, although the lights have flickered a few times in the past hour. Looks real wet outside 🙂
Pretty gusty and wet here, too. Takaza’s coming home soon, which is Very Good – I’m worried.
Please do let us know that Dan has returned safely. One question: how can your posting happen at 4:35 PM EDT when it is only 1:16 PM EDT? Are you getting lots of rain and wind? Mom
Just so everyone knows, Dan made it home OK. We’re settled in to hang out, play online, and watch stuff about the storm for as long as the power holds out.
Chores when the other is away
The thing is, I like violent weather for the most part. I’d probably be one of those idiots out there with a waterproofed camcorder provided I had a reasonable place to retreat to if things started getting too nasty which would basically just need to be a structure that would remain above water and keep it’s roof.
One of the few times I’ve been at all in fear from the weather was on the way home from this last AC with the storm trying to drop a funnel cloud right next to us. I really hope one day to get to see a full blown tornado from a safe distance and direction. This wouldn’t have been either. The blinding pouring rain right and lightning show that we hit after that point wouldn’t have bothered me had we either pulled over or at least slowed down to sub-hydroplane speeds. Had I been driving, I’d have pulled over as much to watch the storm as for safety sake.
I hope all of you come through safe from the storm and don’t have any damage to clean up.