Irene

[Twocubdad]

I hope Eagle92 and ScoutFish are riding out the storm okay. They're catching the eye about now. You guys write in and let know when you have the chance.

 

The storm is down to a cat1 -- we get summer squalls that bad. The folks on the coast here know how to deal with that. But since this this has the potential to mess up Al Roker's hair I'm sure we will have to endure breathless network coverage for the next three days.

[Eagle92]

I'm more inland than 'Fish, so I am catching TS winds and not hurricane winds. Still have power at the moment, but it is flickering on and off at times, but a lot of folks on the coast are out of power.

 

A few more hours of this for us

[lrsap]

Being a Floridian I can definitely sympathize. Hunker down, keep safe and we will keep everyone's spot at the campfire warm.

[Eagle92]

Update: lots of wind and rain. parts of my neck of the woods have lost power, but so far so good. But again I consider it a matter of time before losing it. Luckily only TS level winds.

 

On another note. There is damage at Pamlico Sea Base. Pier is gone, and one of the new cabins hit. Lots of trees down, but not a thorough review of cthe reservation at this time. Wondering how the other local camps are doing. I remember visiting Camp Charles after Floyd in 1999, and it was a mess.

[Scoutfish]

Just got back home about an hour ago. I stayed a few miles up the road since I live about 100 yards off the waterway on the mainland side of Surf City.

 

Still a bit gusty here and there, but it's not quite as strong as your average Nor'Easter.

 

After walking around my house and yard and surveying the damage...I have concluded it is nothing the 'ole Briggs and Stratton can't handle. Sm,all braches and twigs and sprigs of leaves. Not even a whole branch down in my yard.

 

Driving the 3 miles home to my house, I noticed a few big pine treen branches down here or there and some ditches that were ready to flow over, but that's about it.

 

Nothing serious or severe. A summer of extreme dry conditions worked out well by sucking most of the water up as fast as it could fall.

 

WE came out with flying colors.

 

The convienence store my wife manages on the beach lost part of the canopy,

 

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/photo.php?fbid=10150288617628481&set=a.395771788480.160242.238214743480&type=1&theater

 

but considering it was a canopy, and one on the beach at that ( rust and corrosion) all I can say is this: If this is all we have to work on, we came out great!

 

Been through a many hurricanes in all the years I have lived here ( since 1977) , but this is the first hurricane that affected us that we were on the west side of. Usuall;y the totally miss us out to sea or we get a direct hit from the northeast quadrant.

 

Usually the back side is nothing , but Irene snorted and screamed for quite a while.

 

But at least for us, her bark was way worse than her bite.

[Scoutfish]

Eagle92

 

You might have a disadvantage though...flooding, streams overflowing their banks, ponds , sink holes?

Usually, the worst stuff we get from hurriucanes is storm surge or washover. Wind is secondary .

 

But drainage is our saving grace, being as we are right on the waterways and sounds and sea.

[Basementdweller]

Glad everyone is ok.......I was thinking about you guys when I woke up this morning.

[Nike]

My sister lives in VB, VA. She has 3 inches of water on her backyard but no wind damage yet.

[Eagle92]

Well we lost power around lunch. in-laws have power still, theirs never went out, so we are visiting. Driving over, we saw some wind damage. we expect some gusts until 3AM, so the boys are "camping" in the hallway again tonite.

 

All you folks up north be careful.

[shortridge]

I live a few minutes from Delaware's Atlantic coast, so my daughter and I have decamped about an hour north and inland to my parents' home. We're getting lashed by some pretty intense wind & rain right now, but the worst is yet to come overnight - the eye set to pass by the coast around 2-4 a.m. Hoping to get back home tomorrow afternoon to check out any damage. Fingers crossed for lots of folks tonight.

[Scoutfish]

Crossing my fingers for yah too shortridge!

 

Looks like my imediate ares really lucked out, but the more I watch the news, the more samaage I see for alot of areas.

 

They lifted all pre storm curfews in my areas alot sooner than planned due to minimal or non existant damages.

Wathing the news though, I am reading list after list of areas with no power, impassable raods, destryed roads and lots of flooding.

 

Eagle92, not sure of your exact area, but sounds like you might be in store for a bunch of cleaning up ahead of you.

 

 

Everybody be carefull and watch out for all the displaced critters and snakes lurking about when you clean up!

 

[Eagle92]

Update. Still nor power, and now no telephone. Spent morning cleaningup our yard and neighbor's. lots and lots of clean up to do in the city. Saw one house that missed getting hit by about 3-6 inches. saw a 30+ foot limb with a buch of branches suspended inthe air by powerlines. But we were very fortunate.

[CalicoPenn]

Though heading inland was the prudent thing to do, the irony is that the reports I've read and heard indicate that the worst of the damage was inland rather than along the coast.

 

One of our local meteorologists was on the radio this morning saying that he feels the hype on this storm is going to be more damaging in the long run than the actual storm damage. Based on the models, the storm did exactly what it did - hitting NC as a Cat 1 and dropping to a TS shortly thereafter - but the eastern media - no longer the sober and reserved group of folks it used to be (see Cronkite et. al.) really made this an overblown story - which is why Twocub's comment on Al Roker's hair is both funny and true.

 

It would be really interesting to compare the amount of coverage this storm received versus the amount of coverage the tornadoes that hit Joplin, MO and Alabama received.

 

 

[Scoutfish]

I call it "weather channel syndrome".

 

They go to a beach and act like the end of the world is coming because of

those funny movements in the water. Of course, most people know those movements as "waves".

Very normal common occurance.

 

Then the reporters freak out over the air. It moving and causing their hairspray helmets to shift and wiggle. Thing is, if they ever spent any actual time at the beach, the would know that the wind is almost always blowing, and blowing 10 to 15 miles an hour faster than anywhere else as there is a lack of trees or wind breaks.

 

Of course, after they determined that it was :

1) Not only a big storm...and

2) A very dangerous strom that was gonna get bigger....and

3) Going to be the most devastating storm in 40 years....and

4) Heading straight for NC......

 

They decided to talk about mthe Jersey Shore for 55 out of every 60 minutes!

 

There was alot of blowing wind, lots of surge and lots of high pressure - straight out of all the reporters mouths!

 

[BklynEagle]

Living in NY, I have to agree with all those posters who cite the zany Northeastern focus of the national media.

Watching some of the national broadcasters - CNN, MSNBC, etc. (CBS, NBC, etc. were pre-empted by the locals) - you'd have sworn NYC was looking at widespread destruction. When Irene arrived, it rained a little, a few tree branches broke, but that was largley that. Now, don't get me wrong, within NYC a few neighborhoods experienced flooding and lost power, and within the metro area there was some significant damage (certain towns in Long Island, New Jersey, and Connecticut are still under evacuation orders), but the effects, by and large, in no way met the hype, largely considering that the hype focused on the city. Now, I get the local media getting a bit antsy, particularly seeing as how the mayor had massively screwed up the response to our last major weather system, a post-Christmas blizzard that left everything outside Manhattan snowbound and on its own from at least 2 days to well over a week (I'm pleased to say that the response was far superior this time); but the NATIONAL media was deficient in its duties to the NATIONAL audience by not reporting the NATIONAL stories. Could you imagine if some of the current broadcasters had been reporting at the time of the London Blitz? Ed Murrow must be rolling in his grave.

 

I would ask one small favor, though - let's tone it down on Al Roker; he and I went to the same high school.