Hurricane Irene's Effect on Carolinas & New England

[Foy]

Fellow Travelers:

At present, Hurricane Irene shows a forecast track which could affect Eastern Seaboard travel from Friday August 26 through Sunday August 29, possibly into Monday the 30th.

I suggest watching the National Hurricane Center's website for the several times per day updates, generally at 11 and 5 in both the morning nighttime hours. Of considerable value there are the "wind field" forecast maps, as they give the probabilities of a particular location's likelihood of experiencing damaging winds, which in turns tends to predict falling trees and power outages.

For those of us in central and eastern NC and VA, this looks ominous. Be ready. I bought two new chains for my chainsaw this morning and I test-fired my generator last night. I'll be purchasing propane and gasoline by Thursday & Friday if the present track forecast doesn't change. We were without power for 9 days after Hurricane Fran in 1996 and for 11 days after the 2002 ice storm. It's much more bearable with some minimal amount of electricity (TV, radio, refrigerator, a few lights), and cooking fuel.

Foy

[Mark Sedenquist]

Foy,

I've been tracking it and watching the winds aloft... This could get interesting.

Sounds like you're well on the path of being ready.

If Irene comes ashore, we will look forward to any posts you can make (assuming you can keep the power on!).

Mark

[Foy]

The 11 am NHC update shows tracking further east than was estimated as of 20-24 hours ago. Now estimated to cross eastern NC and the southeast corner of Virginia--directly over our family's beach house on Chesapeake Bay at 8 am Sunday am! If that holds, I've got to get up there to board up.

Ocracoke Island along the Outer Banks is under mandatory evacuation starting at 0500 EDT tomorrow (Wednesday). Travelers may recall Ocracoke is accessible only by ferry so it's the first to get the "bug out" orders.

And to make it all better, we just had a significant earthquake! No kidding, at 1:55 pm EDT I felt about 30 seconds of shaking here in Raleigh. USGS reports a 5.9 magnitude quake epicentered between Charlottesville and Richmond, VA, some 170 miles due north of Raleigh.

More later,

Foy

[Mark Sedenquist]

My goodness, that's a big quake.

You'll like seeing this! This is a page I look at every single day!

Mark

[Foy]

......but I guess I'll just have to.

CNN now reporting 5.9 consistently where they'd reported 5.8-6.0 previously. The North Anna Nuclear Power Plant, built in the early 1970s, is 20 miles north of the shallow epicenter, and CNN reports they're shut down as a safety precaution.

I haven't seen Jane Fonda, Michael Douglas, or Jack Lemmon running around yet, so I don't suppose it's risen to a "China Syndrome" level of severity, but that's the strongest quake I recall hearing of in these parts, at least the strongest I recall hearing of since the East Coast benchmark, the estimated 7.3 quake near Charleston, SC in 1888.

Foy

[glc]

Foy, I think you should get up there and get boarded up NOW - so you can get in, get your materials, get it done, and get out while you can!

[Mark Sedenquist]

I second that.... I think it's going a wild, wild weekend!

Mark

[Foy]

Foy, I think you should get up there and get boarded up NOW - so you can get in, get your materials, get it done, and get out while you can!

Thanks guys,

The board-up materials are neatly stored in the garage, right down to the Tapcon anchors and drywall screws, affixed to the lumber in big Ziploc bags. All we need to board up is two sets of windows on the Bay side, the side which is oriented due north. I even marked the plywood in "1,2,3" fashion for ease of re-assembly before I took it down following Hurricane Isabel in 2003. I don't think I've got more than 2-2.5 hours of effort for 2 old men (one of whom is me) to have the whole thing up, the refrigerator emptied, the power cut-off, and the deck and yard cleared of future missles. This ain't our first rodeo.

The forecast is looking better and better for Va Beach in terms of storm tracking, but the arrival of the wind field and passing of the eye is now moved up several hours. Still, I'm confident that the plan to arrive by 4pm Friday will allow for full prep, a visit with the neighbors, a decent night's sleep, and to be on the road back to NC by 0600 Saturday. The Lower Bay area should start getting windy fairly early in the day Saturday, and we'll be long gone.

I do need to look in to the corrugated "quick mount" shutters, however. They'd be up in 30 minutes, or less. They're a little spendy, however.

Foy

[Foy]

The island town of Ocracoke (first island below Cape Hatteras and accessible only by ferry) went under mandatory evacuation for tourists about 24 hours ago (0530 Wednesday). Residents are required to leave starting today.

The county immediately north of Ocracoke, Dare County, which includes all of Hatteras Island, Nags Head, Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills, Southern Shores, and Duck, is now under tourist evacuation orders as of 0800 today (Thursday). Currituck County, which starts just north of Duck and includes Corolla and Carova Beach (the latter accessed solely by the so-called "beach road", where the beach is actually the road, right down to speed limit signs and radar-wielding deputies) is the more worrisome call, as it can take many hours, on a GOOD DAY, to traverse the 25 miles of the single 2-lane highway from Corolla south to US 158 Bypass at Southern Shores, where the Wright Brothers Memorial Bridge then connects to the Mainland and points north. I think if I were a "Saturday to Saturday" renter this week, I'd be bugging out today, and fairly early, at that. I can easily imagine 6 to 8 hours, or more, to get off the island tomorrow. Currituck County officials have still not made tourist evacuation mandatory, as I type this shortly after 0600 EDT Thursday.

Foy

[glc]

Foy, it's not my place to try to tell you what to do, but I really think you should take tomorrow off and get your butt up there TONIGHT to take care of things. NC is already under a state of emergency east of I-95.

EDIT: VA is now under a state of emergency too.