I am reading on one of the meteorologists’ forums that Irene is still traveling over water that is warm (gulf coast current?), and the eye is now off shore.
But, I just try to read everything I can, and then make up my own mind.
When I was a young’s, I had to ride out a hurricane that made it all the way up to Maine, on a relatively small sailboat. We had run all the way up into a small inland harbor trying to get safe, and I have never forgotten the experience.
I doubt the winds were much stronger than Irene’s.
That said, the huge size of this storm, and the slowness of it’s movement make it somewhat unusual. I do hope you nay-sayers are correct, and this is going to turn out to be a whole bunch of nothing.
But, what if you are wrong, and someone takes you as a guru, fails to evacuate, only to find out that they are in big puppy trouble?
To be sure the only things I say NAY to are (1) overwrought emotionalism and (2) knocking fellow Freepers, beyond some utilitarian limit.
My motto is, if you get a mandatory evacuation order, you do it, end of story. Voluntary, means you can wait and see for a while.
Actually a 16 mph forward speed is anything but slow for storm movement. Slow would be 3-5 mph or stalled as they sometimes do.