It’s “historic!” donja know.
Was at church earlier and a friend there (who’s stepson is in the military and situated 140 miles inland in North Carolina) said an entire shopping mall complex collapsed inward on itself earlier. And, again, that’s 140 miles inland.
The latest reports are that Irene is 500 miles wide.
Not sure if I believe the warnings are overblown.
Let’s see how many folks say that 24 hours from now.
1. By the time Irene gets to New York City, it will be a mere meteorological annoyance, perhaps a tropical storm or depression. And,
2. That will not stop the torrential storm of looters and thieves who will not be denied this opportunity for street justice and wealth re-distribution.
(I'd love to be wrong on 2.)
.
I've been in bigger thunderstorms than this little pea shooter.
My car literally got flattened by hail.
Never let a crisis go to waste.
But...But where will the homeless beg for money?? Obama stimulus to the rescue!! How many Billions will it be this time to spread the wealth??
Bad weather, no matter where, or what type, is nothing to just ignore.
If it weren't for the need of the media and the WH to hype every incident that they think could benefit them personally, it would be easier to get some straight info as to what is happening across the East Coast.
As it is, we are limited to the only decent source. Free Republic.
The democratic machine is well oiled and evil/ the trains are down so the looter population can’t get to the loot.
What are people doing for food? Is McDonald's still open?
Anybody else get the imnpression that this will turn into a plain old heavy rainstorm?
Doesn’t shutting down the subways leave people no option but to stand upstairs IN the storm hoping for a bus to come along?
Tornados and earthquakes and hurricanes, oh my!
Heh. In Oklahoma we call 80 mph winds a thunderstorm. My pity level for the east coasters is negative 5. Send some rain this way.....sissies.
Where will people get their sandwiches?
Does anyone have information on conditions in Chincoteague, VA like how much tidal surge, or wind damage?
Dudicane (central-eastern LI)
I am appalled by some of the comments on this thread! I live in Jacksonville, NC, which as the crow flies is only about 15-20 miles inland from the coast. We are south of where Irene made landfall and our portion of the coast does not jut out as far as Cape Lookout, but it started raining Friday evening and continued to rain until about 6:00 pm on Saturday. At times the rain was some of the hardest I have seen in my over 60 years of life. It is estimated that our county got 12 inches of rain during that period and some areas got as much as 15 inches. There is widespread flooding on the coast, but the recent severe drought allowed the inland areas to absorb much of that extra water. In contrast, the ground in the Northeast is more saturated.
The wind continued to blow all Saturday afternoon with occasional gusts of up to 70 miles per hour long after the eye of the storm had passed over. Several tornadoes were reported in the state as well. There is always the possibility that any hurricane can spawn tornadoes. I saw video of one house that was completely demolished by a tornado which is cetainly a significant event in the lives of the family that lived there. Our power went out at 9 am and, thankfully, came back on about 7:30 pm, but people who live in the Outer Banks will be without power well into next week or longer.
I have lived in Eastern NC since 1957 and have been through many hurricanes, several of which were had stronger winds than Irene, but I do not remember one that was such a large, slow moving rain event. One meteorologist who has been at the same TV station for at least 30 years kept saying the same thing as we were listening to him over the radio since the power was out. There were not that many deaths because, unlike the people of New Orleans, the people of NC know how to prepare for hurricanes and local and state governments order MANDATORY evacuations of low lying areas. The high rise bridges which lead to the beach are closed when wind gusts reach 45 mph, so the people know that they stay on the beach at their own risk and that no one will come to rescue them until after the storm passes.
I know that the media frequently hype things and desire to do all they can to give Obama another excuse for his abject failure as POTUS, but I would caution the freepers not to make light of the unusual weather event we in NC have just experienced! We believe that when she gets finished with the east coast of the US, Irene will prove to be one for the record books!