Hurricane Ophelia headed my way

[Island Blue]

Well, I've secured the loose things in my yard, purchased the obligatory hurricane junk food, and now all that's left to do is wait. This is and EXTREMELY slow moving storm, but it looks like it will hit the area that I live in sometime late tomorrow or Thursday. From what most forecasters are saying it will make landfall south of here and then travel up the Sounds before exiting back into the ocean. Even though this storm in a minimal Cat 1, the fact that it is traveling up the Sounds is really a worse case scenario for us. Having said that though, this is a Cat 1 and not a Katrina so while I expect we'll get some flooding, loss of power and maybe some wind damage, we won't get shear devastation. (That's the good news.) Oh the joys of living on the coast!

At least I know that if we need help, FEMA will be here lickity split to lend a hand! :sarcasm:

[whometense]

1. Good luck!

Our house has a tendency to flood during those slow-moving storms (low lying area), so I HATE them.

I hope it will be nothing but a nuisance!!!! :-)

[politicasista]

2. Be safe Island Blue

:grouphug:

[karynnj]

3. Stay safe

Actually FEMA night respond very very well - like in school if you failed a test, you focus more on the next.

[fedupinBushcountry]

4. Good luck

I'm up the road in Virginia Beach. The one thing I don't like is its slow movement. I think it was Isabel that was also a slow mover and did quite a bit of damage, and it hugged the coast for days. So I am keeping a good watch on it.

Going up the Sounds is bad news that's for sure. Just took a look at the radar it is pretty big, we have had rain off and on all day.

Good luck and don't get to wet, for that FEMA stands for:

F- fishy
E- emotionless
M- money men
A- absent

P.S. thats the best I could come up with. lol

[blm]

5. Floyd was a slow mover, too, and it hung around for a week, flooding

an enormous area.

It was like The THING THAT WOULDN'T LEAVE.

[fedupinBushcountry]

8. I think

Floyd was the one that flooded I-95 and a few towns in North Carolina, and they were poor towns, it was awful. I think it was Isabel that they showed Brian Williams being blown away at the oceanfront, that was hilarious. :rofl:

[sandnsea]

6. Hang On!!!

All I can think of is... cow!!

(Yeah, that was a tornado, but still)

[Island Blue]

7. Thanks for all of the well wishes!

Right now it looks like Hatteras Island (the southern part of my county) might get hit the worst - again. Isabel was a strange storm because it did lots of damage in some places (like Hatteras), and missed other places entirely (except of course for the wind and rain). I know it caused a lot of damage and power outages west of here and on up into VA.

Hurricane Floyd really did a lot of damage west of here. Flooding mostly. My best friend's MIL lost her house in that one and she lives about 125 miles from the coast.

Take care Beachmom & Fedup if this one heads up your way!

[TayTay]

9. Be safe and report back in when it passes

because we tend to worry about all our Kerrycrats.

I hope it passes by harmlessly.

[whometense]

10. I hope you're doing okay.

I just heard on the radio that a lot of people have their power out, and that there's more rain than they anticipated. Be well.

[Island Blue]

11. So far, so good

I live pretty far north, so the storm hasn't reached us yet. It's windy and we've had a few rain squalls but that's it so far. I think we are supposed to get the worst of it after 10 p.m. tonight (oh joy)and it will continue pretty much all day tomorrow. I'm worried about the folks on Hatteras Island down south, they always take a beating.

[whometense]

12. The longer it holds off, the better.

I'm glad you're still out of most of it.

[sandnsea]

13. How is everybody?

Did I miss the storm update thread?

[beachmom]

14. It's getting windier here in VB, but it should hit us tomorrow

Isabel caused some damage to our house (it stripped off some of the vinyl siding), but the biggest annoyance about it was the power being out for 4 days. That's why my heart goes out to the poor Iraqis, who in Baghdad have a power situation of 4 hours off, 2 hours on.

We've also taken the patio furniture and toys off the deck, but at this point, I don't think this thing will be too bad. We don't live in a flood zone. But I am counting on no power at some point tomorrow.

I'm just glad that Mark Warner is my governor, because obviously FEMA is useless (they were pretty much useless for Isabel, too).

I'll check in tomorrow if I still have power.

[globalvillage]

16. Good luck to you, beachmom.

Stay safe.
:pals:

[fedupinBushcountry]

17. Just a wait and see situation

Isabel was a surprise it hugged the coast and was also a slow mover a lot like Ophelia. We were of the few who did not lose electricity, I don't know how that happened, a few blocks in our area had electricity and everyone else was out. But we did the neighborly thing as did the rest of the neighborhood and ran extension chords to our neighbors without. But we also lost a lot of siding and our tree in the front yard, I remember we had to move my car out of the driveway so the tree wouldn't fall on it. A house in the court behind us were not so lucky, there tree fell right through their roof.

I remember we also had a curfew for a few nights, mainly to prevent, now should I mention that word, oh yeah looting, like it never happens. My son lived down in Oceanview and had to evacuate and his house was broken into before the storm even got here.

[Island Blue]

18. It's still really calm here

Points south have been taking a real beating though. I'm with you Beachmom, I'm glad we have a good DEMOCRATIC governor (Mike Easley). He seems to have things well in hand and was prepared ahead of time. (Of course it helps I suppose when the storm is moving 2 mph and you have lots of time to prepare.)

Actually I feel pretty safe because I just saw Jim Cantorie on the Weather Channel and he was 10 miles or so up the road from here. He's usually where the storm isn't, so that's good news (hopefully).

[globalvillage]

15. Stay safe, IB

and other shore-dwellers.

:hug:

Try imagining a place where it's always safe and warm.
"Come in," she said,
"I'll give you shelter from the storm."

-Bob Dylan

[jillan]

19. Be careful all of you on the coast!!!

I'm sending good wishes your way.

Please check in here and let us know how things are going.

[TayTay]

20. And even more good wishes

Be safe. My prayers are with you that this turns out to be a little rain and wind and nothing more.

[Firespirit]

21. If anyone in the path of it is able to read this...

Here's the advice of another person who experienced Cat 1 hurricane winds: Be careful in cleaning up. Stay away from broken limbs that have not yet fallen to the ground, stay well clear of ANY downed poles and lines, don't go into pools of water unless you can see everything that's submerged (lots of completely unnecessary deaths occur when people venture into puddles containing live power lines), and fergoodnesssakes stay out of the yard while there's wind, unless there is literally no possible debris that could come hurtling at you. :P

[Island Blue]

22. Storm Update

We really dodged a bullet with this one! There were areas south of here (on the NC mainland coast) that received some wind and water damage (no major flooding though) but my area escaped with only wind and rain. The storm turned out to sea sooner than expected, so that was good news!

I heard yesterday that Shrub had already ordered FEMA to get set up in advance of the storm actually hitting - I guess maybe my Governor learned the magic phrase for getting the administration* to offer assistance from the Katrina debacle.

Anyway, just thought I'd give everyone an update. Thanks for all of the well wishes!

[TayTay]

23. Yeah, I heard it was going to impact NE as a Trop Storm

And they shoudl batten down the hatches in Nanctucket. (If they have hatches there, I was only there once and didn't look too closely.)

[Island Blue]

24. I've never been to Nantucket

but it seems like the kind of place that would have hatches. Hopefully it will drift it's unorganized self on out to sea now. (The storm, not Nantucket.)

[sandnsea]

25. Good to hear

Our rainy season starts in a few weeks, but we only get bad wind storms once every few years. I think that's why we're not so religious up here in the northwest, we haven't got any storms that put the fear of god into ya!