This. IIRC, we live like ten or twenty miles from you. my only real fear is power outages; we have friends inland that were without for more than two weeks after that ice storm a couple years ago. So I said “concerned” but “annoyed and prepared” would be more accurate.
I know you retracted this statement, but I just wanted to offer something for consideration. I grew up in Michigan, the land o’ blizzards, and was quite amused, at first, to see Philadelphia freak out over the most minor of snowfalls. Until I saw the way it actually affected the city. In Michigan, we’re used to that stuff happening all the time, so we have free-lance snow plows at the ready, backup plans for school cancellations and so forth. We have a pattern of doing things, the old tried and true. We know how to drive in it without killing ourselves. In Philadelphia, they do not have the capacity or resources to handle snow in large quantities. People do not know how to drive in these conditions, because they are unfamiliar with them, and even a 4’’ snowfall can cause a slew of accidents and delay traffic for hours. In other words, it is a disaster precisely because it is such a novel experience for everyone concerned.
So it goes with the hurricane situation. Floridians may scoff at a Level 1 or 2 hurricane, but Floridians have years and years of experience dealing with these sorts of disasters. The East Coast does not. That in and of itself will increase the potential ramifications of this storm.
Well, not ALL of the East Coast :). I think your point is right on, though. In Raleigh, a couple inches of snow pretty much paralyzes the city, because we have almost no equipment to deal with it and a lot of people who have no experience with the driving.
I am from Michigan where we have no poisonous snakes or spiders to worry about. We don’t get earthquakes or tornadoes to sweat either. NO volcanos .No hurricanes.
But when I was in Florida ,I was in a hurricane. The eye went right over our head. It was a windy rain storm that screamed for a long time, and went calm for a few minutes. Then the winds restarted ,blowing the opposite way. I thought ,here we go again. I watched trees bow over to the wind in one direction, then bow back after the eye passed. I believe it was a 1 when it hit us, but it was still scary.
We were in a motel watching from the second floor balcony.
We’ve been getting a steady rain and moderate winds for the past couple hours. No big deal. It’s supposed to pick up this afternoon as it gets closer, but what An Arky said: it’s a Cat 1, and will weaken over land. Even at its local worst, it shouldn’t be a big deal.
Done all the standard prep, now just relaxing with the family.
I’ll bet you did!
You can go a whole lifetime without ever having timing that perfect. Great story!
Looking at the map, we’re now on the back end of the storm. Weather in Charlotte is partly cloudy with a light breeze. Good kite-flying weather. Per the predictions, we haven’t even gotten any rain out of it all.
I’m in NYC. I live very close to both rivers and about a block away from the boundary of an evacuation zone.
That said, my deli and my gym are both open tomorrow. That’s about good enough for me.
I did buy a botanica candle this morning for shits and grins.
the problem with phila is the wackadoodle mind set that people think they live in southern california. it doesn’t rain, snow, hail, or have dead of night. i’ve never understood it. we do get snow in philly, all the time, small amounts though. when it gets above 6" there just isn’t anywhere to put it. no lawns, no open areas to dump the snow.
that is the main problem. when you have a one ox street, with a one person pavement where do you put the snow? the ox streets are stuck, then the wagon streets get stuck, and it isn’t until you get to a 2 lane street that things open up.
“ox” and “wagon” streets were never plowed until recently, like the last 2 years. now they use small bulldozers and back hoes to clear them. until then it was usually hand shovels and a group of neighbours from the block.
It’s been raining in DC for a few hours (though not very hard), wind just now starting to pick up a bit. The worst isn’t supposed to come through until later, though.
I’ve gotta say, I understand scoffing at the Chicken Little mentality, but a lot of people in my apartment complex have parked their cars under large trees. Avoiding this would seem, in my view, to be at least a bare minimum of preparation. We have had three storms in the past year where multiple cars were smashed by falling branches.
Maybe they figure all the weak branches are gone by now. 
I’ve heard two meteorologists on tv say that this was the “storm of the century”. They said the same thing about the last two hurricanes that his the area, and a snowstorm that hit here a few years ago.
I really hate media hype and it seems to be going full force now. I also hate it when the so called “experts” on tv go thru 20 different scenarios, all of which a little more devastating than the previous one.
Turns out Dad replaced his clunky old gas chainsaw with a “nice” electric model a few months back, the gas saw just crapped out, it was a cheapo Homelite or something, part of the electrical system just burnt out
The electric saw is decent enough for small limb work, but can’t handle larger branches or tree limbs, also, if the power goes out and the generator runs out of fuel due to an extended power outage (the genny can run about 4 days at half load, 2.5 at full load) and we aren’t able to get our 200 gallon propane tanks refilled, we won’t be able to cut down fallen limbs until the power comes back on…
okay, fine, I admit it, I was looking for an excuse to buy my own chainsaw anyway, so this afternoon, I stopped off at a local small engine shop/Agway and picked up a Stihl MS-180 31CC light/medium duty homeowner’s chainsaw, certainly better than an electric saw, and far better than the saws sold in the Big Box MartDepots
The difference was dramatic, the saw in question was the same price as the one I was looking at at the Megalomartdepot, but this saw was already assembled, they even took it out back, fueled it up, filled the bar oil resivoir, started it up, performed some test cuts on a huge maple log, and went over the basics with me as how to maintain it, I got a tested, assembled, ready-to-go saw and a bit of safety and maintenance instruction for the price of an unassembled, untested, bone dry saw from the big box store, plus, the local shop is less than five minutes from home
Of course, now that I’m an owner of a chainsaw that means three things…
1; Irene will pass to the west of us and we won’t even get major wind gusts
2; We won’t have any fallen tree limbs to cut down
3; the saw will gather dust for the next year or so
In fact, the only thing I’m wondering about now is if I should mow the lawn before Almost Unnoticeable Breeze Irene wafts through the area, perhaps distressing a few maple leaves in the process…
Oh, yeah; I’m a scoffer and all, but trees and big limbs can fall in less severe conditions than we’re going to see, so moving the car makes sense, and doesn’t require hoarding. 
I’m in Richmond and voted ‘not concerned.’ Although I do hope the power doesn’t go out, I’m not worried about property damage or safety or anything like that.
Hell, I moved our cars the 25 feet or so to the end of the driveway next to the road, just to modestly reduce the chance of a tree falling on them.
And about 5 minutes ago, a middlin’ heavy limb bounced against the side of the house, just the other side of the wall in front of me, on its way down.
If I had a nice open space to park my cars in, away from any trees at all, they’d be there. Can’t move the house away from the trees, but the cars are another story.
ETA: the wind really picked up here, right around 2pm. Lying on my back, looking out the window, all I can think is, as Neil Young said, it’s a wonder tall trees ain’t layin’ down. Whatever it is that keeps them upright when their tops are whipping around this way and that in the wind, I’m impressed by it.
I was in Raleigh during Fran and my neighbors had friends from the coast of NC that moved their (very nice) cars up here to keep them away from the worst of the storm. Both cars had huge oak trees land on them. Oops.
As pathetic and incompetent power companies in this area are, we can’t put all the blame on them. 3-8" of rain and moderate wind is going to make it difficult for a lot of trees to, uh, stand their ground. Even a good power company would have difficulty with how many trees are ready to go down and kill power lines. Remember the ice storm in 2008? When it hit KY a few days later they lost power for longer than we did and they didn’t have our pitiful power companies.
I’ve downgraded back to concerned. I’ve been watching weather sites, and heard a very clear explanation of why this storm will not affect my area the way that Hurricane Isabel did in 2003. (I moved here after that, but am aware of how much damage was done.)
We’re inland enough that what’s predicted here is 40mph winds and heavy rain. When I was panicking I was fearful of flooding. We still may well lose power, but that doesn’t make me as uneasy as the prospect of 2’ of standing water in my store.
I’m in Maine and while I’m a little concerned, I’m looking forward to it. I’m not worried about flooding because I’m on a hill but the power will definitey go out being as it goes out without any visible cause quite freqently. There are several large trees within crushing distance of my wooden house but they’re maples with fairly deep root systems so I’m only a wee bit concerned. Around here, it’s mostly pines that come down. Of course, they could lose some major branches which could do some damage.
Right now, it’s just cloudy with a very slight breeze. I’m hoping it holds off until Monday so I can skive off work…
…so I moved my car into the driveway (not because of the storm, oddly enough), and a largish limb fell right where my car was parked on the street, hahaha! It wasn’t big enough to cause any serious damage, but it would’ve dinged it up some.
No damage, no power outage, no worries, thankfully.