Well, the clouds have moved in, the wind is blowing, and there are sudden drizzles. The hurricane, she is a-movin’ ashore.
If any of you Dopers who are going to be in or near this thing want to post updates from your area here, that would be great.
I’m in Greenville NC, which is going to be one of the first places inland that’ll be hit. Everyone’s running around getting last minute things done: battery resupplies, toilet pater runs, trips to the ABC store. I volunteered down at the Humane Society today where all the animals are wild and crazy. They’ve all got fresh food and water to tide them over tomorrow. East Carolina University is closed until Monday and this time they remembered to tell the Freshmen not to park in the lower lots! (A couple of cars got washed away in Floyd.) Most people are gunshy because we haven’t had a hurricane since 1999 and memories of the flooding have suddenly become bright and clear.
As for me, I have water in the fridge, the gerbils have food, there’s a chicken in the oven, comprehensive insurance on my car, and I’m wearing sunglasses. Let’s roll.
The Federal Goverment has announced it will be closed tomorrow, as will many of the DC-area schools. As of this writing, there are still a few schools that will open but plan to close at 11AM.
Metro is going to suspend all bus and above-ground rail service at 11AM.
Cupbord is stocked with canned goods and we do have a manual opener somewhere.
University of Maryland isn’t saying yet whether or not they’ll close. They’ll update the website at 6 am tomorrow morning though. I really hope they close campus, because my organic chemistry prof said he’s giving the test tomorrow no matter what :eek:. (Well, unless they cancel all classes, obviously.) I’d rather not have to choose between academic success and going outside in a hurricane, so here’s hoping they close.
No matter what, I’ll try to post updates unless the phone service goes out.
Arrgh. I just got home from work. Let me tell you, if you have prescriptions to get filled, be prepared to wait. We normally have a minute or two wait, but today it was up to 30 minutes. :eek: People were going ballistic. And I’m supposed to go in tomorrow, where undoubtedly the slacker who called in sick today will call in sick tomorrow. I hope he gets fired.
Baltimore area schools (well, public schools) will be closed tomorrow. Which means any parents that are off will be rushing to the pharmacy to have their prescriptions filled.
I communicate with folks in the metro DC area (I’m on the west coast now), and they are shutting down their computer server Thurs. afternoon through part of Fri. to prevent any possible problems due to the hurricane. Good luck, everyone.
Well, I’m waiting for Isabel in scenic Newport News, Virginia (yeah, yeah, I know, never heard of it; we’re about ten miles from Norfolk). I’m riding the storm out in a friend’s house; it’s 80+ years old and has seen its share of hurricanes, so I figured it would be safer than my rickety, east-facing, 3rd floor apartment. We’re pretty well-stocked: batteries, water, non-perishable food, and a couple of bottles of tequila. It’s important to Be Prepared for these things, you know.
Right now there’s nothing but a gentle breeze and some spitting rain. We’re expecting 50-80 mph winds and possible tornados by late Thursday afternoon, though. The local forecasts are kind of funny; one station says we’ll be OK, another say we’ll get some serious weather, another says we’ll be fine unless the forecast is off a bit, in which case the storm will be the worst to hit this area in a hundred years. :eek: I’m here for the duration regardless. Overall, I’m (very) cautiously optimistic, although there are a couple of gigantic oak trees in the back yard that have me worried.
Still, no matter how bad it gets here, coastal NC is going to get the worst of it. Good luck, SpazCat, and keep your head down. I’ll keep you in my thoughts, and remember: interior rooms and mattresses.
Here in Durham, NC (actually almost exactly on the line between Raleigh and Durham) the winds are starting to pick up quite a bit and the rain is coming in sprinkles. We fully expect it to get nastier by the hour, reaching the worst by late afternoon.
We’re having sprinkling and light gusts right now…in a few minutes (after COFFEE) Imunna throw on some jeans and shoes and go out. Gotta bring in that stuff I talked about up ^ there.
They’re saying sand is blowing about pretty badly down at the beach. The news/weather is on, and I’m REALLY glad the kids have nonexistant attention spans…
"Mom! There are going to be tornadoes! Eek! scared noises…
The Bronx–25 mph winds and very gray and chilly, no rain yet. Winds supposed to hit 60 by the end of the day, which is unfortunately when I’m supposed to be going to a networking meeting downtown. I don’t know what to do. My neighborhood is full of beautiful old trees which may have some bad branches, and downtown is full of buildings which should be just fine but surrounded by scaffolding which may not be. Once the 59th Street station on the subway was closed because stuff was blowing off the AOL Time Warner (or whatever its name is as of yesterday) building construction site and hitting workers–and that was just with 25mph winds.
But I do feel for you guys in the path. Folks up here are thinking of and praying for you; local news is following the story very closely.
I am sitting right in the middle of the outer bands. Right now it’s just very rainy with wind gusts of mumblemumble MPH. Not too bad a-tall. I notice, however, that the back corner of the parking lot remains the Flooded Corner and the tiny scratch in the dirt the contractors called a ditch does nothing to stop this flooding. I foresee a call to the apartment manager about this.
Wear long sleeves when it gets to you. It’s chilly.
The eyewall’s just about to hit Morehead City. Here it’s rainier, windier, and ducks could comfortably swim in the parking lot. Even Raleigh’s getting this. I love it.
The eye is currently over Greenville. Looks like the bulk of the storm is moving north. For those of you in Virginia and Maryland, get inside. We got the first part of the good out for you.
so what did everyone do while boarded up inside? My friends and I hopped from hurricane party to hurricane party. Grabbed a bottle of Danzka vodka (its aluminum and less likely to shatter… just in case) and saw some friends. It was a like a big ass block party for a while.
we had a pretty big time of it during our hurricane party as well… we sat around and playing drinking games in between going out side to try and have a tree fall on us… it is amazing how stupid people get when we drink… oh well… murky, is danzka the one that has a grapefruit flavor? my girlfriend loves that stuff
