Hurricane Irene

[hawing]

Since Irene (the storm) is not forecast to hit Wisconsin, I thought better of posting about it in the Wisconsin spring/summer/fall weather thread.

But it certainly looks like disruption on the way. I'm glad the Brewers are not on an east coast trip.

 

Those of you in the path, take care.

[LouisEly]

Just returned from the grocery store and the liquor store so I am adequately stocked with food and beverage. Building codes require windows on high rises to withstand winds of up to 120mph; only supposed to get up to 75mph where I am. Windows face north, not east, so winds won't be coming at them directly, they will be coming at an angle. The complex, just like any complex I'd expect Eli Manning to live in*, has backup generators; they test them every week and they were working on Wednesday.

 

I'm on the 7th floor, so if I have an issue with flooding the only thing I will need is an ark.

 

 

*Fun fact - Eli Manning has the exact same unit number as I do in the other building. His windows face directly east though.

[Funketown]

Not to bad here in Chapel Hill, NC. It's looking like we'll get 30-40 MPH wind and 3" of rain or so. Nevertheless, I'm putting frozen gallons of water in my freezer and putting batteries in my flashlights. This is one time I'm happy we're 150 miles from the ocean.

[fondybrewfan]

I don't get all the hype around this storm; its only a Category 1/2. The media is makling it sound like Katrina and NYC is going to fall into the ocean. I don't want underestimate the power of even a Category 1, but this storm seems be overblown only because of the region effected.

[trwi7]

fondybrewfan wrote:

---

I don't get all the hype around this storm; its only a Category 1/2. The media is makling it sound like Katrina and NYC is going to fall into the ocean. I don't want underestimate the power of even a Category 1, but this storm seems be overblown only because of the region effected.

I agree with this. There were breaking news reports on NBC, CBS and ABC all day over a category 2 at most hurricane. I understand it's projected path is towards New York but how strong is it really going to be at that point? Report on it, I understand that. Make it sound like a category 5 is bearing down on the entire Eastern Seaboard? Shut up and stop with the dramatics.

[SZBrewerFan]

That is just the News media being.....well....the News media. Every time they open their mouth they overblow the situation. You need to only look back a few days with the "east coast earthquake". I had Fox on and the female anchor was talking about the "breaking news" like the east coast got hit with a 9.0 and the devestation was going to be tremendous. Not making this political, but whatever side they happen to fall on, those on the other side might as well be the devil. Seriously, sometimes I think they would rather watch the country suffer and report on it than for the people on the other side of the aisle to get something right and praise them for it. It's not even really news anymore its "here's 20 seconds of what happened and let me tell you how you should think." It's almost embarrassing to watch.

[owbc]

I haven't watched any news coverage but I have spent many hours looking at weather data for this storm. It really had the potential to be a devastating storm and the serious nature of the warnings was well warranted. Irene is going to cause very serious flooding and probably do close to $10 billion in damage, which would place it within the top 10 most expensive US hurricanes of all time. Fortunately, it takes almost a perfect track to do serious damage to NY/New England, and the landfall in NC is probably going to reduce the storm surge enough to avoid the most catastrophic scenarios like the flooding of the NYC subways. But this isn't a Katrina or Wilma or anything like that.

 

The main problem is not the power of the storm, it is the number of people living in flood-prone areas which are sensitive to even a weaker storm.

[Invader3K]

That is just the News media being.....well....the News media. Every time they open their mouth they overblow the situation. You need to only look back a few days with the "east coast earthquake". I had Fox on and the female anchor was talking about the "breaking news" like the east coast got hit with a 9.0 and the devestation was going to be tremendous. Not making this political, but whatever side they happen to fall on, those on the other side might as well be the devil. Seriously, sometimes I think they would rather watch the country suffer and report on it than for the people on the other side of the aisle to get something right and praise them for it. It's not even really news anymore its "here's 20 seconds of what happened and let me tell you how you should think." It's almost embarrassing to watch.

This is why I rarely watch the news on television anymore. It's just designed to get people riled up and emotional, rather than actually inform viewers.

[tristarscoop]

I was just watching SportsCenter and they showed some "dramatic footage" that involved a basic rainstorm and they expressed surprise that upon hitting land the hurricane had been downgraded to a Category 1.

 

That's what hurricanes do when they hit land!

[LouisEly]

The issue with NYC is that the island and whole area is a very low-lying area. It isn't so much the storm as the rain. There isn't much of an area for the rain to go. Tunnels and subways could flood. If winds get up over 60mph they will have to close the bridges. Winds coupled with sea swell could cause major waves that could easily go over onto the island.

 

I'm right on the water's edge so I'll have a first-hand view of everything. Rain is starting already...

[carniesandrubes]

It's one of those times where you know the media is secretly hoping that it was a huge storm. Now with it weakening this morning and no real chance of getting stronger as it moves north, they'll have to do their overblown "breaking news" about some wind and rain when it hits NY that'll be not much more than a heavy thunderstorm.

[Funketown]

According to the Weather Channel, 25-30 MPH winds (40 MPH gusts) with a warm drizzle is high threat. I'm betting they'd call a class 3 something like a MEGA-ARMAGEDDON-EXPLOSION-CODE-RED.

[Invader3K]

Reminds me of that one King of the Hill where they're waiting for a tornado to hit, and the local channel is calling it "Killstorm '97!" or something like that.

[LouisEly]

A Carnival cruise ship is departing right now, heading right into it... that's kind of surprising. While now they are saying winds of 50-60 mph tomorrow, I don't know that I would be comfortable in any kind of boat heading into that.

 

The big question mark though is going to be the rain.

[dadofandrew]

While I'm sure there's some danger if you happen to be where the worst part comes ashore, if it was about to hit the Nebraska/Kansas/Dakotas area, this would be story #7 on the news. The old media still thinks it's the United Eastern States of America.

[LouisEly]

While I'm sure there's some danger if you happen to be where the worst part comes ashore, if it was about to hit the Nebraska/Kansas/Dakotas area, this would be story #7 on the news. The old media still thinks it's the United Eastern States of America.

Tell that to the 1,000,000 people who are without power in NC, VA, and MD, and the woman who lost her 11 year old son when a tree fell on their apartment building. The storm hasn't even hit NYC yet.

 

When those areas flooded earlier this year, it wasn't #7 on the news. You aren't here Al, so you don't know what it's really like.

[ReverendBrewmeister]

A Carnival cruise ship is departing right now, heading right into it... that's kind of surprising. While now they are saying winds of 50-60 mph tomorrow, I don't know that I would be comfortable in any kind of boat heading into that.

During hurricanes, the US Navy has typically sent out its fleet from Norfolk, VA in order to avoid being damaged while in port. There's likely some similar thinking with cruise ships. I'd imagine that one of those would wreak some havoc on the harbor piers if moved by winds and storm surge. Won't be fun for the crew and passengers--if any--but its better than millions of dollars of damage or dealing with a sunk vessel in New York Harbor.

[owbc]

Just noticed Irene's MSLP is still 951 mb. That is typical of a high-end Category 3. So there is still going to be significant wind, rain, and storm surge in New York. Definitely not a storm to take lightly. The center is also back over water. While intensification is unlikely, any weakening is going to be very slow and it will still be a hurricane or close to it upon reaching NYC.

[tristarscoop]

One thing a friend pointed out is that for the most part, the cities in the South are spread out, so when a hurricane hits, it hits one area and that's it. Irene is going to hit NC, Boston, DC and New York. Irene is going to be a big deal because of the size of the population its affecting and the amount of damage it can do in a small area.

[LouisEly]

Just noticed Irene's MSLP is still 951 mb. That is typical of a high-end Category 3. So there is still going to be significant wind, rain, and storm surge in New York. Definitely not a storm to take lightly. The center is also back over water. While intensification is unlikely, any weakening is going to be very slow and it will still be a hurricane or close to it upon reaching NYC.

The barometric pressure dropped so quickly last night that the pressure

inside my liquid soap dispenser was so much higher than the atmosphere

that it pushed the soap out of the dispenser and into the sink. This is

what I saw when I walked into the kitchen this morning:

 

http://images.yuku.com/image/jpeg/a8e15f968e3d16c73ba558b1d7a37011d9aa2fc.JPG

[LouisEly]

This is what I saw when I woke up at 9am this morning. Hard to get a clear picture (obviously I am not a professional photographer - couldn't tell that it focused on the raindrops on the window), but I circled an area in red - compare that area to the same area I circled below when I took the same picture at 11am and to see how much the water level in the harbor dropped in two hours.

 

9am:

 

http://images.yuku.com/image/jpeg/fe025f69e28493f91e4cea44be04a25e8d10447.JPG

 

Now compare that same area to the picture I took at 11am:

 

http://images.yuku.com/image/jpeg/2611539c8b3716cc39abf9eff681477957ad03a.JPG

 

At 9am you can't see the squared off area - it's underwater. That's how much the water level dropped in two hours. At 9am it was up and over the walkway between my building and the harbor.

[owbc]

Was Irene overhyped or not? Here is an excellent statistical assessment.

 

It seems like the amount of media coverage was appropriate, but they may not have properly conveyed the possibility that the storm may weaken.

[stoutdude04]

OH NO! ITS BAD IRENE!