Hurricane Earl

[Sarah in SC]

Surfers here are thrilled, as usual. We're getting very nice surf and they expect good stuff off Wilmington as well.

 

[FUEGO]

Neat and eerie. Knowing when I look up, all the clouds are from the hurricane. Very light scattered sprinkles here now. Light wind, under 10 mph. We aren't forecasted to get anything this far inland, but maybe it took a little turn to the west or intensified.

It is still forecasted to be a Category 4 this evening, but hopefully most of the coastal region just gets some wind and heavy rain and big waves. I'm hearing from friends down in the coastal NC region who have all battened down the hatches so to speak and have raided the grocery store. A friend's father is a firefighter at the Outer Banks (Kill Devils Hill) and says his father is staying at the fire station to weather the storm and has been out all day with a bull horn urging residents to leave (while they still can).

Even without a lot of direct winds and rain, the storm surge and beach erosion can do some serious damage to ocean front houses along the coast.

Crap, just saw a photo from yesterday of a house getting partially washed away at the exact beach we are renting at in a few weeks.

 

[Purron]

Crap, just saw a photo from yesterday of a house getting partially washed away at the exact beach we are renting at in a few weeks.

Bummer 'bout the beach house. Hope the one you're renting is spared. Perhaps now is a good time to reflect on the Snowpocalypse of last winter. We've sure had more than our fair share of lousy weather round here. Nords, please don't say a thing about the weather in your neck of the woods. I'm might have to get medieval on ya.

YouTube - AccuWeather.com Snowpocalypse Now! Meteorologist Freakout

 

[harley]

Just got back from the beach. Some nice waves, but if things get rough the beach and dunes could be in danger. We're going back out in a few hours with our chairs to watch the storm roll by. Should be fun. It's nice having a barrier island between my house and the big surge.

 

[FUEGO]

Sounds like a relative non-event (versus what a Cat 4 bearing down on the coast could have been). Tropical Breezes and heavy rain are all that Wilmington received. Haven't heard reports from Outer Banks folks yet, other than the main fishing pier in Cape Hatteras was partially destroyed yesterday. Surf City/Topsail Island where I'm vacationing had this on their website this morning:

"No reported damage.​

Beach is open.​

Should be a wonderful Labor Day Weekend."​

Sounds like great news for my upcoming vacation rental!! Three weeks is a long time to wait though during an active tropical weather season.

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[Purron]

Sounds like a relative non-event (versus what a Cat 4 bearing down on the coast could have been). Tropical Breezes and heavy rain are all that Wilmington received. Haven't heard reports from Outer Banks folks yet, other than the main fishing pier in Cape Hatteras was partially destroyed yesterday. Surf City/Topsail Island where I'm vacationing had this on their website this morning:

"No reported damage.


Beach is open.


Should be a wonderful Labor Day Weekend."​

Sounds like great news for my upcoming vacation rental!! Three weeks is a long time to wait though during an active tropical weather season.

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Doing the happy dance for you Enjoy your vacation!! Oh, some pics would be cool

 

[FUEGO]

Doing the happy dance for you Enjoy your vacation!! Oh, some pics would be cool

I'll try to remember to post some. I'm glad we'll get to have a nice vacation still, but more glad all the coastal residents didn't lose everything.

 

[harley]

Yep, a total dud here in the Delmarva peninsula. Good that there was no damage, but with all my prep work I'd have liked to at least seen a good storm.

 

[Nords]

Nords, please don't say a thing about the weather in your neck of the woods. I'm might have to get medieval on ya.

Hey, it's hurricane season over here too. I'm just glad that we're not holding the great big target circle this week.

I'm married to a military meteorologist who used to be the ops officer at the local typhoon warning center. Believe me, I know what it's like.

Pretty gutsy call of the Norfolk admiral not to sortie the fleet. He was either going to waste a couple million bucks getting everyone out to sea just to be safe, or end up looking like an idiot when the storm passed right over the fleet tied up in the harbor.

 

[TargaDave]

Haven't heard reports from Outer Banks folks yet, other than the main fishing pier in Cape Hatteras was partially destroyed yesterday.

Total non-event on the Outer Banks other than some sound side flooding below Oregon Inlet Bridge. We live far west side Kill Devil Hills on Colington Island and just got tropical force winds. No location on the OBX is risk free but we are certainly not anywhere near as vunerable as Hatteras or Ocracoke. The outside world tends to lump the whole place into one risk category.

Major Weather Channel hype touting the absolute worst case senario and the public buying into it. I spoze better safe than sorry but The Weather Channel sort of looked a bit foolish with their constant "rating grabbing" dire prediction bias. I was out doin chores on Friday morning while Al Roker was 3 miles away leaning into the wind like the sky was falling. Silly. Local media and county government handled it much better.

 

[FUEGO]

Total non-event on the Outer Banks other than some sound side flooding below Oregon Inlet Bridge. We live far west side Kill Devil Hills on Colington Island and just got tropical force winds. No location on the OBX is risk free but we are certainly not anywhere near as vunerable as Hatteras or Ocracoke. The outside world tends to lump the whole place into one risk category.

Major Weather Channel hype touting the absolute worst case senario and the public buying into it. I spoze better safe than sorry but The Weather Channel sort of looked a bit foolish with their constant "rating grabbing" dire prediction bias. I was out doin chores on Friday morning while Al Roker was 3 miles away leaning into the wind like the sky was falling. Silly. Local media and county government handled it much better.

I guess better safe than sorry. I think Earl lost a lot of intensity the 24 hours before it approached the OBX and it must have veered to the east. A category 4 100 miles to the west of where it ended up would have been a lot different result.

Definitely glad that the NC beaches and barrier islands weren't destroyed. Although it would have meant major job creation for the homebuilder/construction industry...