Guys, I heard that Hurricane Irene is a very dangerous Hurricane. But its only a category 1 for some reason. Now I don't know much about Hurricanes but I know that Hurricanes that dangerous should be Category 4 at least.
Category 1 hurricanes aren't as bad as Category 4-5. Still, I hope you Northerners do all right. Hurricanes can be scary, as this Southerner can tell you.
It still hasn't hit us here in Mass, I believe we should be seeing it later this afternoon. Let's hope for the best.
It was category 2, but is down to category 1. The eye wall of Irene on the southern side has collapsed, due to a dry air mass. That has weakened Irene. By the time the eye hits Massachusetts around mid-day tomorrow it may be downgraded to a tropical storm. It will still be a major storm, with a potential for wind damage, flooding, and power outages, but I don't think it will be all that bad.
^Thats good to know, I haven't been following it myself. Still sucks that it's gonna rain this weekend
The major dangerous hurricanes are usually category 4 or 5. If it's category 1 or 2 it probably won't be as devastating, but I'm sure the prospect of a hurricane is scary for people in places like New York and New Jersey who don't get them very often. Now you know what those of us down South have to go through almost every year. I lived through Katrina which was awful. Our neighbors across the street got a tree through their house and several other friends/acquaintances lost their homes as well. A tree fell in our driveway and missed hitting my car by about five feet. We were without electricity for a week, which is not fun at all in Mississippi at the end of August/beginning of September when it's so hot outside and there's no air conditioning. I doubt this hurricane will be quite as bad, but I hope everyone stays safe.
I don't mind rain, at least not for just a couple days. I find it peaceful and soothing, even thunderstorms. The wind is the problem. It may bring down limbs or entire trees, and carry flying debris, causing power outages, property damage, and injuries. We have predictions of four to eight inches of rain, but the ground is not saturated, so hopefully any flooding will be limited. We've seen worse periods of rain this year. It's raining outside right now. I'm enjoying it at its current level.
The only reason why people are panicking is because of it's wind speeds. It's at a 100 MPH radius. Trust me, that's scary. Thank god i live in Texas, but im worried about most of my family.. almost all of them are in New York.. I know 2 or 3 of them are leaving right now... but other then that im still hoping for the best.
I'll listening to Scorpions' Rock Me Like A Hurricane and waiting. I got big jugs of Gatorade and granola bars to munch on.
Wind speeds are an issue but as anyone who has ever lived in hurricane prone areas knows, it's not JUST the wind that's the problem. Even if she is only a Cat 1 or TS by the time she gets up here to us, she's sitting still for too long. You're talking tremendous amounts of rain for an extended period of time. Like WAY extended. There are already power outages as far west into NC as Charlotte and in Virginia as far west as South Boston. The water saturates the ground and then the trees don't have anything to hold onto. It takes hardly anything to knock them down. They fall on houses, cars, into ditches. They stop up drainages, knock out power lines. The stuff your neighbors didn't tie down does the same. The wind picks stuff up and throws it, windows get broken. Even without the wind, just the falling trees, limbs, rising water is devastating. Add in the wind and the loss of power (no sump pumps if you have a usually watery basement) and things get ugly fast. It doesn't have to be a Cat 4 to be terrible, especially in a very heavily populated area.
I remember with the last TS, almost every tree on the block had or caused damaged. I can only imagine what will happen now. I put everything away, and cleaned up debris; that's as much as I can do preparation wise.
Fortunately (I suppose one could say), we have already had very rainy periods this year and last, so the most fragile tree roots have already succumbed. I don't think the rain predicted for Massachusetts will result in the kind of devastation we saw for, say, Gloria. New York City and points south is another matter. The further south, the stronger the storm will be when it hits. Also, anyone living on the coast will be subject to storm surge, powerful, high ocean waves battering the coast.
That's one way of looking at it. Another way of looking at it is to wonder just how much more the trees still standing can take. I know I'm pretty sure several of the huge ones near me probably can't take much more....
Yet to see the hurricane here in mass. It rained pretty hard during the afternoon but nothing crazy at all...let's see what tomorow brings.
