…but Irene may not be as catastrophic as it appeared yesterday. It looks to me like the most likely major consequence, beyond flooding, will be a lot of power outage. Regardless, you should always be prepared. As Frank J says, it’s a hurricane, not a procrastinate-cane.
[Update a while later]
If you want to support relief efforts, both in the Bahamas and (next week) on the east coast, this is probably a good organization.
I have lived through a few hurricanes, including Andrew. Until the sustained wind gets over 100mph it is manageable. This will be mostly a rain event for the Acela Corridor with possible high storm surge at the shore. The heavy residential development along the coast will take a real beating, but nobody will be home when she hits. Gonna be a LOT of property damage, but you gotta take all the noise from panicked weathermen and governors with a grain of salt on this one.
I also have been through a few hurricanes (including Andrew) and quite a few tropical storms. I’d be inclined to agree with Michael, except most of the hurricanes and tropical storms I’ve experienced were in Florida, where buildings and power lines and pretty much everything is built with hurricanes in mind, and there aren’t many old structures. So, things are probably worse in these kinds of places than in FL.
But yes, I’d say the 100mph cutoff was the difference between serious preparedness and rations hoarding or putting up a couple shutters and throwing a party.
Hurricane. Isn’t that one of those atmospheric events that pays cash to college football players along with procures them prostitutes?
I was in NY for Gloria. Sailing was great right after the hurricane. Now the news is claiming people in upper stories are more at risk because of higher winds… this is what happens when reasoning is done in a vacuum of experience.