[Cambium]

Originally Posted by Slipperman

could things be getting better? here's the latest map from the weather channel..



it looks like it will have weakened to a non-categorized storm by time it gets here. Cambium, correct if i'm not seeing something.

According to the graph you show it weakens to a Tropical storm "after" it passes us. So figure 80-90moh over us. They will be updating it soon.

[Cambium]

I am sorry to post this morning that the Euro and other models are following the GFS.
A Direct hit for NYC. CT will be on the right side of the storm.. Westchester County also. NH/MA/VT/ME will get Tropical storm force winds and rain. RI will be hit hard.

I almost feel sick not having good news for the last few days but things just got worse.

All we can do now is hope Irene shuts down or shifts East last minute.

We all need to step outside our normal routine for this...I'm heading to Home Depot to buying Plywood.. Hopefully I'll be using it for my attic and not Irene.

Just dont panic... If you're prepared, you'll be ok. Blackouts, Flooding, Debris and trees down are 90% posible now..

[andthentherewere3]

I'm wondering what this means for people further inland, say north of the Merritt. Is it really necessary to be boarding up windows if the current track holds? I know it would be bad along the coast, but hopefully not that bad inland.

We just got an email from our insurance company telling us we have a hurricane heading our way, and tha we can count on them.....We don't have hurricane insurance, though. I know flooding wouldn't be covered, but we are completely surrounded by enormous trees. What if a tree falls on our house?

[Nightmary]

Ok so this is looking really bad and I have no idea what to do. What kind of wood do we buy and do you just screw the wood into the outside of the house? Were is the safest place to ride out the storm, basement?



Thanks

[BagongBuhay]

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http://icons-ecast.wunderground.com/data/images/at201109_5day.gif (broken link)


This looks like it is just a TS by the time it hits New England.

[Cambium]

I'm getting the 8am update soon.. remember guys...that marker you see is the storm center...Storm starts before the center gets here... Tropical Storm is for north of NY / CT. Inland folks are involved in this too.

Look at the Satellite...those clouds over the NorthEast is the front and will give us those storms later but can you believe the timing???

[Lincolnian]

I'm hoping it makes a hard right after it nears carolinas.

[7 Wishes]

While this is sounding like a "direct hit" for NYC and western CT, it's also sounding like it will be a strong tropical storm or a "minimal" hurricane. While I don't want to say that people shouldn't be prepared or that there will not be significant if not major damage in many places (there'll certainly be plenty of power outages and one should prepare for that), there are enough other storms exactly like this in the last 40 years to say I don't think it will be "catastropic" on a large region-widescale unless they go back to the forecasts of the 11pm update last night (when it was still a Cat 2 here):

1972 - Agnes - directly went over NYC as an "almost hurricane" (70 mph winds at center). Many places 100+ miles west of the center had near-catastropic flooding (northeast PA sticks out in this regard), but my point is it didn't exactly take the recovery time of Andrew in FL or Katrina in New Orleans and you didn't see whole towns in the region flattened. In fact, (though I was probably too young, see Belle below), I don't remember it at all (though my wife, who is 2 years older than I claims she does).

1976 - Belle - "minimal" (75 mph) hurricane, eye went over eastern Queens. A lot of power outages and flooding, trees down, but pretty quick recovery. The fact that you don't even see it mentioned as a "historic" Northeast hurricane is proof enough (I was a month short of 9 years old when it happened and I barely remember it and I actually had to do a bit of research to learn about this one....DW (see Agnes above) doesn't remember it either).

1996 - Bertha - significant (60 mph at center) tropical storm, center went right over Manhattan and southwest Fairfield County! Ironically, for me, the biggest "personal damage" of any of these storms (lost power for two days, my mother's fence was destroyed, but it was an old wooden fence), but not a major disaster for the NY metro area

1999 - Floyd - significant (65 mph at center) tropical storm. A lot of flooding damage and power outages, but again, except for a couple of towns in NJ not weeks/months of recovery. This is probably the benchmark for what Irene will be like here.

2008 - Hanna - technically, this landfalled in Long Island, but center did have winds of 60 mph just south of JFK airport. Again, mostly flooding and blackouts and barely mentioned in the annals of tri-state area "tropical" history.


Just want to keep things in perspective. Note I purposely did not mention Gloria since it was a Cat 2 when it landfalled in Long Island and CT and is a different story altogether.

[Cambium]

Hurricane Irene 8am Update:

Irene is starting to speed up slowly. Pressure still dropping slightly. Winds still at 115mph sustained around the center.

IRENE POUNDING THE NORTHWESTERN BAHAMAS...

LOCATION...25.5N 76.5W
ABOUT 65 MI...105 KM ENE OF NASSAU
ABOUT 670 MI...1085 KM S OF CAPE HATTERAS NORTH CAROLINA
MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS...115 MPH
PRESENT MOVEMENT...NW OR 325 DEGREES AT 13 MPH
MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE...950 MB...28.05 INCHES

HURRICANE-FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 70 MILES FROM THE CENTER AND TROPICAL-
STORM-FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 255 MILES...

[alexei27]

Originally Posted by Nightmary

Ok so this is looking really bad and I have no idea what to do. What kind of wood do we buy and do you just screw the wood into the outside of the house? Were is the safest place to ride out the storm, basement?



Thanks

Plywood....screw it directly into the window frame or the side of the house. Thsi will prevent debris from breaking the windows. Its not meant to keep water out...not much you can do about that.