A couple of days ago the East Coast experienced the biggest earthquake of my lifetime. As for hurricanes, in the Mid-Atlantic region where I have lived most of my life, we don’t get direct hits. We sometimes face tropical storm-strength winds from weakened hurricanes, but the last time we had actual hurricane-force winds was 1985 when Hurricane Gloria passed over Long Island and hit Connecticut. I don’t remember Hurricane Agnes, but it was a small Hurricane that did extensive damage in 1972, even with only tropical force winds in the Mid-Atlantic.
Hurricane Irene is tracking as a beast that will hit somewhere between Philly and Long Island with at least Category 1 strength, and possibly Category 3.
Even before this storm gets here, it looks like our region will see the wettest August on record (following one of the driest Julys). This is very bad because saturated earth means many, many more uprooted trees. And, you know, we live in a log cabin in the woods. Whenever we have strong wind gusts, we lose power, sometimes for days at a time. I think it was in the spring of 2010 that we had a bunch of trees come down, including three that blocked our driveway. Fortunately, they were small enough that a few humans could drag them out of the way. In any case, you can only imagine how screwed we’ll be if we get sustained gusts of 70 mph or greater. We could easily be marooned without power for days.
So, here’s to Hurricane Gloria taking a path to the east of the models, because this will be no way for CabinGirl to start her vacation.
Are your woods deciduous or conifers?
The latter come down a lot easier than the former. Shallower root system.
We had a mix of trees in the woods behind my house during Gloria, in a very wet area so the root systems hugged the surface anyway, and the big pines just dropped like flies.
Mainly oak, but spruce, maple, birch, beech, etc. Not much pine, although we have one on our property.
In category 1 winds, if a gust catches them right a pine tree will snap about six feet above the ground.
It’s the large deciduous trees with (relatively) shallow and spread-out root sytems and a large canopy that catches the wind that will blow over if the ground is soupy enough.
The trees that are still flexible enough to bend will make it through OK. In category 1 winds, the 6″ diam maples in front of our house bent almost to the ground without snapping or uprooting during Fran in 1996. The 24″ diam oaks down by the creek toppled over with 6-7 ft rootballs exposed.
If it goes west it is likely to weaken before it gets to you because of all the intervening land. If it goes east, Boston is gonna get hammered because it will not lose momentum at sea.
Stay safe.
Ick. Gross. That’s nasty.
This is so off topic, but…My son begins classes at George Mason University on Monday. It goes without saying that as a single mother I’m going to have to rely heavily on student aid. When I completed his FAFSA I noticed a question regarding eligibility and drug convictions. Curious, I did a quick Google search and found that in 1998 Bill Clinton signed into law the Higher Education Act that included a penalty for drug convictions prohibiting anyone with a drug conviction from receiving federal aid ranging from a one year suspension to permanent suspension. Now I’m wondering who that law was directed at? Certainly not wealth white kids lighting up from Harvard to Berkley. Add this to welfare reform, 3 strikes laws, one strike public housing laws, refusal to close the disparity between crack and powder cocaine, where the hell was the CBC and white liberals during this assault on poor black folks during the Clinton administration?! Why didn’t they “unleash” on Clinton?
My son is a good kid, but no angel. He was one of only a few black and brown kids at a predominantly well-healed white school in a Northern Virginia suburb. Those kids stay twisted 24/7, and I have no doubt my son has indulged, especially since he probably doesn’t have to pay for it. Many of these same kids will be attending school with him at George Mason, but on their families’ dime, not having to worry about losing aid if they get caught lighting up. As if I didn’t have enough to worry about!
Ironically, it was George W. Bush who softened the law in 2008 restricting these penalties to those convicted while already receiving student aid, which is still devastating, but a little less so.
It’s absolutely astounding to me that given the indisputable correlation between education and poverty that such a law could have passed under a Democratic President.
But there is no double standard with President Obama right?
First, the operative word is “conviction”.
The law was passed under GOP pressure post-1994 IIRC.
The purpose was moralistic posturing about getting tough on drugs. Policy considerations were ignored.
Good luck to your son.
I’m a little worried about the storm, too. My son has to fly to Charlotte, NC to start his service with Americorps, with the local Habitat for Humanity there. I know that Charlotte is pretty far from the coast, but weather being what it is, flights might be affected. As if I won’t already be worried about him, now I have to think about funky storms moving across the state.
Flights will likely be grounded as the storm enters the area. If he is on his way, he might find a long wait at an airport that is not Charlotte.
The current path means that Charlotte will get lots of heavy rain and some high winds. If the path tracks west, Charlotte might see a category 1 hurricane.
Charlotte is great place to work. Despite the general conservative bent of the electorate, there is a substantial progressive community there. I hope he has a good time there.
Not too east, please. I’m surrounded by pine trees–some are 90′ tall!
For those on the east coast, remember that the winds and rain are only part of the danger – if you’re in a coastal area, the storm surge can be the most devastating part of a hurricane.
Use the National Hurricane Center’s storm surge interactive risk map to get an idea of what you may be facing.
Good luck, and please, stay safe!
Wow, that storm surge map is pretty frightening.
I live in west center city Philadelphia, and it looks like a big surge could come right up the Schuylkill.
If you don’t read it already, Jeff Masters’ blog is a great resource for tropical storm / hurricane activity. He posted quite a bit today about the storm surge.
I blew it up and it has your apartment under 20 feet of water in a Category 3 scenario.
Uh, yeah. I sorta noticed that.
I think I’m going to go to Chicago tomorrow to visit my sister. I was planning on going Labor Day weekend, but the whole “apartment possibly underneath 20 feet of water” business seems to be a good enough excuse to move it up.
be safe, BooMan and everyone in the path of the storm.
go to the grocery store NOW
I’d seriously consider a road trip if I were in the path of this thing.
Yep, I hear Ohio and Indiana are beautiful this time of the year. But then you would spend all your time worrying about your house.
It’s very good