Irene - Mid-Atlantic Prep and Impact

[capepoint]

Quick report by 3g. Power and net are down. Early reports are of significant damage, but not as bad as feared. Surge apparently not too much more than earlier last night. Winds are calm here right now. Must be in eye if it still has one. Tons of rain so far. Lots.of.trees.down.

[Preppie]

WRAL-TV in Raleigh has a live blog with reports, videos and photos from the coast submitted by viewers and reporters: http://www.wral.com/weather/story/10052806/

Apparently, Irene made landfall near Cape Lookout.

[72Packer]

The wind here in Eastern Wake County, 150 miles west of track, is about 40 mph with gusts. The only damage here is to trees with limbs down and trees killed by Fran but not fallen, coming down. I talked to employees in Rocky Mount (30 miles closer to the track), and the plant there has not lost power. I see on WRAL blog that US 264 near Bailey is closed - that is about 10 miles from me and don't understand what would close down a freeway-type highway in that area.

[CrazyC83]

The wind here in Eastern Wake County, 150 miles west of track, is about 40 mph with gusts. The only damage here is to trees with limbs down and trees killed by Fran but not fallen, coming down. I talked to employees in Rocky Mount (30 miles closer to the track), and the plant there has not lost power. I see on WRAL blog that US 264 near Bailey is closed - that is about 10 miles from me and don't understand what would close down a freeway-type highway in that area.

Flooding could do it, or an isolated gust brought down larger trees.

[sandboxpirate]

Update from Winterville, NC (Greenville area) heavy rain, sustained winds at 45mph with gusts up to 65. Streets flooded, trees down, some siding off of houses.

[Bizzles]

Reports of Fatality of NC man who was outside and was hit by a tree.

[gates2u]

Currently heavy rain, steady wind of 9-12 mph (estimated) in Caroline County - about 20 miles SW of Dover DE, 40 miles NW of Rehobeth Beach DE, under a hurricane warning (the north-westernmost county on the Delmarva peninsula under a hurricane, not TS, warning).

[brunota2003]

Have some photos that a friend sent me from where I used to live in Havelock, NC. Sorry for them being blurry, they were taken on a cell phone.

Their backyard:



Their front yard:



My old house (they said it was the cleanest yard on the block):



The creek (the creek is usually 15 to 20 feet BELOW that bridge in the background...now it is only about 2 to 4 feet below):

[Stephanie]

Great pictures. Thanks for sharing!

[brunota2003]

Here is another, clearer image of the bridge and creek...there is a boat ramp somewhere under that water!



Here is a house on the creek...you can see the mailbox:

[tronbunny]

Here is another, clearer image of the bridge and creek...there is a boat ramp somewhere under that water!

Here is a house on the creek...you can see the mailbox:

I'm afraid that creek is not done rising, and the taker of the pictures will hae a very long night and difficult next few days.
Perhaps it is time to modify the scales for measurements of storm potentials.

[Hybridstorm_November2001]

Everybody please stay safe.

[shaggy]

Finally have power back and man what a day. Not sure what my peak winds were but there is more damage to trees and houses from Irene than anything I saw from Fran, Bertha, Floyd(wind wise). I stayed at my parents house which is an island of no trees in the middle of a forest. The neighborhood is just flat out messed up. Their are 3 houses with trees on them or through them and countless trees down across roads.

I have videos and pics but do I have to use imagelink or can I direct link them?

[Stephanie]

Finally have power back and man what a day. Not sure what my peak winds were but there is more damage to trees and houses from Irene than anything I saw from Fran, Bertha, Floyd(wind wise). I stayed at my parents house which is an island of no trees in the middle of a forest. The neighborhood is just flat out messed up. Their are 3 houses with trees on them or through them and countless trees down across roads.

I have videos and pics but do I have to use imagelink or can I direct link them?

I would imagelink so it doesn't drain our server. Love to see them!

[shaggy]

Finally have power back and man what a day. Not sure what my peak winds were but there is more damage to trees and houses from Irene than anything I saw from Fran, Bertha, Floyd(wind wise). I stayed at my parents house which is an island of no trees in the middle of a forest. The neighborhood is just flat out messed up. Their are 3 houses with trees on them or through them and countless trees down across roads.

I have videos and pics but do I have to use imagelink or can I direct link them?

I would imagelink so it doesn't drain our server. Love to see them!

Why don't videos ever do it real justice?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xY_AvTNf4pk

[Stephanie]

Videos never do justice to a situation being filmed, shaggy.

I have some pretty darn tall oaks in my backyard as well, some close to the size you were showing. I couldn't see what was happening when Irene arrived since it was night time, but if it looked anything like that... Those suckers were bending!

[wsquared77]

Finally have power back, so I wanted to check in. We live in downtown New Bern. We had about 4.5 feet of water in our street, up to just below our front porch. It's all gone now though. At one point we could look down to the end of our road and see white-capped waves crashing coming off the Neuse River. LOTS of tree damage around. Watched the roof on the house across the street peal off in one piece and fly into their backyard, which was a bit crazy. We had a couple of small leaks but nothing major. Everyone is fine on our street and we all got a lot of cleaning up done today. Then we had a street party when the power came back on! Here are a couple of pictures. The house in one picture normally has 4 steps up to their porch. Also, the car in the second picture is NOT ours. We parked ours well away from our house as we were told it had a good chance of flooding!


Uploaded with ImageShack.us



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

[vbhoutex]

Wow at the pictures!! Thanks for checking in and letting us know you are ok.

[shaggy]

Another video. At 11 seconds in you'll hear that crack and it was a tree that fell on the neighbors sunroom completely destroying that part of their house. Does photobucket links work or does it have to be imageshack?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__1T_BT_0PM

[brunota2003]

Another video. At 11 seconds in you'll hear that crack and it was a tree that fell on the neighbors sunroom completely destroying that part of their house. Does photobucket links work or does it have to be imageshack?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__1T_BT_0PM

The sad part is that those are winds sustained at maybe 35 to 40 mph, with gusts in the 55 mph range. But many probably think those are Cat 1 winds. That is what Isabel looked like when she came through, and her winds at my location at the peak were sustained at about 40 mph with gusts up to 70 mph...looks much stronger to someone who doesn't know, though.