Isabel and conditions in your area...

[mobile bay girl]

We just got off the phone with my aunt and uncle in Frederick, MD. It's been raining all day... pretty windy... they expect it to get worse after midnight.. and they are expecting to lose power. Thankfully, they stocked up on batteries, water, etc. when I suggested it Sun.
My sis in Buckingham, VA reports the rain has picked up a lot since earlier today. The trees in their yard are doing some "aerobics." Of course, she mostly was complaining about their dogs being so "clingy" and the baby (she's expecting) being more active than usual.

[Zanzie]

We're about 15 miles north of Philly. It's been windy here all day, increasing in intensity after dark. We've been without power since about 6:30, which isn't unusual in our area. We have a lot of canopy trees which like to fall on power lines. We're grateful that there has been little rain so far. Rain started at around 4pm, and has been light and intermittent until about 5 minutes ago when it intensified. Local forecast is for 1-4 inches and winds 30-40; gusts up to 60mph.

We're under flood and wind watch here, and have a creek in the back, so we're always concerned about rain and uprooted trees. The ground is saturated, so we're hoping to stay as dry as possible. So far, so good. We're on generator and we've only heard a few limbs drop.

[tazdevil]

The worst of the storm is over for the Eastern Shore. We had very little rain, and the highest wind gust was 57mph. Lots of trees down, and some flooding. My trailor roof held together for this one, but it was creaking groaning. I was in the process of building a house when the weather held me up. This was good. I am already planning changes to the roof, and I am cutting down a few more trees.

[Persepone]

If you know current conditions in Staunton, VA, please post.

Thanks.

[Guest]

Well whats left of Isabel is in my area now out here in north central OH....................Moderate Rain with winds of around 20mph or so with some higher gust.................Mostly expecting alot of rain but not much in the way of winds well not damaging anyways......................

[ColdFront77]

If you know current conditions in Staunton, VA, please post.

Thanks.

Staunton, Virginia's current conditions, every twenty minutes between 11:00 PM and 12:00 AM EDT,
Thursday, September 18, 2003:

19 12:00 am NE 16 G 24 7.00 Heavy Rain SCT009 BKN013 OVC028 70 70 29.30 NA 0.12
18 11:40 pm NE 16 ........7.00 Heavy Rain BKN009 BKN013 OVC018 70 70 29.31 NA 0.44
18 11:20 pm NE 14 G 29 5.00 Heavy Rain SCT007 BKN012 OVC020 70 70 29.32 NA 0.28
18 11:00 pm NE 18 G 35 5.00 Heavy Rain SCT007 BKN020 OVC031 70 70 29.33 NA 0.11



From left to right, date, time, wind, visibility, weather, sky condition, temperature, dewpoint temperature and one hour precipitation total.

[justlooking]

We just arrived at our first delivery in Charlotte, NC. Weather is fine and no damage. looks like they missed Izzy. Our next delivery is in York,PA.If anyone knows the road condition on Hwy 30 west of York, please post.I'd love to take the shortcut, but will go thru Carlisle if the road is bad. Thanks

[HeatherAKC]

My grandmother reported last evening that the electricity was out and there was no flooding. I will find out if that changed overnight as I see that flooding was a possibility in the overnight hours.

EDIT: Charlottesville, VA

[shaner]

London, Ontario checking in here. Steady moderate rain this morning. No real wind. It's going to be like this all day. If this is the worst of the Hurricane for us, I'll take it.

[jude]

From Cape May County, NJ...

It was a long night.... but wind switched to ESE, thankfully, sparing us from some serious flooding on the 3:00 am high tide.
School closed, trees down... Still steady @ 24 mph gusts @ 43. But sunny & humid.

Thankful it was not worse.
Tthinking of those who are digging out.
-Jude

[Zanzie]

At daybreak, we thought we were in the clear - no trees on the house, creek didn't flood, basement dry, just a power outage. Unfortunately, when my husband took another look around the property at 11, he noticed that one of the trees looked funny. One of our 100+ foot tulip poplars was partially uprooted and leaning on its neighbor. The uprooted tree was aimed squarely at the back of our house.

I frantically called nearly every tree company in the book, most of whom weren't even answering phones. We were extremely lucky. One of the companies took pity on us and showed up 10 minutes after I called. The two trees were dropped safely in the back yard without damaging the house or any major trees. During all this hullabaloo, the power was restored after an 18-hour outage. Whew! Our insurance company has no idea of the bullet we dodged!

Despite this aggravation, I'm grateful it hasn't been far worse. We've been extremely fortunate compared with our neighbors to the south. The kids had an adventure, and we had the good fortune to meet a tree surgeon who made time to handle our emergency.

[stormraiser]

Well, it's been spitting rain all day here just south of Buffalo.

Light breezes, too.

But in the past hour it has become more of a drooling rain, and winds picked up considerably, 25mph maybe more.

[JCT777]

Zanzie - glad to hear that your situation came out for the best. BTW - I went to college at Temple's Ambler campus back in the late 80's/early 90's.

[themusk]

Out here in the far periphery of things, well out of the path of the storm, but not out of its influence, the wind is beginning to pick up.

We've got a wind advisory today, which, as I mentioned before, is not necessarily a big deal. What could be a big deal is that the building I live in, a high rise a few blocks from the eastern shore of Lake Champlain, will, with very little provocation, generate its own high winds. At times I've not been able to use the main (west-facing) entrance to this building because I couldn't walk through the building-generated winds to the door.

I'm curious to see how this building will behave in a bona-fide, non-microclimate, windstorm. Though, my curiousity was tempered somewhat after it hit me last night that that's the crown of an oak tree (ie, source of flying tree limbs) just beyond my window. And it was dampened even more when I awoke today to find on my doorstep a warning from building management to all west-facing apartment residents to move property away from the windows before the wind picks up.

[alicia-w]

Regarding the Frederick MD report, a friend's mom relocated from Baltimore to his brother's place there in Frederick. Do you think you faired better than Baltimore? Also my uncle lives in Westminster. How are things over there?

[wxnut]

I live in Tamaqua, PA located in eastern Schuylkill County 35 miles NW of Allentown. We received 1.7" of rain from Isabel and winds that gusted to 58 mph. Power stayed on throughout the night but was lost at 5:30 AM. It was out for 4.5 hrs. I took a drive around the area and in town there was minimal damage as there are not many trees around. One I got out of town onto some of the back roads they were littered with leaves, twigs, and a few large branches. I did not see any uprooted trees, however. All in all I'd say we were fortunate that things were not as bad as they easily could have been. Even so, PPL Utilities says that it was the worst storm event in their 83 yr history.

[mobile bay girl]

Alicia--

They were okay in Frederick, MD last night. We haven't spoken w/aunt and uncle today. We'll probably talk with them this weekend.

I can report my sis in central VA has been told they'll be without power for about a week. That's a great big bummer, :o But, they are fine, which is the best news.

[stormraiser]

Spoke with Grandmother this morning. In Central Charles county, MD, she said the worst part was no Electricity for 2 days. Other than that, they had no problems. Probably worse closer to the River.