We are beginning storm preps today, and my wife is taking my elderly parents and their cat to my brothers in Northern Virginia on Monday.

3 Cats, 2 dogs, Henry the Giraffe, and I are all leaving Wednesday at daybreak.

We made hotel reservations in Fairfax VA for Monday Night to god knows when.

Those things are lining up in the Atlantic and it doesn't look good for your area.

in the present potential projected path of the storm. Of course, living in ENC this won't be my first rodeo. Seems like we get to do this every couple of years or so here.

Usually these powerful storms slow down pretty quickly to cat 1 or borderline cat 2 as they approach the coast and no stronger when they roll over us. I've had trees down, fences blown over, shingle damage, all common problems. Swimming pool filled up with crap if I don't cover it, this time I will. We always ride them out, sitting inside with no electricity and feeling our house shake from ~100 mph wind gusts. But if it looks stronger than borderline cat 2 we will head west for my sister's house in SW Va. From my experience I would never consider sitting through a cat. 3 or 4.

Tonight's track has it coming on shore on top of us @ cat 3 on Thursday If that holds until Wednesday morning we're out of here.

Hurricane Florence is a Category 4 storm, on track to hit Southeast coast by Friday morning

Hurricane Florence is a rapidly strengthening major storm with sustained 130 mph winds as it heads toward a potentially devastating landfall in the Southeast U.S. later this week, already prompting evacuation orders on the North Carolina coast.

The National Hurricane Center is warning of “life-threatening” storm surge in the Carolinas and Virginia, as well as “a prolonged and exceptionally heavy rainfall event” in the Southeast and mid-Atlantic.

“All interests from South Carolina into the mid-Atlantic region should ensure they have their hurricane plan in place and follow any advice given by local officials,” hurricane center forecasters wrote Monday morning.


http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/weather/weather-blog/bs-fe-tropical-storm-florence-update-20180908-story.html

Evacuation ordered for SC coast ahead of Hurricane Florence

S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster announced a mandatory evacuation of the South Carolina coast on Monday. All eight counties along the coast would begin evacuating as of noon on Tuesday, McMaster said at a press briefing on Monday.

McMaster said he would reverse lanes on four main roads to facilitate the evacuation. As of noon Tuesday, lanes will reverse on Interstate 26 from Charleston to Columbia and Highway 50 from Myrtle Beach. Highways 278 and 21 in Beaufort County will be ready for reversal as of noon, but officials will wait to make an order at that time.

https://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/news/state/south-carolina/article218123955.html

The ocean water must be a bit warmer than is typical, which would keep the hurricane's energy going for longer than usual.

As a 94 knot sustained wind hurricane.

And stalling as a tropical system over Eastern North Carolina.

https://www.windy.com/?700h,2018-09-13-15,44.273,-68.337,4,m:eFlaexj

Ventusky is predicting the the end of the world next Saturday.




https://www.ventusky.com/?p=31.5;-50.8;4&l=wind-900hpa&t=20180916/03&m=gem

There's a possibility of two serious storms hitting either the US mainland or territories, both on a Thursday/Friday time frame?

1. Hurricane Florence hits the Carolinas on Thursday, and

2. Hurricane Isaac hits Virgin Islands on Thursday then brushing Puerto Rico on Friday.

See current path projections here: https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/

In addition to all that, there may be emergency responses required up the Ohio Valley for flooding cause by the tropical storm remnants from the recent Gulf hurricane (hit Kentucky and Indiana hard on Saturday and now covering Ohio).

My first thought was that this surely will overload our emergency response systems big-time, especially with Trump's inept team in charge.

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