Water on the Smoke

Thursday August 25:  One minute we're hoping for rain and a cool breeze;  next minute we're praying not be drowned or blown away. Irene is heating up and about to go coastal. Best to stay out of her way.

Hurricane Irene on August 25, 2011 
(NOAA)

Drawing a bead on Vandemere, NC
... and on Beaufort, Harlowe Canal, Oriental, Belhaven, Elizabeth City, Ocracoke, 
... and on Chesapeake, VA and points north.  
(http://www.stormpulse.com/)

Forecast:  an inner-banks path that roughly follows a good cruising route
(http://www.stormpulse.com/)

Update:   NOAA forecast of areas at risk for storm surge

 

Update:  Forecast includes risk of high water in the Neuse River and Harlowe waterway



Update:  Saturday 27th rising water in parts of Oriental, NC
(Town Dock)

Update:   Irene's radar image Saturday 27th
(Google Crisis Response Project) 

    
Sunday August 28:   Irene soaked the ground fires that had been smoldering in the peat of eastern NC and VA,  but in its path also flooded coastal towns, ruined homes, damaged roads, and knocked out electrical power and communications (TownDock).   In NC coastal towns in Pamlico County were battered by a 9.5 foot storm surge that flooded many homes with several feet of muddy water.  As Steve Earley predicted,  "A hurricane is a rough way to put out a fire."