My Weekend with Irene

A 13-hour air shift.  Constant worrying about my house, my family (safely 200 miles inland), and my car (in the shop for three days before the storm and still not fixed).  Such was my weekend with Hurricane Irene.  In additon to the damage, I'm sure Irene can be blamed for a few new grey hairs on my head.

I spent my Saturday at the radio station, essentially jotting down notes from various resources and sharing those stories on 92.9 The Wave for 13 hours.  Here's some of what I noted, along with some follow up details.

The power outages away from the coast went up surprisingly fast.  It was in the afternoon when outages from the Richmond area eclipsed those in Hampton Roads.  Today Richmond outage numbers are still three times higher than in Hampton Roads. 

Dominion Virginia Power has fixed more than 800,000 outages since the storm but for some people, it hasn't been fast enough.  James City County Administrator Robert Middaugh complained during a Board of Supervisors meeting that he feels line workers will leave his county for last.  And the Richmond Times-Dispatch has reported on complaints of utility workers caught taking catnaps in their trucks.  A spokesman for Dominion Power said that while napping isn't condoned, the company doesn't begrudge workers from taking a break during 14-hour workdays.

River flooding was a concern as early as Friday.  Keeping an eye on the radar during the storm and watching band after band of torrential rain fall on Western Tidewater, I was worried about the town of Franklin, which was swallowed by flood waters after Hurricane Floyd 12 years ago.  Today, forecasters have downgraded the risk of flooding in Franklin.  The Blackwater River is expected to crest below moderate flood stage.

Virginia Beach was not represented well during its time in the national spotlight.  I refer, of course, to the streaker who interrupted a live Weather Channel report from the Oceanfront.  Click here if you haven't seen it.  There was also the looting that was caught on camera during another live TV report from the Sandbridge area.  That footage can be seen here.

Then there was the dramatic rescue from a drifting sailboat in Norfolk's Oceanview neighborhood.  Rescuers were able to pull a couple and their cat to safety after the storm blew the boat onto the beach.  Today, the man who was rescued has gotten into more trouble on land.  The Virginian-Pilot reports Michael Calabrese was arrested Saturday for trespassing at a city shelter.  And the city has told him to move his wrecked sailboat from the beach within a week, or it will be cut up and hauled away. 

I don't know how many times I've read stories on the air about carbon monoxide poisoning over the years but I know I warned at least three times on Saturday:  don't use generators indoors.   A Chesapeake man nearly killed himself running his generator in his garage.  The Virginian Pilot reports Patrick Akers woke up with a splitting headache Sunday morning, went to check on his generator, and passed out in the garage.  Miraculously, he came too, managed to open the garage door, and then collapsed again in the driveway, where he was found by a neighbor.  He is fully recovered.  In Maryland, though, one person was killed and five others hospitalized because of improper use of generators.

How much water does it take to put out a peat moss fire in the Great Dismal Swamp?  More than a hurricane's worth, apparently.  After an estimated one foot of rain fell on Suffolk, firefighters still counted 30 smoldering hotspots.  At least when the winds shift southwest, there won't be as much smoke drifting into my neighborhood.

After initially saying Hurricane Irene was a threat to Florida, South Carolina or Georgia, hurricane trackers had Irene steering in our direction and up the East Coast.  That forecast, issued three days before the storm made landfall on the Outer Banks, was almost dead on.



Meanwhile, we are now watching a new storm way out in the Atlantic.  Katia is at least a week away from threatening anyone, but it is moving in the general direction of the Southeast Coast. 

By the way, after hearing meteorlogists on WVEC and WAVY pronounce the storm's name a couple of different ways (cat-EE-ah, CAT-e-ya), I bothered to look it up.  It's pronounced KAHT-ya, like a Russian name.