Hurricane Irene

i left for vacation yesterday morning so i am curious to hear how bad the storm was in ashburn. Talking to friends who live in fairfax county, they daid they got about 2 inches of rain and lost power.

How much rain did we get and how were the winds? Any reports of homes damaged? Did we lose power in the area?

Any updates would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

 

Well....... I had to walk 10 feet off my back patio to pick up a lawn chair than blew into the yard. Most devistating was the wrapper that holds my Sunday paper was damp on the outside! :scaredeyes: Best thing to do is turn off the TV two days before any storm.......

 

I am pretty sure we lost one leaf off our magnolia tree in the front yard. I sure pray to God it can recover!!!

 

As someone who worked in a grocery store for over 8 years, I can tell you that, although there are always a few crazy folks, the truth of the matter is that most of the storm 'panic' is really just people shifting their regular shopping time.

Irene is a perfect example. It was forecast to impact over the weekend. The three busiest days of the week for a grocery store are Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. People who normally shop Saturday or Sunday are going to look at the forecast and say "I need to go shopping Friday before the storm hits". The problem with this is that now you have the already big crowds of Saturday and Sunday all arriving at the same time on Friday, which is already a busy day on a normal week. Without even thinking about panic buying, you already have a scenario where it is hard for a grocery store to keep high velocity items like milk in stock.

You do get some 'panic' shopping on top of that, but really the majority of the crowds and empty shelves simply results from people shifting their normal shopping schedule.

 

And I always shop on Friday's because I work Mon-Thur and don't want to spend my weekend doing it. If I had my preference, I would shop on Tues am, early which is what I did when I was home full time with my kids. People buying up all the D batteries was a deviation.

 

I doubt we got more than 1.5-2 inches total and the winds were nothing. We get worse wind in a snowstorm/blizzard. No damage that I could see as we drove to church this am. The most I've seen is leaves. I don't know anyone who lost power. I know my son in Burke lost it for all of about 8 hours and it just came back on.

 

Weather.com indicates that Ashburn got 2.7" of rain.

 

Good advice!!!! The media will panic everyone!

 

My rain gauge had 1.4 inches for past 48 hours as of yesterday afternoon.

 

I understand how the tract was impacted and why it was forecast and tracked the way it did. The forecast was NEVER for us to be in the direct path. Loudoun was always at a safe distance from the core and on the less destructive (good) side of the storm. East and Northeast of the storm is always the most intense and most dangerous. The farthest west this storm was ever predicted was the bay.

I have family in Newport News and Anne Arundel county and both were much closer to the center and have more damage. Fortunately they didnt' lose power, but they got a lot of rain and high winds. I also have friends in the Chesapeake Beach area who have been told a week or more for power to be restored.

My bigger issue is now that people are saying it was "over-hyped" which it really wasn't for us. If you really LISTENED to the forecasters, Loudoun was always forecast to have minimal impact and the shore and the NE, worst.

 

It's always better to be over prepared than under. If the media had said nothing, then people would be complaining that they had little to no warning.

Weather is already unpredictable.

 

That isn't the issue. Does everyone really need multiple gallons of milk?

 

We do.