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It is difficult but we are still reporting as hurricane Earl drifts up the eastern seaboard. Contrary to news reports that the storm has lost it's intensity, you can see things are more than a little intense.
Here you can see our local town crier, as we have no other means of communicating among towns folk, sidetracked on his daily mission by the hurricane winds.
I tried to get to the Post Office to pick up my mail but the conditions made it a little difficult. Still it is better than sitting at the typewriter cranking out stories while trying to keep the pages dry.
I checked on the neighbor next door but no one seemed to be home so I just drifted back to my house and on the way passed more neighbors taking the storm much too lightly. I mean I have guitars too but I'm not about to get them wet like that ukulele.
It was back to the safety of Park Place, my house, and I looked out back where I saw Hillbilly Joe trying to get to his truck and I just knew I was safer here in the comfort of the second floor. Why it looked like the storm blew most of his clothes off.
I could see the park across the street and sure enough, the Watermen from Coltons Point, having given up any hope for fishing, crabbing, oystering or clamming were settling in to a game of soccer in spite of the high tide and weather.
So much for Earl, by the time he made it past North Carolina there was not much left in him. Still, there are two more storms barreling across the Atlantic so maybe we will keep the emergency supplies handy for the next wave.
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As Earl closes in on North Carolina sometime tonight (Thursday) the Maryland Chesapeake Tidal Basin will get the first impact as it moves up the east coast. So far the President has issued an emergency declaration and the Governor has issued an emergency declaration for our area. The National Weather Service has issued a coastal flood warning for the area.
Just before nightfall the sky filled with the advancing clouds of Earl, still a couple of hundred miles away. It is a foreboding sky but we should be just beyond the real danger area. Here at the Potomac basin the tides should be effected when the hurricane winds pass offshore later tonight.
Any flooding should hit by morning and the rains should be less severe than normal hurricanes on the east coast because the hurricane keeps speeding up. It was moving at a speed of 18 miles an hour earlier today and by morning is expected to accelerate to 35 miles per hour, much faster than storms already bigger than the entire state of Florida.
The pictures show the likely path, speed, and shape from various radar and satellite imaging. Just above you can see the two storms following Earl that will be the next threat. Note the comparison below between the satellite image of Katrina and Earl.
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For those of you safely tucked away from the Atlantic Ocean Hurricane Earl is just another storm somewhere else but here in Coltons Point on the waterfront, just a few miles from the point where the Potomac River reaches the Chespeake Bay and about 100 miles from the Atlantic Ocean, we sit in the area covered by Emergency Hurricane warnings from the National and State of Maryland emergency offices.
Just 7 years ago Hurricane Isabel made a direct hit here with the eye of the hurricane passing right over Coltons Point. If Earl shifts just a few miles it could hit here again. If it takes the current projected path we could have hurricane force or tropical storm force winds as right now hurricane force winds reach out 90 miles from the eye of the storm and tropical force winds reach 200 miles.
That means winds of up to 145 miles per hour are already within reach. We sit just a few feet above sea level leaving us also subject to tidal surges which reached up to 8 feet during Isabel. In fact many old trees were uprooted and the streets along the river were literally ripped out of the ground.
Access to Coltons Point was limited to boats and amphibious vehicles during Isabel and that storm was much less severe than Earl. So we will be reporting live and in person from my front porch as the storm makes it's approach over the next 24-36 hours.
Stay tuned as we find out how accurate the Weather Service projected path might be. We will keep reporting live as long as Internet access allows but if the winds are as severe as projected there is a good chance the lines and electricity will be wiped out.
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