Posts Tagged weather

Writing this off and on through the day Sunday. Lost power last night as well as cell service. We are all ok and fine. Lots of debris to clear up but no damage at all to house or property. A lot of the area experienced a lot of flooding and water damage. We worked this morning to clear the front yard and haul it all to the back to be disposed of at a later date.
We had power all through the first half of the storm but once the eye passed over the backside was worse than the front. Lots of heavy wind and rain. Soundside experienced a lot of flooding. A lot of homes at lower elevations had water inside. Listening to the local radio to get information as no one has any access to any news other than locals calling in to report. Getting updates from county management as well from the radio. News so far for power to our area is that they can’t get to the substation down the road from us. So the whole lower half of the county will be out of power for an indefinite time. Will try to post this as soon as I get a signal. More later.

The waiting game is in full swing and listening to the updates closely. Latest update at 2 shows the wind speed has dropped a small bit, but this is still a very large massive storm with potential for a lot of wind and rain. As well it is a slow moving system and we are expected to have a combo of tropical storm/hurricane conditions for approxiamately a 21 hour period, so the danger is still there in that respect. We’ve settled in now and all preparations are done. I’m trying not to eat up all the snack food we bought for the next few days, that’s a hard task as well for me ;) Just keeping an eye on the updates now. The outer bands have been moving through since the morning but not much to them, I just took a look outside and the cloud cover is becoming a lot heavier now so it will likely be a day or more before we see the sun again. Who knows what else we might see then!

I’ve been on the BBC Radio again ths year as well! another two minutes of fame for this year. lol I replied again to a story on the hurricane on their site and they contacted me requesting an interview. I did one last night for one of the local radio stions, can’t remember now which one, but just a quickie. Then this morning was contacted by BBC Radio Wales requesting one early this afternoon, which was fun to do, and just now got a call from the BBC London requsting one for this evening for one of their main news programs, or should I spell it, programmes!? I won,t bother trying to record it though. so don’t worry you will have to listen to the audio file! ;)

Back after a while for another update, long as we have power, Peace out from Grandy, NC Hurricane Central

Waking this morning to a bit of better news, the storm has weakened even if only by a few miles an hour, category 2 now and hopefully no major intensification. Still going to be a lot of wind and rain in the area. Praying we will be spared any major damage. I grabbed this image showing the latest projected path of the storm (purple line) the red star is our house. too close for comfort!

We’re settled in and have made all our preparations, just a bit more tidying up of the yard to do this morning. Forecast calls for the outer bands of the storm to be moving in the area around midday. they have just reached the Cape Hatteras area this morning aound 5:30 am. Conditions will go downhill from there through the night bringing tropical storm force winds and heavy rain. Hurricane conditions are expected early Saturday morning. Anxious time now just waiting. You dont think about it so much when you’re busy doing things to get ready, but when the prep is all done and you’re just watching the news and weather, it gets to you a bit. To all our friends in the area, stay safe and pray for things to pass over without any major damage. More as it comes

Watching the news and keeping an eye on Irene. We’ve started today checking our supplies and getting a few things ready, never hurts to be prepared!

We’ve been lucky in the sense that this is the first hurricane of the season, unlucky in that it’s looking as it may head our way. We DO need the rain though! very badly , it has been very dry this summer. We’ll keep you udated as things progress.

Ok closer to 3 minutes but we’ll take it! LOL I metioned in one of the posts about hurricane Earl that we were contacted by BBC radio in London after I made a comment to one of their news articles which asked at the end for reader contributions about preparing for the hurricane. I was quite surprised actually when they called me later that evening and asked if we would mind to go on one of the radio programmes, 5Live and speak. We got quite a kick out of the idea and agreed. They got a bit of background info and we went on. Both of us were quite nervous, well me for sure! Anyway they thanked us and asked to share any photos or videos and such. Well we tried to get a few pics and a vid or two but with all that was happening preparing for the storm we didnt have time to get anything really good or interesting. Plus we were worn out as well. Anyway after that initail radio interview I guess they passed on the fact that Alison was from the Northeast of England to their colleagues in Newcastle which is near to Sunderland and the idea of them speaking to a local girl who was in North Carolina was to their liking. So out of the blue the next morning we get another call from BBC Newcastle. The number came upo blocked on my cell so I didnt answer it thinking it was work calling and wanting me to come in on my day off!  They left a voicemail and a number and since I still have a subscription on to Skype I called them back. They asked us if we would spend a few minutes to pre record an interview to air on their morning show “Alfie and Charlie at Breakfast” . We spent a little bit of time talking to a few of them there, very nice and friendly people they are! Anyway we did the interview and found out when it would be on. It aired this morning about half past 7  UK time, of course we snoozing, or trying to snooze. The wind and rain were whipping up a lot then. Wasn’t so bad as it could have been, the hurricane had weakend and was making a northeastward turn as we were going to bed so we were spared the brunt of the storm. Anyway we were back at work first thing this morning and didnt have power so we would have to wait until we returned to try and hear it. As it turned out I was only at work about an hour when my cell rang and it showed “blocked” ! Well I answered it and it was BBC Newcastle again saying the interview was picked up by the BBC London and broadcast all over! Being at work I didnt have a lot of time to talk but they said they want to do another one on how we made out and all. So they are supposed to get back with us to set a time for it. As for the interview we prerecorded it wasn’t until we got back home that we had a listen to it and I was able to record it. 

OK without further ado, here we are!

Our (Alison’s) interview on the BBC

They’re saying now it will be around 3am this morning before Earl is supposed to be off of Cape Hatteras so it’s going to be a very long night! :( Just now the wind is beginning to pick up here. This is one of the tiring parts of going through these things, the waiting. It’s nerve wracking at times just sitting and wondering. Guess we have things at the ready, food and supplies, over 100 gallons of water stored up and all the hatches battened down so its just the wait. With it being night when it hits I wont be able to see or record any video. Probably could get some audio but who wants to hear that! Anyway we’re safe and just sitting around, going to get a shower soon and afterwards fill up the tub with water as well. Then I think its time for a gin and tonic! ;) even went back to the store to get the lemon!!

This morning our county decalred a state of emergency when it began to issue evacuation orders for visitors in the outer banks part of the county. This state of emergency also suspends the sale of alcohol in the county, much to the dismay of many! lol well lucky we made our purchases yesterday!!

I suppose its a good thing they do this, I’m sure alcohol causes some stupid decisions/actions when it comes to hurricanes, but I’m sure many already have stocked up as we did!

Will have more pics and things on in a bit as we have a few more preparations to do before the weather gets bad, and Alison once again got an interview with BBC newcastle radio this morning! She’s a star now! They prerecorded an interview which will be braodcast in the morning on BBC  Newcastle radio tomorrow morning about 7:20 am UK time. Heres the link to the program for anyone interested to hear it!

Some pics from yesterday’s snow here in Grandy NC

Fun but cold!!

Handy Hugo's in Grandy, NC during the November Nor'easter

Just a bit of the flooding that occured during the last couple of days here in northeastern NC from the nor’easter that hit us, the remnants of tropical cyclone Ida

behind the Exxon station in Grandy

A view from behind the Exxon station in Grandy, NC on Thursday November 12, 2009