I went through a typhoon in Okinawa in 2009-10. It was pretty intense. Especially considering we cleared out the PX from all alcohol and we’re forced to stay in the barracks. Guys we’re windsurfing the parking lot with ponchos, pool ball (billiards) launching from the 3rd deck into 100+ mph wind, cars were thrown around the lot. The windows were leaking, it was a good time.
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Short video from front porch. Does not really convey the power of this thing.
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Well if that doesn’t just take the cake…
…all the deck furniture stolen…dang kids!…oh what’s that honey? …in the garage?…never mind.
OK, more serious:
We are just past High Tide
…and this is what the creek and tidal marshland in the back yard looks like (looking roughly north).
So standing water in some of the lower areas in the marsh (left side of photo)…not that unusual but the next high tide, with the winds shifted around to the NE and pushing the surge right into the Back River…I might want to start building an Ark.
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Greenville, Goldsboro, and the surrounding rural areas are under shelter in place orders and mandatory curfews from 2200 to 0600 tomorrow morning. Tornado warnings have been upgraded to watches.
Reporter from Raleigh in Emerald Isle half an hour ago:
“I’m reporting from xxx mobile home emporium. The wind and rain is heavy, but I’ve taken shelter behind this collapsed building…”
Stay safe, everybody.
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Yeah…that northwest quadrant is spinning up so many tornadoes. To my great amazement, my brother (Myrtle Beach) did not lose power.
I worry though. I think this hurricane has caused some hurricane fatigue, and even though the Bahamas got demolished, I think the damage from this one, though it will be significant in some areas, is going to breed a “I should have stayed” mentality. Heck…when I was living at the beach, I stayed too. But I just worry if a legit CAT 5 comes along many will shrug and just ride it out.
My wife and I had a good chat about that last night when the majority of the hurricane had passed. We looked at the kids and asked ourselves did we make the right call. In this case the storm was moving so slowly and pretty much remained on it’s projected track, even though it did intensify to a category 3 near Charleston. We also don’t live far from the Interstate and felt like we could have escaped should the track turned west at any time. And in contrast to Abaco, it’s almost not worth commenting.
Still, between about 1400 and 1600 yesterday, we watched the very tall pines, which surround our home, sway like grass, groaning and cracking, with the occasional branch crashing down. There were times when I questioned our decision. The house is solid brick, but no match for falling trees. A bizarre thing was to observe the really old massive oak in front of our house, with a large branch overhanging to front porch. It didn’t seem to move an inch during the storm. It stood defiant as concrete.
Had the storm tracked 25-30 miles to the west, the picture would have been far different and we would have been evacuating for sure.
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It is hard to judge. I think people underestimate that even a “puny” cat.1 hurricane is still a hurricane.
You made the right call, but then you are an educated man that can judge the risk a bit better than most people probably can.
If I had to make the call… I’d probably leave. Especially since if you decide to leave at a later point, suddenly there might be traffic jams (because others did the same thing) and the like and you might not make it.
For a small state, South Carolina has fairly sophisticated DOT, in that there is an app available to the public, showing traffic cams along the highways. But yeah, it might have been all elbows and arseholes had Dorian taken a sudden left turn.
I remember when Andrew, which was projected to landfall between KFLL and KPBI took a sudden left turn and wiped out South Miami, including Homestead AFB. My truck was at a friend’s house in Hollywood. In a last minute phone call he apologized for leaving it there when he fled to - you guessed it - Cutler Ridge, which is in South Miami. They were having a hurricane party when the furniture in the screened-in pool area (AKA Florida room) began levitating. The party house was completely flattened except for the small bathroom adjacent to the central CBS wall where the revilers took shelter. His Ford F150 had a palm tree laying in the bed, impaling the cab and crushing it. When he returned home a week later, he found my truck with a small palm branch on the hood.
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Hampton Update:
Storm surge is a bit concerning:
It is about low tide…
…and the water level is above yesterday’s high tide.
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It is official. Dorian is now a Cat 1 hurricane…
…anyway, just a short video of the storm surge flooding into Harris River. The normal flow is from left to right, but not today.
a photo for comparison to yesterday and this morning.
FYI High tide here will be 15:57 EDT.
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The water got close to the house…just touched one corner of the foundation. This was the view at about 3 minutes after high tide. It has gone way down since then.
On a related subject, I grabbed a nice METAR.rwx file through XP11 at the height of things in this area around noonish. Did a flight through some really gnarly weather near KECG (Egg Harbor NC).
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I spent most of Friday cleaning up my yard, then Saturday brother Bill and I drove up to Pawleys Island to asses the damage and clean up the yard. We fared reasonably well, with the water heater as the only loss affecting habitation.
We found a nice set of stairs under the house. Well finished Teak making it too heavy to move without taking it apart. Will post on Insta and FB.
I counted 11 missing boards on the walkway out to our dock, easy to replace with marine 2 x 6. Our neighbor to the left lost about 75 ft of walkway. He lives in Phily so we Faces Timed him. Will be a nice fall project.
The water level reached about 3 feet high in our garage across the street which kept cruiser bikes hanging and a lawnmower up in a 2 foot high platform. So I’m guessing an oil change . It’s a Briggs and Stratton so used to the abuse.
As we worked a small group of neighbors gathered in the street. We expressed frustration of having hurricanes during high tide 2 years in a row, but happy to have minimal damage. The south end of the island had it much worse.
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OK, last two photos, I promise. I finally went over to see my neighbor’s house this afternoon while doing more yard work. He said that they heard it fall about 0930 Thurs. I’m definitely going out to buy a lottery ticket this afternoon 
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Sad about the big tree but y’all were really lucky that nothing big hit your houses!
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You guys able to crab from the end of that thing? I’ll bring the beer! Errr…wait…
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What is really insane about this storm (well, beyond what it did to Abaco and Grand Bahama of course) is that it still packed a massive punch rolling into Halifax…!
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Perhaps trade some Wooden Robot, A**clown, Unknown, and Sycamore for some Pawleys Island? I’d gladly bring some Bond Brothers and Trophy.
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Since I was about 6 years old 
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