Bye Bye Isabel! Where Are You Headed Next?

Chris

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Oct 21, 2002
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Cheers Isabel!

May you not make landfall anywhere and blow yourself out harmlessly over empty ocean!

It has been a great day for us watching the play in the sky. (I guess watching the weather closely, comes from many years of sailing). The outer bands are little wispy clouds that make a striking pattern in the sky. I woke up early this morning with the early sunrise lighting up these almost concentric wispy bands and turning them red gold.

How lucky can we be to have the joy of seeing this play out in front of our eyes but be safe from the destruction. (right at the moment that is).
 

socuban

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Nov 24, 2002
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move like a boomerang, Isabel

and circle back out to the Atlantic. DR real estate is safe, now I have to worry about the boat in FL!:nervous:
 

XanaduRanch

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Sep 15, 2002
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Amen to That Ken!

We benefitted quite a bit by serendipity here. The storm actually just wobbled to the west-northwest more than moved that way for onw. More importantly these storms contract as they strengthen and expand as they weakn. Isabel as she approached weakened and expanded witht he storms as far south as the latitude of Santo Domingo at one point. Then, as it made it's closest approacj it strengthened and contracted and - nothing!

We are getting some storms with rain, lightning and wind here on the north coast right now and these, if you look at the satellite are actually part of the southern 'exhaust' of Isabel. We'll take it. We need the rain!

Tom (aka XR)
 

AnnaC

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Jan 2, 2002
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Well thank God it missed you. I see it's headed north. We should have it by Friday.

We need the rain too.
 
Isabel

headed for land somewwhere along the Carolina coast, likely NC then cross over land and hit the Great Lakes Basin by Sunday, they are predicting high winds( 80 mph+/-) and rain for this area, much like Hazel in 1957 so they say.
Anna batten down the hatches, it is headed our way.
 

bdaric

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Aug 28, 2003
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Rain

I noticed some of you mentioned how you needed the rain.

Here in Bermuda, we have what they call underground lenses, natural underground reservoirs of water which are supplied by the rainwater falling on the island.

Every new house built, and at only 20 odd sq mls we are running out of space,
must have a tank built next to or under it to collect water running off the roofs.
Roofs are painted with a special wash and folks put a few drops of clorox or chlorine into the many hundreds of gallons tank to ensure no nasty bugs live in it.
If we have a continued period of drought or little rain there are dozens of water trucks which go to a government based area where a series of pumps
which look like the big hoses which used to fill steam trains.

Do you have a railway in DR?

The trucks then deliver their loads at about $50 per load and fill up your tank.
It can take a few loads to fill up!!

In DR do you not have rivers or streams that can be used as a source of fresh water?

In recent years a company set up a large desalination plant to augment
our limited and inconsistent water supply.
Some hotels have done similiar things though on a slightly smaller scale.
Rich..
 

XanaduRanch

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Sep 15, 2002
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11AM Tuesday Update

The Isabel we here in the DR fretted over no longer exists.

The storm doesn't look anything like when it was a few hundred miles away from here and a CAT5. It is currently a CAT2 and likely will weaken to a strong CAT1 over the next day and a half before picking back up to a CAT2 at landfall. There is some possibility that after the weakening it may just fall apart.

Isabel seems to be heading for the outer banks of North Carolina, or a little south of that, maybe between Wilmington and there. In either case it looks like it will not be affecting flights much from New York/New Jersey to the DR. Maybe some rain delays from Washington Friday.

It would seem Isabel has an aversion to Dominicans, missing us here in the DR, and avoiding all the Dominicans living in Neuba Yor'!

Cheers!

Tom (aka XR)
 

XanaduRanch

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Sep 15, 2002
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Isabel Heading Ashore

The eyewall of Isabel coming ashore on the North Carolina Outer Banks now and over the next hour. Cape Hatteras just reported a wind gust of 79 mph...and a gust to 85 mph was reported at Ocracoke North Carolina. The storm has really increased in size from when it was hanging off the northeast coast. Right now hurricane force winds extend outward up to 115 miles from the center...and tropical storm force winds extend outward up to 345 miles! Had that been the case last week we'd have had those hurricane parties for sure!

Max winds are around 100 mph. Remeber, it hand wind gusts to around 200 mph, or twice that off our coast. Watch some of the TV images, and note that those are only 55-60 mph winds we're seeing mostly. Imagine that here, but stronger!

The oppressed peoples of the Domincan Republic and the Caribbean dodged a bullet with Isabel. Good luck to our Yanqui Imperialist friends up north! :: wink ::

Tom (aka XR)
 

dawnwil

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Aug 27, 2003
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XR Tom,

I've had the Weather Network on here all morning... watching those visual wind reports at 50-60 miles/hr in NC.

And I was thinking: wow, imagine the difference between a Cat 2 and Cat 5.

It is strange to suddenly see Isabel monopolize the weather forecasts, knowing that a week ago the winds were unimaginably stronger, and I was biting my nails reading the Isabel thread a more than once a day. It feels like deja vu.

Even more bizarre, I woke to 4 inches of snow here yesterday!

I too hope the lady dispels her fury harmlessly.
 

XanaduRanch

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Sep 15, 2002
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Yeah, imagine. That's one reason why I think so many people paid close attention to Isabel as she went by that usually disparage talking about storms.

Interestingly enough, as close a shave as that was, it is amazing that 99% of the Dominicans and residents I've talked to here knew absolutely nothing about it having been just 350-400 miles away, and a real threat.
 

Keith R

"Believe it!"
Jan 1, 2002
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Re: Isabel Heading Ashore

XanaduRanch said:
The oppressed peoples of the Domincan Republic and the Caribbean dodged a bullet with Isabel. Good luck to our Yanqui Imperialist friends up north! :: wink ::

Tom (aka XR)
Well, Isabel is arriving up here in DC area, and looking nastier by the minute. But still nothing like Georges. Still get shivers when I watch our video of Georges. At least, though, going through that in SD in 1998 trained us well. We're much better prepped in all senses (including emotionally) for this storm than our neighbors are.
Regards,
A Yanqui Imperialist Friend Up North
 

pasha

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Sep 4, 2003
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From the grey.....

Washington DC area, many thanks to all the DR1s who must have used some serious ju-ju to send that thing our way. At 13:45 it is coming down buckets, winds have picked up quite a bit though nothing to worry at this stage. Think most expect major flooding [ground here is saturated from heavy summer rainfall], power outages and the possibility of a tornado. I took a few before pics, just in case there's something interesting "after."

Kinda funny when I went to big grocery store this morning....the only H2O left on shelf was Freedom Water and not much of that. Also looked like a major run on potato/corn chips, vienna sausage, bread and beer....the real essentials in other words. Well, maybe not the bread.

Supposed to be all over but the shouting in a day or so.

Best, P
 

XanaduRanch

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Sep 15, 2002
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pasha said:
From the grey Washington DC area, many thanks to all the DR1s who must have used some serious ju-ju to send that thing our way.
So Bill! The roof still there? How's the cerveza supply holding out?

Oh, and buy the way, we import all of our serious ju-ju from Haiti, across the border from Dajabon. The local stuff the make down in Higuey has too much dilution of Presidente, Mangu, and Platinos to have any real voodoo effect!

Tom (aka XR)
 

Keith R

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Jan 1, 2002
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After a brief period of relative calm, it's now blowing & raining like all hell here in Metro DC, wind howling. Electricity has blinked on and off so many times I've lost count....
 

Keith R

"Believe it!"
Jan 1, 2002
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XR,
I lived that life in SD for four years, including over a week without electricity and 3 days without water because of Hurricane Georges. I love the DR and my Dominican family and friends and miss them, but the "light" mess is something I most definitely do not miss!

I may yet lose my electricity & phone line in this storm, but at least I know that here in Northern Virginia someone will come to repair them, and probably quickly. In SD, CDE & Tricom never showed up, and I had to pay guys off the street to fix things. Worse, they tried to charge me for my time without service!

Nope, don't miss that type of service at all!

Regards,
Keith
 

kjdrga

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Mar 25, 2002
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Isabel is no match for us!

Welll thanks Isabel for taking away my power and then giving it back and taking it away and playing this game of hide and seek.... Our (Annandale, VA) power returned about 9:30 last night but now there is NO water. Luckily from my Georges experience we are well stocked with both food and water and the bathtub is full of water.

We now have lights but there are nearly 2 million people still in the dark and the water pumping stations in Fairfax have no power thus no water for Fairfax county. THere are no traffic lights which makes driving look like leap frog.

Luckily we have a gas stove so we were able to cook last night. The wind wasn't too bad here about 30 mph with gust of up to 44 mph and only 2.3 " of rain, but to say the least there are many other places that are flooded.

Cell phone service is sporadic sometimes we have service most of the time we haven't had much of any signal. They are saying power could be out anywhere from 3-7 days and the time table on water is 48-72 hours.

Unlike the DR where hurricanes bring people together to eat and play dominioes and cards, we passed this sucker pretty bored and took the time to clean part of the house.

Since I have lights I suspect friends will be coming over to watch news/movies and internet.... I should make them bring at least a gallon of water each, haa haa...