Bit late now if they didn’t take precautions earlier. My daughter is inside with a good book and flashlight in suburban northern Virginia. I think commenter gppp is up in the area. I hope all will stay inside and stay safe.

Live in Norfolk now. Water a bit high, but so far, so good. Y’all a bit further up north, good luck.

Rains heavy and winds up to 50 mph at times but we’re safe, five miles south of Old Town Alexandria. My Ginger (the loveliest 75 pounds of Lab-Shepherd-Pit mix I’ve ever known) doesn’t like it because she hates rain. We’ve had to try a few tricks to get her outside for certain purposes. Aside from that we’ve been OK so far.

Water levels on the Potomac River (half mile away) have been no higher than 1.5 foot above normal so far today, which is encouraging. The worst of it is still to come, but we should get through this storm OK.

Prayers needed north of here for central NJ and the Delaware Valley, which will probably should see flooding for many miles inland in places by late tomorrow and Wednesday. Some in NYC are already saying parts of the subway system could be shut down for weeks.

A BCP prayer for all of you in the whirlwind:

From lightning and tempest; from earthquake, fire, and flood; from plague, pestilence, and famine; from battle and murder, and from sudden death,

Good Lord, deliver us.

My 97 year old mother who lives alone in Fairfax was complaining she can’t finish the garden because of the rain. My step-sister lives north of Annapolis on one of the little inlets. All we have to worry about is storm surge and Canada geese messing up the lawns.

Apparently it snowed in the mountains in Blue Ridge

Hubby grew up in MD, just inland from Assateague (sp?) Island, and has told me about these things. And I recall being with him in Pocomoke City one time when one was hitting 200 miles (!) down the coast, with “horizontal rain” coming in under his mother’s back porch door faster than I could mop it. I still think tornadoes are more nasty– so little, if any at all, warning– but I’m also praying for anyone anywhere near this thing! We (Indiana) have first responders etc en route to help, as do many states I am sure. Godspeed all. gppp, hope you don’t run out of tricks to get Ginger outside (is it like with cats, i.e. a trick only works once?!)

Some tricks work more than once, but not many. When the need is urgent enough she’ll go out in it and get wet. I’m still up (10:35pm) waiting for that moment, which I hope will come soon. I’m tired.

Also in Northern Virginia, apparently not too far from gppp. Plenty of wind and rain but no serious damage to be seen from my house. No power outage in my neighborhood so far, either. Unfortunately, we have a lot more rain headed this way. Since our soil is mostly clay, quite large trees can be uprooted by high winds when the ground is super-saturated, and our suburban areas have a awful lot of big old trees.

Ethel, I know I promised to mow the lawn but it’s just going to have to wait!

Wow – is that a shark?

I find it ironic that big cities like New York and Atlantic city are made helpless by a category 1 storm. But then, I reflect what happens down here when we get more than an inch of snow.

So I guess it evens out. Praying for all who have to deal with storm damage and flooding, not to mention loss of power.

It is not a good thing at all!

May God watch over and protect you all!

“big cities like New York and Atlantic City are made helpless by a category 1 storm”

Actually, that just goes to show the limitations of Saffir-Simpson hurricane categorizing, which is based purely on sustained wind speeds and fails to take into account storm surge, inland flooding from heavy rains, and other factors. A hurricane that is “only” Category 1 or 2 can still have an extremely dangerous storm surge, which is what is causing most of the trouble for those two cities.

Well said, ma’am.

Shark is good eating. You generally don’t want it swimming up to your front door though. I know I wouldn’t.

Wow: break out the fishing gear: fresh flake right outside your door: Flake (shark fillets) are absolutely yummy. The favourite fish in the favourite Friday take out meal: fish and chips, in the State of Victoria, Australia. If you catch one make sure you bleed it immediately as it has bad kidney functions and will ruin the flesh.

Honey, have you seen the dog?

I let him out on the porch.

Oh.

Michael D Not a shark, just a Democrat

I posted a link to the shark picture on another topic, but see also this one.

As to gppp’s goggie, I’m surprised. My Lab loves going out in the rain. We went out last night for “walkies” at about 10:00pm. My cats also “reserve the right” to go out in any sort of weather.

TLM, cats do that, don’t they? When our first kitty had to be put on a Rx diet and became an indoor-only cat, he would circle the boxie, crying, at first, because he so preferred going out! By then, it was no longer safe, between speeding on even town streets and wierd people, to let a kitty go outdoors, so he remained an indoor-only kitty after recovering, and our subsequent kitties are too, even out here– hilly road, speeding cars……boxies are a pain in the butt to scoop and so on, but not that bad, and on the whole, the ease of a boxie vs. having to go walkies-ing is a lovely thing. Gppp, be careful under the storm-weakened trees, even after the wind lets up!