Sunday, September 11, 2005

Evacuate or Par-tay? You Be the Judge.

This whole Ophelia thing down here in the Carolinas is kind of confusing.  One minute everybody's talking about getting out of Dodge; the next minute they're saying, hey, hurricanes are fun, you aren't going to miss the party are you?

Depends on who you ask.  The waiter at dinner for instance, just laughed. What? Me worry? The guy at the little shop next door to the restaurant is a volunteer firefighter who pretty much said it could get real ugly fast, even though tomorrow is supposed to be like today -- sunny and nice.

According to the firefighter three out of five of the possible computer scenarios are all ending up with Ophelia hitting Cape Hatteras, then spinning around like a top in the Sound, and finally ricocheting off the Outer Banks a few times before heading back out to the ocean. It's the bouncing around back and forth on land that they're worried about. But all that depends on the high winds flying around above the storm pushing Ophelia hard and fast.  If that high takes a hike, then she won't hit land.  Like I understand any of this when there isn't a cloud in the sky.

Basically, he was all gloom and doom, but said there would be plenty of time to evacuate since they have it down to a science around here.  Yep, if Ophelia is hitting land on Wednesday morning, and it's a definite maybe so far, they'll be evacuating our part of the OBX between two and five AM before she gets here.  Perfect. The way they do that is send the fire trucks down the main road stopping every so often to wake everybody up with a PA system that will knock you out of bed.

But they [the town elders] also have to decide if it's better to stay put because there's nothing worse than trying to evacuate when the roads are flooded.  Which happened with Isabel or Floyd or one of them.  Oh, and tornadoes are also possible.

I can hardly wait.

Meanwhile my brother is checking the weather channel and every weather site on the internet for updates which he shares with us every fifteen or twenty minutes.

Can I get you a beer?  Some chips?  A little dip? 

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hmmmmm  Seems I recall someone recently being on a rant about hurricanes and evacuations......you might want to get the hell outta Dodge!

Be safe:)

Chris

Anonymous said...

Thank God I have never seen a tornado in KS and I hope to keep it that way. HOWEVER, we did have a hurricane go through Scottsdale a few years ago and had 1/1000 of an inch of rain and lots of wind! Got any of that Illinois wine you have been saving for a special occasion?  Anne

Anonymous said...

How about a slice of cheese pizza?  Where's the nearest Hyatt?  Sorry, I just HAD to say that!  You will be fine.  Have a great trip :)

Anonymous said...

Well, as Mrs Linklater is a National JLand Treasure, you'd better err on the side of caution.  You DO have to make it back over that god-awful seven-mile bridge, ya' know!

Be safe, girlfriend, seriously.

xoxoxo,
andi

ps: i can't sleep when you're not here...LOLL

Anonymous said...

Yes, Mrs. L finds the irony in all this hurricane Ophelia stuff quite amusing. She thinks this is just God's way of telling me to put up or shut up.

Anonymous said...

Hit the road, Jack.

Anonymous said...

Throw me a beer, thanks. Be safe, Mrs. L.

Anonymous said...

you be careful dammit. I did not enjoy ANY of the brushes I had with hurricanes while living in Florida. There is something wrong with rain that blows parallel to the ground and palm trees that bend almost that far.
judi

Anonymous said...

Yikes! I think you left the stove on, go home and check!
xoxo

Anonymous said...

Mrs. L
I have some experience with this sort of thing.  Please come home!
Sam

Anonymous said...

Yikes...lookit all the entries I've missed. Well, I read 'em all. I hope my Mrs.Loyalty is not in question. Category ones are kinda fun. After that, it gets scary.

Anonymous said...

hubby isn't chancing it, he'll be home because of Ophelia !

Anonymous said...

I'll take a Rolling Rock and the guacamole.

Anonymous said...

yes to all 3 (beer-chips-dip)
thank you very much :)

Anonymous said...

It took many beers to get me through the last one
Marti