It's already being downgraded to a tropical storm. It'll blow itself out in no time, or when it reaches Canada whichever comes first.

I don't suppose it will be too bad.

Posted September 19, 2003 6:24 AM by Larry Lurex

For what it's worth, in approximately the Philadelphia area, we saw almost nothing: the trashcans ran about the lawn and one of our trees which is constantly dropping large dead branches on the lawn dropped a less-than-dead branch that looked as though it had been torn off.

Except for a little coastal flooding, it looks like the garden state dodged this one completely.

Posted September 19, 2003 8:58 AM by Daniel Martin

We got gusting winds and a little rain, and our garbage cans stayed put. This morning it's all blue skies and light breezes.

Posted September 19, 2003 9:30 AM by Teresa Nielsen Hayden

From above: I don't suppose it will be too bad.

Tell it to the people living on the coast of North Carolina. Here in Durham, we had a few inches of rain and a lot of wind, but there are no large tree branches down in the backyard, so we've seen bigger storms. We had no power for about four hours.

It's a beautiful day today, though.

Posted September 19, 2003 10:52 AM by Jesse

Just moved to Raleigh right in time for the hurricane. (Left Sandy Eggo and airily pooh-poohed those folks who gave me dire warnings about the weather here.) Despite the fact that this hurricane had my name all over it--Isabel being Spanish for Elizabeth, I'm told--I found it slightly anti-climatic. I'm not sure if I should be grateful or disappointed, so I'm both. :)

We had a few trees torn up and some power outages, but Raleigh was pretty well off as far as I can tell. Lee and I spent the latter part of the day playing Baldur's Gate on the Playstation at his office.

Posted September 19, 2003 12:34 PM by PiscusFiche

Be ye forgetten what day it be ya swabs? Or be just *talking* like pyrate good enough for ye?

Posted September 19, 2003 12:50 PM by Stefan Jones

Anticlimatic? If Isabel is anything, she is climatic.

Posted September 19, 2003 3:00 PM by Toni

But she's also anticyclonic.

http://www.planearthsci.com/products/Hurricanes/tutorial%20pieces/Exercises/ExerciseTwo.html

Posted September 19, 2003 3:31 PM by Christopher

Aye, Stefan.

Xopher, ye blasted cockaroacher, ye beat me to "anticyclonic".

Posted September 19, 2003 4:52 PM by Teresa Nielsen Hayden

Aye, my aged Ps, up Catskills way, be landlubbers, but livin' between two creeks as they do were all set to pump the bilges but saw nought but mighty mast-cracking gales. Arrr.

Posted September 19, 2003 5:07 PM by Stefan Jones

According to what I heard on CNN, Fells Point (where we ate dinner at a lovely restaurant during Balticon in May) was waist-deep in water during the tidal surge because of Isabel. Sigh. I hope the restaurant is okay (I think it was called John Steven's but I may not be remembering right, we traveled waaaaay too much this summer until Torcon).

Posted September 19, 2003 9:23 PM by Paula Helm Murray

And in Boston, we're getting the whiptails of the storm: tropically hot and humid (as September on Boston goes), and every now and then the atmosphere gets squeezed just so and dribbles, or spits, or produces a 30-second downpour; I drove home with one hand flailing madly between the gearshift and the wiper switch.

But after Gloria and Bob, I'm not complaining....

Posted September 19, 2003 10:14 PM by CHip

Paula--

I haven't been down to Fells Point so I don't know the status of any specific businesses, but I did hear that many of them expected to be open on Saturday.

I'm in Baltimore, on higher ground. I had no basement flooding (which I can get in a regular rainstorm), a broken tree branch that hit the car parked next to me instead of mine -- but no power for about 18 hours. So, two out of three.

The biggest problem I had was driving this evening with a lot of traffic lights still out. These become officially four-way stops. Well, forget that...pretty dangerous at all those intersections.

Posted September 20, 2003 12:32 AM by Jeffrey D. Smith

Am I detecting a tone of disappointment in these comments?

The hurricane struck hardest in NC, but the media hurricane was in Washington, D.C. where I live, so I was exposed to the excesses of the Washington Post and local TV stations.

Remember, Washington, D.C. is a town that panics at the least sign of weather, not even "heavy weather." A series of snowstorms shut down the city and schools in February.

Isabel's effects were not much worse than the regular or garden variety "heavy thunderstorms" which usually affect the D.C. area in summer. Or so it seems, since the media-induced terror led viewers to expect their houses to be whirled away in Wizard of Oz-like fashion.

The Washington Post ran for three days with almost nothing but hurricane coverage, both "before" warnings and "after" reportage, with photos. I'm not trying to belittle those who were severely affected in the D.C. area -- flooding in Alexandria and Annapolis and power outages still affect thousands, and small businesses and restaurants can least afford it.

But Isabel gave Team Bush a three- or four-day break from political and military embarrassment; or rather, since they aren't medically capable of blushing or spiritually capable of remorse, the Post writers were spared vicarious embarrassment on their behalf. Politics as usual picked up Sunday.

Though it was amusing to see the photo of the giant crayfish walking across the flooded highway. No key to scale was shown, but it must have been at least eight inches long. Or did someone get clever with Photoshop?

Posted September 21, 2003 8:33 PM by sara