What may Isabel mean to Chesapeake?

A comical take on CNN's coverage:

"Hi, it's sleepybear Aaron Brown--hunkered down at CNN's Storm of the Century anchordesk! Hurricane Isabel roars towards us! Thank God we've stockpiled extra batteries and hairspray... " "And I'm Paula Zahn, already tearful at the awful devastation to come. Everybody button up, stay away from windows, eat more protein. I see panic, I see flooding, oh the humanity... "

"Easy Paula, don't peak too soon. Let's go to Wolf Blitzer, scared to death at Killdevil Hills on the endangered coast. Can you see Isabel yet, Wolf?"

"A terrible scene of anticipation, Aaron. Tiny waves here, cruel portent of a storm surge to come. Bright sunshine, handmaiden to Isabel's terrible fury."

"Wolf, it's me, Paula Zahn. Isn't it frightening to see such calm? When do we expect the entire Eastern seaboard to be swept away?"

"Living inland cannot protect you from CNN's awesome and continuing coverage, Paula. Just look at this file footage of some other hurricane whose name I forget. Incredibly ugly. Whoa! My coat just blew open."

"Who's that man with a hammer behind you, Wolf?"

"That's Bob. Why won't you leave, Bob? Why won't you flee and allow this community to become a ghost town?"

"I've got work to do, Mr. Blitzer. I don't have all day to watch CNN graphics."

"If you've just tuned in, I'm Aaron Brown with continuing CNN coverage of Isabel, the Evil One. I'm incredibly fearful. I hope you viewers are too."

"It's me -- Paula Zahn -- sitting next to you, Aaron. I've reached Official CNN Climate Terror Meteorologist Harlow Meek. He's standing in front of the big swirling animation we've been showing for days. Mr. Meek, will this be the most devastating hurricane ever?"

"Well, the hurricane is still a day away from the coast. I wouldn't want to use that word, Paula."

"Oh, go on. Devastating. Say it."

"Isabel still certainly has the potential to be devastating."

"Thank you. That's what we pay you for."

"Quickly, can we just bring in Anderson Cooper, who flew thru a lot of scary clouds and stuff earlier today on the Hurricane Express? Was this a storm tracking flight, Anderson? Did you fly thru the eye? Were you terrified?"

"It was a powerful lesson, Aaron. Nature's brute force. Very bumpy."

"Thanks so much. Financial markets are rightly fearful of this storm. Lou Dobbs at the Stock Exchange? Can you tell us? Are plywood futures up?"

"Yes, Aaron. Nails too. Insurance is down."

"The markets, already reeling from Isabel's awful power. Can we go back to our live shot of the storm surf? Aww. It'll get bigger, I promise you. Joining us now, CNN Military Analyst Griff Griffin. General: how can we be sure al-Qaida is not involved?"

"Well Aaron, to actually create a hurricane this big would require more than one million fans. We don't believe al-Qaida has more than 1,000. So this is probably a real hurricane. They occur naturally and often."

"General, it's Paula Zahn--across the table from you. How can viewers protect themselves from being pounded senseless? Will this she-devil's storm surge reach to Toronto and Chicago? When should people shoot their neighbours and steal their food?"

"Not yet, Paula. Not 'til CNN says so. We'll probably have a map."

"Aaron again. The picture you're looking at is live, a flag flapping on a Sheraton somewhere. But on higher ground, CNN's Larry King is preparing tonight's show? Larry?"

"We've got a great panel tonight, Aaron. An amateur 11-year-old meteorologist, a Gentile Provocateur from Club Med, the Mississippi psychic grandma who predicted this storm and a man who sells sand bags. Plus Angie Dickenson! And look who's here! Ah-nold Schwarzenegger!"

"Hel-lo Aaron. CNN frightened da airport so badly, my plane back to Caleefornia vas canceled last night. But I yam here to tell you, I vant to punch out dis storm. Hasta la vista, hurricane. Wit Larry, we terminate Isabel."

"You go, governor. That's at 9 p.m. Eastern, everybody. And Paula, you've got the latest results from the CNN Poll?"

"We asked people what scares them most. Hurricanes lead with 44%. Then come conservative talk shows with 31, terrorists with 16. Surprisingly, only 9% said another hour of alarmist CNN coverage."

"Again I remind viewers, our poll is not scientific. We just do it to show you something."

"A viewing reminder, Aaron: On Newsnight, General Wesley Clark, who's coming out of retirement to fight this hurricane. And at midnight, an hour with Ann Coulter and Laura Ingraham, blonde authors of Blowhards--a timely new book that claims liberals cause hurricanes."

"Don't get too comfortable, folks. Paula. I will be right back."

Voice of James Earl Jones: "This ... is CNN. Be very afraid."

Toronto Sun

Hatteras May Never Be The Same.

I had been waiting to see pictures from Ocracoke and the south islands, where we stayed. This story is so sad.

Heard from friends in Baltimore by phone today.Still some flooding of basements and stuff. Fells Point was underwater for a while. My favourite greasy spoon, Jimmys, may be gone for good depending on how much it costs to repar the damage. One of my fellow instructors from the UMBC Karate Club lost a lot of shingles on his roof.
This is from the Sun:
Storm Damage

sofia go to www.newsandobserver.com any you may see some pictures of Hatteras and other areas. +

Still waiting to hear from RealJohn to see how he and his pregnant employee family faired.

Good afternoon. So we survived, but about 20 people didn't. There is belittlement of the media and one columnist today called it a "non-event."
The damage in NC and VA will probably get into the tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars.

I realize this story is already ancient history but here are some remembrances:
Thurs11am: It's windy and rainy but still not scary. Six of us are still at the store and there are still customers coming in. Two of my employees, who live way out in the country, decide to leave at noon.
4:30pm: It has gotten pretty damn nasty. There are no cars on the road so we decide to shut down.
Four of us are left and there is still power. We dawdle. We know, intuitively or by calls home, that our houses will be dark.
5:15pm: It takes me longer than usual to get home, despite the lack of traffic. It still isn't real windy but, after a very wet summer, a lot of trees simply can't keep their roots in the earth anymore.
They fall and take out any power lines they can reach.
5:30pm: No power at my house, of course. I empty the refrigerator of all kinds of cool stuff with the idea of making (by my standards) a gourmet supper.
6:00pm: I'm back at the shop and there is no power. I still make a pretty great salad.
11:00pm: There are eight or ten of us in the building, including David and his wife and some employees of other tenants, as well as some of my people. It's a big building, so there is plenty of space to spread out.
Fri3:00am: A big building and very dark. One of the refugees managed to find her way to the bathroom but got hopelessly lost trying to get back. I wake up & we find the way. It's raining pretty hard.
7:00 am: It's calm. The skies are clearing. We drive home to see how the house fared. All of the stoplights are out, of course. Something like 1 and a half million consumers, including 80% of Dominion Power's customers, are without power this morning. Something cool to see: the main N/S
highway is eight lanes but there are a few E/W roads of four lanes. Someone going N/S would slow and stop. Cars coming up beside would do the same and eventually, with waving and horn-honks of apreciation, the E/W cars could cross.
7:15am: The house is fine.
9:00am: We get back back to the shop after driving around for awhile. There are a lot of trees and power lines down. Not just little trees which, if they fell in the forest, would make little sound. Big oaks crashed. I saw a lady counting the rings on one of those; an oak so big that even the longest-armed basketball player couldn't get around.
3:00pm: Having given up on getting power at the shop today, I come home. Still no electricity. We are sitting out on the front porch, feeling pretty sorry for ourselves. A pick-up pulls in at the office complex across the road. The dude get out, unlocks the door at one of the space, flips a switch and there is light.
Our house gets its power from a line that runs behind the house. Our cottage, a mere 50 yards away, which is normally rented but is presently vacant, gets its power from a different line. Sweet.
Sun2:00pm: So we spend Fri & Sat nights pretty comfortably in the cottage. The lights come on at the shop early on Sat morning so we get in a full day's business and right before daybreak today I hear chainsaws and guys talking up in the woods. And then the lights come on.

This storm has caused a lot of damage. I am sure that folks to the east of here could give much more detail. -rjb-

Hoooray! You're back! Good to hear you weathered it in relative safety and ease, RealJohnboy. Loved the journal.

I think most of the belittlement in the media has to do with them spoofing themselves. Some of the coverage was indeed rather exagerated and beefed up to make the story more watchable. For instance, one network (think it was Fox) showed their reporter standing between buildings, barely able to stand and in fact laying down because his legs were too tired to fight the wind. Suddenly his pants started to slowly slip down his hips and he stood up and stepped from between the buildings into relative calm outside the wind tunnel caused by the buildings so he could hike up his pants.

Hmmmm..Fox' fair and baalanced approach trumphs again!

Thanks for the link, BPB. I'm sad. Hatteras is a real disaster.

Isabel -Damage (this is flash)