The surge can do a lot of damage, Yes. But those places it will damage most are already well evacuated. Not just hurricanes cause surges up here. Some of the worst damages comes from No'easters. So folks in surge afflicted areas north of VA are well familiar with surges even though we don't get many bad hurricanes.
I am reading on one of the meteorologists’ forums that Irene is still traveling over water that is warm (gulf coast current?), and the eye is now off shore.
But, I just try to read everything I can, and then make up my own mind.
When I was a young’s, I had to ride out a hurricane that made it all the way up to Maine, on a relatively small sailboat. We had run all the way up into a small inland harbor trying to get safe, and I have never forgotten the experience.
I doubt the winds were much stronger than Irene’s.
That said, the huge size of this storm, and the slowness of it’s movement make it somewhat unusual. I do hope you nay-sayers are correct, and this is going to turn out to be a whole bunch of nothing.
But, what if you are wrong, and someone takes you as a guru, fails to evacuate, only to find out that they are in big puppy trouble?
shhhhhhhhhhh, don’t state facts. Better to just say it’s going to be a catastrophe of monumental proportions. It will make Katrina look like a spring shower. This is one is important, it’s a liberal storm. That makes it much worse. Hero to his sheeple....poll number daydreams.... Everything is political nowadays, everything, even the damn weather.