Replies

She came ashore with 115, but quickly lost power; when she moved through NC it was down to 80.

Fran's top winds quickly dropped to 100 mph after it slammed into Cape Fear, N.C., but the storm still caused damage on its way north to Wilmington and Raleigh. After submerging beach towns, ripping steeples off churches and snapping trees like sticks in its terrorizing path through the Carolinas, a weakened Hurricane Fran turned into a tropical storm when it winds dropped below 74 mph early Sept. 6, while swirling into Virginia.

Gale force winds between 39 and 73 mph lashed the Chesapeake Bay and heaped water into the Potomac River around the nation's Capitol where it backed up into Georgetown and Old Town, Virginia. Tree limbs crashed to the ground as far north as Maryland and tornadoes briefly spun up in parts of Virginia.

As Tropical Depression Fran chugged into north Virginia, the danger shifted from winds and coastal flooding to torrential rain. Tropical rain bands spiraling into the Appalachian Mountains were lifted by the sloping terrain, enhancing rainfall from North Carolina to Pennsylvania.

Thundering rain of up to 15 inches deluged interior North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia, bringing dangerous river flooding to much of the mid-Atlantic.

At least 34 people were killed by Fran and damage estimates topped $3.2 billion dollars.

It got quiet in here suddenly, didn't it?

The eye seems to be falling apart a bit. There is rain in the center now, and every reload more rain appears there. The radial wind velocity map showed a clear eye about a half hour ago but now it's not nearly as clear.