Here in Baltimore we were braced for some Heavy S***
weather-wise. Then Isabel lost strength and took a
more westerly track. Yesterday evening I gave a
neighbour a ride to work and he said, "This wasn't
as bad as I expected." I explained that what we'd
seen by then was just the _start_. Some of my friends
were freaking about all sorts of things that usually
only people on the beachfront or way south of here
have to worry about. Me, I figured I just had to
worry about my leaky roof, and travel afterwards if
I had to go near a flooded area. I'm well uphill
of the harbour. The "prepare as though for a big
snowstorm (but secure any loose objects outside)"
plan seemed about right.
FROM MY HOUSE it was an impressive storm but not a
Huge And Fearfull Event -- lots of rain, periods of
intense wind, and we lost a tree on my street. But
it was still a hurricane even if it didn't do much
to _my_ house:
A little after midnight the television
news was ascribing one death the Isabel.
A friend of mine in Bowie was injured
(not seriously, thank goodness) and lost
thousands of dollars worth of stuff when
a tree crashed through the roof of her
house.
The Inner Harbour area, fifteen blocks
or so east of me, is seriously flooded
-- to the roofs of cars in some places.
Probably hundreds or thousands of cars
will be totalled by water damage, and
I don't want to think about what it
must be like to face the flood damage
to one's house and belongings. (A
large part of the reason I wasn't
personally worried is that I realized
I live on (reasonably) high ground.)
Hundreds of thousands of homes have
no electricity. That's not a Big
Deal on its own -- an ordinary summer
thunderstorm or a blizzard can do
that -- but it's a lot of people, and
they're predicting some folks will
be out for days. The utility companies
couldn't get started on repairs until
this morning because of the winds.
They're saying that it's more storm-surge than the
rain that caused the flooding downtown -- we got a
lot of rain, but a bit less than expected.
So yah, in New York it's going to have "fizzled".
With the western path it took, and getting goosed
by a blast of dry air as it came into Maryland
that erased much of the storm's moisture, things
certainly could have been ... uh, "worse" or
"more impressive", depending on your point of view.
(I'm thinking both apply, and while I'm explaining
how this storm was in fact a big deal to many people
in a bad way, I _do_ understand the disappointment
of not getting the big show that all the hype
suggested. Hey, I'm human and (like the rest of you)
a gatherer of images -- if I took some uniformly
saintly^H^H^H^H^H^Hsmarmy "you should be glad you
didn't get to see a big storm 'cause storms are bad"
or "you shouldn't wish for a good show storm-wise
because that would've meant more harm to folks south
of you" tone here, well first of all I'd piss folks
off and second, I'd come off as some kind of
hypocritical phony. No, as Isabel approached I was
simultaneously hoping it'd be less than predicted
'cause I was worried about my roof and not wanting
to wish harm on other folks, and looking forward to
"a good show" and lots of stories to tell.)
On the other hand, I heard some place west of here,
in the mountains, got more then ten inches (25cm)
of rain. I wonder how Pittsburgh fared.
Now I just have to wrestle with the urge to strap
on a bunch of cameras and head toward the flood
zone vs. word from the authorities that they Really
Don't Want sightseers wandering down there into
danger. ("But I'm not a random sightseer or
curiosity seeker; I'm a _photographer_." Yeah,
but now all the newspapers and television stations
have already done the job of _recording_ the event,
even though I'm sure I could get some great art out
of it.) If my car weren't on the verge of falling
apart (literally), I would've headed down there in
the wee hours to catch the _start_ of the flooding
in some dramatic night shots and gotten out before
the streets got covered. Now I'm wondering whom I
could borrow a canoe from ... and reminding myself
that it'd be stupid because it'd be a lot of work
and a non-trivial amount of annoying-the-police for
something I'm not getting paid for. But dammit, I
want those photos. *whine*
-- Glenn
