Jeez, Irene is a HUGE storm the outermost rain bands are already in New England.

[Odin2005]

:wow:

[FLPanhandle]

1. In some ways it's good that it's big.

The power is spread over a larger area. The smaller tight Andrew type hurricanes concentrate that energy into really devastating winds.

[Odin2005]

2. But the big storms also are slow to weaken.

[MineralMan]

4. True, but it also extends the time the storm is active in any given area.

The results can be just as devastating.

[Odin2005]

6. Big storms also have big storm surges, a huge Cat1 can have a Cat3 storm surge.

[MineralMan]

9. Yup.

[Warpy]

10. Yes, the worst is the water, not the wind or tides

and the longer the bugger hangs around, the worse the flooding will be.

Hurricane Agnes in 1972 was a Wet Willie that killed 129 people. Inland flooding is no joke and this stinker of a storm is likely to provide a lot of it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Agnes

[Name removed]

12. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[NCarolinawoman]

7. Except huge and slow means massive flooding.

I still remember Hurricane Floyd here
in North Carolina. Terrible.

The northeast has already been saturated with rain and there is no place for more rain to go. Among other things, this can lead to a break down in sewage processing plants. Sewage goes everywhere.

We are fortunate, this time in NC, that the places being hit the hardest have been experiencing a bit of a drought. But this behemoth is traveling soooo slowly---- rain in the same places over and over again.

[KittyWampus]

11. In some ways it isn't. It's got more time to push water. Your posts on the hurricane are somewhat

misguided.

[Ruby the Liberal]

3. Yep - and the eye is still over North Carolina.

We like our storms like our quakes here. Regional.

Its neighborly.

:D

[aquart]

5. Shared sacrifice.

[Ruby the Liberal]

8. This ^

[malaise]

13. She was huge even when she was a tropical storm in the Caribbean

and she has grown

[pipi_k]

14. It's been overcast here

in the Hilltowns of Western Mass for most of the day.

I would say we're about 100 miles in from the south coast of CT.

So...yes...it's a huge storm