My god, the lines at the grocery stores, gas stations, home depots, etc. Everyone was in prep mode for 3 days before it hit.
We didn't board up the windows, just put away anything that could become a missile, in the garage.
And, let me tell you, it was frocking awesome. Wanna know what I was doing the whole time? Standing outside on my front porch, in my Seattle-worthy rain gear, watching the whole thing. I had a nice protected corner to huddle in.
So many hurricanes that don't deliver, and we finally get a good one, close to the eye wall and everything. The scientist in me had to experience it. Some people will understand. I find the power of nature really awesome.
Most of the really good stuff happened (2am-8am) long after we lost power at 1am. That's when I stopped filming, since it was pitch black and pointless. I'd say about every 30 seconds or so, a really strong 70 mph gust would blast through, and tear up the tree tops. This lasted for 12 hours straight, where the highest frequency was 2-8am. Just non frocking stop.
It's eerie, too. There will be times when it's calm where you are, yet you hear this loud roaring not too far away. Then bright blue flashes followed by snapping trees. Then, it hits like a huge wave. Not only do you have the strength of the wind, but it's also turbulent as hell, and changes wind direction very quickly.
I took videos of this shit, too. It's at night, so it won't be the most amazing thing. The street light that I kept aiming at was able to illuminate some of the insane rain curtain gusts above the tree tops. You can just make it out for some of them. They were about 70-80 mph for many of them.
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And, finally, here's cruising around on the ebike, having a look at the damage:
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