At this time, the Rio Grande Valley is preparing for Hurricane Emily. If you need sandbags, you can stop at KRGV.com for information. Our news stations have all the necessary info. You can also check out Team 4 News
South Padre Island will be evacuated. For now, they are asking RVs to get off the island. There are no road closings yet. Businesses, I hear, will be closed during the storm or earlier to allow employees to prepare.
I was speaking to a driver from AOC (Acetylene Oxygen Company) at work today, he says that they've been stocking up oxygen for hospitals. The normal order is about 8 cylinders of Oxygen. Their typical order this week is 30 cylinders. That's one of the preparations that doesn't typically come to mind to most of us.
Plywood is scarce. Earlier today, an older gentleman had plywood stolen off his truck when he stopped to return some movies. The thieves only left him with a couple of sheets of plywood.
People are moving plants and lawn furniture indoors. Low vehicles are being parked on higher ground as flooding is a problem even without a hurricane.
Business at the restaurants is slow. The streets are not empty, but they don't have the typical level of traffic.
There are reports that the dams upriver will be releasing water to help accomodate the sudden increase of water from the expected rain. According to estimates, we can expect about 5 inches of rain from Emily. We would normally get 5 inches of rain in a rainy month. Suffice it to say, we will get wet.
The big question on people's mind is "how close will the storm come?" Things will be tough either way. If the storm goes south as expected, we will get most of the rain coming off the coast. Flood damage is likely. If the eye of the storm hits the Rio Grande Valley, we will see some wind damage.
No comments:
Post a Comment