Projected Path of Hurricane Sandy Shifts SOUTH and Back Into The Chesapeake Bay Region

This shift, if it stays on course for the next 36-48 hours, will mean a storm surge of at least 10 feet throughout the Chesapeake Bay region, including its tributaries. This means increased risk of flooding at many local areas throughout the watershed region (Central and Southern Maryland). The movement of the storm is still traveling at a slow pace of 9 mph in a NNE direction.

Storm Shopping-Don’t Wait!

If you are waiting for Sunday to do all of your emergency shopping, you may be too late. Many of the area shopping centers and home-improvement stores are already depleted of emergency supplies, such as generators, C and D batteries, and even ice (we are using our icemaker in our refrigerator to stockpile a reserve if/when we need it).

The current weather is absolutely beautiful. We have the windows open, and the gentle breeze and cool temperatures are soothing — quite the contrast to the chaotic rush on the streets and in our local stores!

 Will Schools Be Closed on Monday?

My belief is that they will be. In fact, if the storm continues on this track (and there is no reason to believe that it won’t), then the likelihood exists that school will be canceled for most counties in Maryland (including Baltimore City) through Wednesday, at the very least. Here’s why.

In addition to Governor O’Malley declaring that Maryland is now in a State of Emergency, Anne Arundel County Government has announced that they will be making plans as early as Sunday to use some schools as designated shelters (see the report from WBALTV here). MVA is requesting that drivers stay off the road during the storm’s duration. The mere track of the storm, its timetable of making landfall mid to late Monday, and its slow crawl across the region for the 24-48 hours that follow landfall, do not give us any assurance that conditions are going to improve until late Wednesday, if then. With widespread power outages that could rival Isabel in 2003 (800,000+ outages in Central Maryland alone), the likelihood that schools and their surrounding communities will be in any shape to resume normal operations is not good.

This is no time to celebrate the possibility of being off school, though. The conditions we could face are dangerous, and our communities will need everyone to be supportive, use common sense, and remain safe.

Important numbers, websites, and social media sites to know:

RADIO: WBAL 1090 AM and wbal.com

WEB:
National Hurricane Center
BGE: Report Power Outages by calling 877-778-2222
Maryland Emergency Management Agency (MEMA)

METEOROLOGISTS/WEATHER FORECASTERS:
Justin Berk (@JustinWeather)
Foot’s Forecast