Side Salad

IF THE TRAILER'S A ROCKIN'

Willie's most recent live, local and late-breaking Hurricane Isabel update direct from the Side Salad Doppler 2000 Weather Center in North Carolina:

10:27 a.m.

Hey guys:

Isabel's knocking. It's raining and blowing here, nothing alarming yet but occasional gusts that get your attention. Barometer's been dropping since midnight, and in the past hour it's dropped from 29.90 to 29.80. And the lights are flickering occasionally and that's worrisome.

The eye is expected to go ashore at Cape Lookout, which is probably good for us because that's farther down the coast than Cape Hatteras, but it means the folks in Beaufort and Morehead City are going to get whacked. The worst is expected to reach us around 5 p.m. today, but there's disagreement as to what the "worst" will be. Two Web sites are saying we'll get winds of 50-60 mph, gusting to 75 mph, which ain't bad. But a third Web site is saying sustained winds of 75 mph gusting to 100+, which would make things a little more dicey. At the moment, however, our most annoying worry is whether the sewage pump on the Roanoke will be flooded and cause the toilets to back up. They were piling sandbags around it last night, hope to hell it holds.

The newsies are flocking to Nag's Head, about 75 miles east of here, I saw something on a local TV channel yesterday afternoon saying there were 16 satellite trucks parked there. So I assume there are lots of wind-blown standups being beamed back to the folks inland.

That's all for the moment, I'll check in later if the lines don't go down.

Later,

Willie

Editor's note: The Associated Press at 10:40 p.m. says that the storm's onetime 100 mph sustained winds are weakening to tropical storm level. Three are dead and 2.5 million are without power.

Just talked with my grandfather and his wife in Baltimore. They have power, but many of their friends and relatives up there do not. They're hunkered down in their double-wide with water and batteries to get them through. He's 87, nearly blind and a veteran of World War II. She's due for her third hip-replacement surgery on Monday.

Ain't no piddly assed storm gonna take these two tough old birds down.

Meanwhile deep within the District of Columbia, J.D. and Bill are hunkered in their lovely, tastefully appointed home.

A sample update on her blog :

9:45. Lull over; wind kicking up, humidity skyrocketing, rain coming back. But the dish is still running. I think I've got a great ad for DirecTV in the works; "My dish worked for five hours after the cable went out, during a hurricane!"

My only worry is, who would they get to read my letter in the blue-background ad? Debra Messing, yes. Roseanne Barr, no.