Michael

[LarryHoward]

Nothing even close to the devastation experienced in Florida, but Michael made a close path by us last night as it exited the coast just South. Strong and gusty wind and another few inches of torrential rain, putting us well ahead of average annual rainfall with 2.5 months left this year. Heard a loud thud about 2230 but couldn't see much through the storm. Woke up to this.

Michaeal1.jpg

and this

Michael 2.jpg

The crown crosses and blocks the path to and from the pier so I'll be breaking out the chainsaw tomorrow.

Any Maryland Scantlingers need firewood?

Other than some small-medium branches and a lot of leaves stripped out, that's all the impact we had. Around 2300, a Bennie 40'er came careening up the creek navigating by 2M cp flashlight (no marked channel here) and anchored off my dock. Suspect the anchorage inside Myrtle point got untenable in the 40-50 knots and 1-2 mile fetch so they escaped into the creek. They look peaceful with no visible signs of life this morning. Suspect it was an unpleasant night on the hook.

[Orestes Munn]

Wondered what was going on down there. Glad you guys are OK except for the tree. Doesn't look like TPLM saw anything worse than the upper 30s.

[BeauV]

Glad everyone is doing well.

Re: the Bene - who would be out and about with that forecast? Amazing.

[Slick470]

we lost power at some point for a few hours and had some pretty heavy rain and wind. A few smaller branches down in our yard and a few trees down on my way to work, but nothing too major. Sun is out now but chilly this morning.

I spent a week at Mexico Beach back in 2006 and expect where we stayed to be a tangle of debris. Some of the helicopter passes over the area remind me of post tornado scenes from my childhood.

[LarryHoward]

Glad everyone is doing well.

Re: the Bene - who would be out and about with that forecast? Amazing.

Beau,

This time of year, the snowbirds are gathering in the Chesapeake until it is insurance legal to go south of Cape Hatteras. With canvas on and a dinghy in tow, it's possible they were anchored about 1/2 mile around the corner and exposed to the higher than forecast winds and some uncomfortable chop. Unless they were really desperate, moving in 40-50 knots and heavy rain squalls was pretty poor judgement. Given the trees falling, I didn't go through the woods down to the dock to question them and it looked shipshape this morning with no sign of life on deck.

Forecast was for 20-30 with gusts. We had a pretty steady 30+ with 5-10 minute squalls bringing what I would estimate to 45-50. The local NDBC site is sheltered from N winds so under reports. About the time the tree came down, Cove Point (about 7 M north and open to the N-NE winds) was reporting a steady 42, gusting to 52. Two hours prior, it was 21 G23. To your point, wind at sunset was 12-15 from the SE to E and the nearby anchorage would have looked perfect. The forecast was pretty clearly going to Back to the N and eventually NNW as Michael passed to the south which opened up the fetch to the highest winds. Still pretty protected compared to a lot of places but the creek, with 25-30' banks, tall trees and less than 1/3 mile maximum fetch experiences small chop in a hurricanes and none in conditions like last night. With sticky mud for good holding , its a pretty decent hurricane hole. He should have come in a lot earlier.

[Ajax]

I'm glad to see that none of your structures took any tree damage.

The only indication of anything awry here, was the stove clock flashing. I suspect that we didn't get the same wind that you did.