Damp Squib

With the threat of Ernesto looming on the horizon, Charleston was pretty much gearing up to batten down the hatches and brace itself for lots of rain, wind and pretty much miserable weather all round today. At MUSC, classes were cancelled, people were advised to unplug computers and equipment, and cover any such things near windows with plastic lest there be leakages, or windows broken. A voluntary evacuation was called with shelters being set up in schools in North Charleston for anyone 'who felt uncomfortable' to hole up until things passed. The situation wasn't expected to be catastrophic, but everyone was expecting some nastiness for a few hours. Me, I came into work early to carry out a couple of minor tasks and then headed home around 9.30am (when the wind was to start building up) and pretty much stay there. The appointed hour came and.....

Well, i won't say nothing 'cause there was a good deal of wind and rain (although the wind only reached up to 35mph gusts rather than the 60mph predicted) but it was actually surprisingly uneventful. Sure, my street flooded (again) but it was actually less severe than last week (see photos from last Thursday). The reason for this was because Ernesto - on his way out to sea again from Florida, ended up taking a slightly wider swing out before coming back to land and so consequently, Charleston was skirted by the left hand side of the storm - usually the weakest side of the whole thing. This, combined with high tide again, meant flooding but by the time the storm had passed (around 6pm), the low tide was nearly on us and the water disappeared pretty rapidly. All in all, a rather lucky escape for Charleston. Let's hope that it stays that way.