Chesa-soak
Today I decided to stay over in Chesapeake, because the weather was supposed to be bad from here through Maryland, Delaware, and New Jersey.
Around 5 PM it was still sunny out (of course!) so I decided to drive a couple miles down the road for Chinese food. While I was in the restaurant waiting for my take-out order, the heavens opened. The restaurant put my food in a garbage bag for me to keep it dry, and I drove back to the hotel.
I parked the car under the hotel’s canopy, figuring I’d move it later on when the rain stopped. Instead, it just got worse. The TV did a “we interrupt this program to bring you the following emergency bulletin”. I went downstairs around 15 minutes ago to see how the Atom was doing (answer – full of water from wind-driven rain) and lightning just struck a tree across the parking lot.
The National Weather Service (link will probably go bad shortly) says:
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS…
SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS PRODUCE DAMAGING WIND IN EXCESS OF 60 MILES PER
HOUR…DESTRUCTIVE HAIL…DEADLY LIGHTNING…AND VERY HEAVY RAIN. FOR
YOUR PROTECTION MOVE TO AN INTERIOR ROOM ON THE LOWEST FLOOR OF YOUR
HOME OR BUSINESS. HEAVY RAINS FLOOD ROADS QUICKLY SO DO NOT DRIVE
INTO AREAS WHERE WATER COVERS THE ROAD.
Yikes!
Tomorrow I’ll have to bail the water out of the Atom and try to blot the seats mostly dry. Fortunately, I have a bunch of unused towels that housekeeping at the Embassy Suites in CA gave me to clean the Atom after arriving in Seaside.
Update: The TV weather is saying 2400 lightning strikes/hour, 6″ of rain, and several funnel clouds were sighted.
