Heading west

Hanna made landfall around 3:30 this morning as a strong tropical storm along the NC/SC border. Some residents of Myrtle Beach are without power, but otherwise things appear to be going as well as could be expected. Hanna is expected to quickly move north and affect most residents of the east coast in some manner over the next few days.

Ike is a cat 3 hurricane (115 MPH, 962 mb) moving quickly toward the west southwest at 16 MPH. As you've no doubt seen, the forecast track has significantly shifted toward the south and west during the last 24 hours. The model spaghetti map (right hand menu bar) shows most of the guidance expects Ike to completely miss Florida. Tourist evacuations for the Keys begin today, and resident evacs tomorrow. Assuming no land interactions with Cuba, Ike is expected to be a major hurricane as it passes through the Florida Straits.

While we're not canceling hotel reservations yet, we are breathing easier this morning compared to yesterday. We're certainly not planning to move the shutters out of the garage either.