Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/91307
Sarasota News Leader November 2, 2012 emerged intact as a Category 2. Now the Ba- hamas are getting lashed. The damn thing is anticipated to head north to make landfall in the New Jersey/New York area and combine with a cold front to create holy hell all the way from Ohio to Maine. Forecasters are calling it "Frankenstorm." 26 Oct., 11 p.m.: Sandy is back down to a Category 1 after ravaging the Bahamas. So far the death count — Jamaica, Haiti, Cuba and the Bahamas — is more than 40. And the storm is growing. Yesterday, the radius of hurricane-force winds was 30 miles; tonight it is 70 miles, and tropical storm-force winds extend out 415 miles! In other words, the di- ameter of tropical storm winds is almost 850 miles! The National Hurricane Center still projects a DelMarVa Peninsula landfall on Monday, with hellacious rains. Storm surge along the lower Chesapeake is predicted at 2 to 4 feet, with 8 inches of rain all the way up the bay. Bad juju potential here. 27 Oct., 2 p.m.: Sandy's central pressure is going down; now it is 28.38 inches. Last night, the barometer at the Sarasota-Bradenton In- ternational Airport read 29.6. Sandy's wind field is expanding, with hurricane-force winds now out 105 miles and tropical storm winds out 450 miles from the center. The storm is slowly growing. It is now 140 miles due east of Cape Canaveral. 27 Oct., midnight: Just back from the uber sexy Planned Parenthood Safe Sex Bash at Mi- chael's on East. Our winds are settling down, and our local barometric pressure is rising, but Sandy keeps going and growing. Page 32 Sandy's barometric pressure is 28.35 inches, and maximum sustained winds are 75 mph. Tropical storm-force winds are now 520 miles from the center, a diameter of 1,000-plus miles! From Ocean City, MD, to Long Island, NY, the storm surge is predicted to be 4 to 8 feet, with rain, lots and lots of rain. 28 Oct., 11 a.m.: No change in path or in- tensity is reported, although the central pres- sure continues to fall; it is now at 28.08 inches. The wind field is still expanding, with hurri- cane-force winds out 175 miles from the un- formed eye; the tropical storm-force wind field is unchanged at 520 miles. The real threat is storm surge. New York Har- bor and Long Island are on the "wrong side" of Sandy, and they are looking at 6 to 11 feet from Ocean City, MD, to the Connecticut/ Rhode Island border, with 2 to 4 feet in the middle and upper Chesapeake Bay area — plus the rain, of course. 29 Oct. 11 a.m.: Sandy remains on track, with sustained winds now 85 mph and cen- tral pressure still dropping, now at 27.94. The ring of tropical storm winds has collapsed a bit, now with a radius of 485 miles. The diam- eter of hurricane-force winds is 175 miles, un- changed. Gale-force winds are now lashing the shoreline from North Carolina to Long Island, NY. Long Island Sound and New York Har- bor are looking at 6 to 11 feet of storm surge. Heavy rain — up to 12 inches — is expected over the Mid-Atlantic States, and snowfall of 2 to 3 feet is to occur in the mountains of West Virginia, with lesser amounts in the mountains of Virginia, Maryland and Tennessee. Oct. 29, 2 p.m.: Sandy is strengthening and accelerating towards the New Jersey shore.