So Ernesto went north, but the storm was still blog fodder:
Mary at My Thinking Chair:
We received some rain, but honestly, we get "normal" rainstorms that were worse than that.
Rachel, from her blog in Ravenel:
We had light rain and winds most of the morning and when I checked the
rain gauge around 9AM, we had only gotten about 0.2" of rain.
As
predicted, around noon, things started to pick up. We had moderate to
heavy rain most of the afternoon, and by the evening, we were close to
2" of rain in the gauge. By dinner time though, things were clearing
up. We had a nice dinner out with two of our neighbors, and on the
drive home, we watched the setting sun.
Sunniefaerie at her blog:
The media had a lot of people freaking out about the "storm" coming. It wasn't even a hurricane, yet schools were closed, lots of businesses were closed. And all we got was a full day of rain.
My kids were all freaking out, asking, "when is the storm coming?" I had to explain to them that the rain WAS the storm. There was no thunder, no lightening. Just rain. My kids were out of school for a rain day?! Come on people! I could understand more if it were a SNOW day. We rarely get snow. But for a tropical depression, we shut everything down? We were actually under an EPSOM 1...whatever the hell that means. I know it's not good. But if they're going to get all freaked out, at least let it be for a hurricane, category 1 or so. Not for a tropical storm or tropical depression.
I KNEW this was just going to be a "rainy day" and everyone else was freaking out, evacuating or going to shelters. I stayed where I am usually at. HOME. Inside. With my children, in the AC, watching cartoons or playing games or coloring.
JanetLee at Kittens On The Keyboard:
I was trying to get in the storm frenzy mood. Really, I was. My plan
was to take pictures of the same view from my front porch every hour to
document the conditions.
It drizzled. It rained. It drizzled.
It rained. High tide came and the storm drain backed up a little. I
braved the raging drizzle and light breeze (maybe it was the eye
passing) to wander out to look at the creek. It was high tide.
Whoo-hoo.
zzzzzz....huh? Oh yeah, I was reporting on The Storm.
I can say that here in West Ashley: it rained some.
I
know that much of this is due to the Katrina effect. Any person in any
organization from all levels of government down to utilities are afraid
that if anything goes wrong with anyones life at any time during The
Storm, they will be blamed.
Jason at Cavaliers and Roundheads:
I spent the day inside, thanks to the rain, and passed the time with
telephone interviews, transcription, organizing notes, line-editing
stories that are due soon, and processing photos on the computer. Real
thrill-a-minute, but essential, stuff. Here is Thor to sum up exactly
how I feel at this moment.
April at Once Upon a Time:
Seriously though, being mentally wiped by the doomsday predictions on the news about these bloody storms, and then having nothing come
of it is quite painful. It is like mentally preparing for a root canal
and then being told in the dentist's chair that all they need to do is
a cleaning.
Don't get me wrong; I am grateful that my family has
access to information that a storm is coming in and that it may be
dangerous. And God bless those reporters with the temerity and sense of
physical balance to stand on a beach and have rain whipped into their
faces. However, I still think that the media needs moderate and balance
their storm coverage to the actual strength of the storm and what
damage is likely to occur given local architecture, sea level and governmental preparedness.
Lisa, at Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness (in a post about discovering a huge banana spider on the porch while staying home during Ernesto):
Both of my kids were worried that Miss Spider's web would be ruined
during the storm. It did take quite a whipping as webs go, but it
proved to be quite sturdy.
Mike at Notoriously Nice Mike:
Smoke 'em if you've got 'em. It will keep raining here for a few hours but it looks like Ernesto is now someone else's problem.
P&C reporter Andy Paras at his Colleton Now news blog:
After a week of hype and mild hysteria, it turns out this Ernesto guy was pretty drab and dreary.
Colleton County felt mild drizzles and small gusts but escaped without any flooding and other sorts of bedlam.
P&C Public Editor Elsa McDowell, at her Ask Elsa blog, writing about this blog:
Ernesto has helped demonstrate how the union of newspapers and
blogging can work. In the past, the paper has been able to provide
readers with good, solid information about preparing for a storm and
about recovering from one, but the up-to-the-minute coverage has come
from television and radio.
With Ernesto, The Post and Courier has kept a blog giving readers
timely information about things like school closings, road floodings
and storm movement. It has provided helpful links for users, and it has
provided a forum for people to register comments and to get answers to
their specific questions.
P&C Executive Editor Bill Hawkins, at his blog:
Staffers who might have looked askance at bloggers suddenly
found themselves blogging to report a story that was literally changing by the
hour, or even minute. More experienced bloggers from all around Charleston
jumped in, bringing talent and depth to our report.
Posts ranged from
practical advice from staffer Marsha Guerard about where to find pet friendly
motels, to a local blogger’s hour by hour account of storm mania in Charleston,
to the latest dispatches from our team chasing the storm north of
Myrtle Beach.
Storm Watch has already collected more than 11,000
(Editor's note: that figure was current at 3 p.m. Thursday) hits, resulting in newfound respect in our newsroom for the role of
blogs in reporting a rapidly changing story.
Chuck, author of the blog Chuckography, in a comment to Hawkins:
Bill, the beauty of blogging coverage of a storm is the LACK of
hysterics. Not TV's shouting "an end of civilization as we know it "
hype, just the facts. Lots and lots of facts that I can choose to look
over if and when I wish. Without cranked-up volume.
And the viewpoints are diverse from a cute little Isle of Palms kid
on a balcony to updated weather maps every 20 minutes to "Walk This
Way" snapshots of coeds boating on a downtown city street.
JET at The Bushido Way:
The Post & Courier’s, what Brad calls the LowCountry bloggers, Postscripts
have great coverage of the logistics regarding evacuations, parking and
the other “Devils hiding in the details” we like to ignore until we are
face to face.
Finally, here's Geoff of Geofftech:
No offence to anyone, but after all the hype it
has been a bit of an anti-climax. Mind you, this I guess lulls you into
a false sense of security. Leigh tells me that a friend she has living
down Mississippi was very kind of ‘yeah… whatever…’ when
Katrina was was first rumoured last year, because they’d heard it all
before. Then their house got badly damaged … so you never can tell....
There will be no more updates today. It’s back to drizzling anyway. Time for that cup of tea I talked about …
By the way, Geoff's final Ernesto post was a 7MB video update, which you can download here.
