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Hey, a lot of people said that the people that waited out Katrina were dumb because they did not heed warnings. They new the storm would hit, just not where until the last 24 hrs. The storm could move 50-75 miles either way.
Earl was continually creeping west of predicted tracks until less than 18 hours out when it started catching the wave to northeast.
Had the storm continued west as 24hrs prior and for whatever meteorological reason tacked further west instead of east, we could have had landfall on the Cape and Islands. Landfall would allow the extremely heavy winds on the eastern side hit instead of the lighter winds of the western side. That would have done a lot more damage.
Move the storm 50 miles west of that and significant more damage hits.
Definitely a better safe than sorry episode. We got lucky. Next time one comes up that is this close, play it safe instead of being complacent.
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