Hermine not much of a problem so far for Va. Shore
Steve and Liz Joesph tracked down their plastic pickup truck bedliner Saturday morning after it look flight thanks to a Hermine wind gust.
It blew about 50 yards, spinning high into the air, before the Wachapreague homeowner tracked it down with the help of some onlookers.
"It went right over the roof and hit the hood," said Liz Joesph. They were driving in Wachapreague in their Chevrolet pickup when the bedliner took off, scattering a few items into the street.
The bedliner's flight was representative of Hermine's impact on the Eastern Shore of Virginia: It was more an inconvenience than a problem.
By 3 p.m., 142 customers of A&N Electric Cooperative, the lone power provider for Northampton and Accomack counties, were without service — less than half of 1 percent of its roughly 35,000 customers.
A steady drizzle had subsided by mid-afternoon, and winds, earlier clocked at 60 mph at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, were no longer causing traffic restrictions.
But in the morning, the winds and rain were significant, and prompted a challenge for drivers.
Driving across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel as Hermine approached wasn't fun, but the strong gusts on land were surprising.
New Jersey resident Bob Kreutz said the winds coming off the open areas jolted his vehicle.
"The gusts coming across the fields were pretty bad," said Kreutz as he put fuel in his vehicle at an Exmore convenience store.
He left Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, early Saturday morning after experiencing Hermine there.
"It was crazy," he said.
The views of the bay and Atlantic Ocean as they churned were something Kreutz said was memorable.
"It was kind of cool to see the choppy waves," he said.
Others were driving south into the storm, like Baltimore resident Matt Beale.
He was headed on vacation and said the worst impact he saw was on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge as he crossed onto the Delmarva Peninsula.
"It has not been too bad," he said.
For the Josephs in Wachapreague, they hoped the weather would subside quickly, but they knew the realities.
"It is supposed to blow for two more days," Steve Joseph said.