As you watch television reports and see people boarding up windows in coastal communities, Hurricane Isabel is tracking to make her appearance in Tyrone as either a tropical storm or Depression Isabel.
The storm is expected to make landfall tomorrow and is projected to strike the Outer Banks area of North Carolina. When the storm hits landfall it will lose strength but continue to track on a NNE path.
By checking the forecast at accuweather.com, central Pennsylvania should take a decent hit of rain and some serious wind gusts will be coming our way.
The winds will start kicking up tomorrow around 1 p.m. when wind gusts will start to be over 20 mph. The rain is predicted to start around 10 p.m. with winds kicking in at around 25 mph at the time the rains start. There will be a constant rain fall until around 7 a.m. when the eye is projected to pass over central Pennsylvania.
According to the Accu-Weather predictions, at 7 a.m. there will be no rainfall and the winds will be at around 12 mph. The rains in the four hours prior and four hours following are expected to be .15 inches per hour. The wind gusts will pick up throughout the day on Friday. From 2 p.m. until 7 p.m. the average wind gust is expected to be between 50 and 55 mph.
The hour-by-hour forecast calls for an end to the rain by 3 p.m. on Friday and a total rainfall during the event at 1.62 inches.
Currently, plans are still being made for the Tyrone-Bellefonte football game on Friday night and the Penn State-Kent State football game on Saturday.
“We aren’t going to make a decision until Thursday night or Friday morning,” said Tyrone athletic director Tony Yaniello. “We have been in contact with Bellefonte and we’re not going to jump the gun and make a decision too early. You can never tell with storms. They may stall or take a different path. You would hate to postpone a game on Wednesday and then it turn out to be beautiful on Friday night.”
The contingency plan is for the Tyrone-Bellefonte game to be played Saturday night at 7 p.m. at Gray-Veterans Memorial Field if there is a need for postponement.
The Daily Herald contacted the media relations department at Penn State to inquire about Saturday’s game with Kent State. Penn State officials said that there were no changes to the schedule as of 9 a.m. this morning and further announcements would be forthcoming.
With impending storms, there normally is a spike in the purchase of canned foods, milk, bread and batteries, but as of now, the Tyrone Bi-Lo store has been pretty quiet.
“So far we haven’t seen any spikes in purchases,” said Tyrone Bi-Lo assistant manager Rick Zeiders. “We are expecting a run today and tomorrow on water, milk and batteries, but it hasn’t happened as of now.”
