Little to no direct impact from Irene in Mountain Empire - TriCities.com
Wind and some rain is all that is expected the Tri-Cities area from Hurricane Irene, meteorologists said Saturday, and local residents don't seem overly concerned about the hurricane that was already causing problems in the eastern part of the state, where it was expected to bash coastal areas overnight.
"Well, what good is it to worry – if she's coming she's coming, there's no need to worry until something happens," said Melissa Bower of Bristol, Tenn. "We could use some rain off her … we could sure use it."
Bower said her neighbors have friends in areas expected to be hit hard by the storm and she is concerned about, but she's not worried for anyone in this area.
Neither is Mountain City, Tenn., farmer Vickie Price.
"We've had hurricanes come in on us before," Price said. "But nothing as bad as the tornados we had in the spring."
Price, from Forge Creek Farm, also said she could use some rain from Irene.
"The sweet potatoes could use it," she said. "And the breeze felt good today," during Saturday's farmer's market downtown.
Nine-year-old Ashanti Brown and Rebecca Goodell, who was watching Ashanti, aren't worried, either.
"I think the rain's gonna come down a little bit," Ashanti said. "I like the wind."
Goodell agreed.
"The wind don't bother me none," she said. "I just take it day by day, see what the weather is."
The weather hasn't affected flights in or out of Tri-Cities Regional Airport in Blountville, Tenn., said David Jones, the airport's director of operations.
"We have a process we go through from the FAA," he said. "They send out a checklist to go through if there's a natural disaster. We'll implement that if we need to."
But, he said, flights to or from Atlanta, Chicago and Florida haven't been affected, and he hasn't heard of any delays to or from Charlotte, N.C.
"I think Irene has spared us," he said. "It's very good news."
For those Irene hasn't spared in Central or Eastern Virginia, help is in place.
"We've already been in close contact with localities during this week … and we've got supplies, equipment and people we can send," said Bob Spieldenner, the director of public affairs for the Virginia Department of Emergency Management. "The main thing is to make sure people on the eastern side of the state stay off the road and stay home."
By mid-afternoon Saturday, the Virginia Department of Transportation reported via its Twitter account that some 300,000 people in the state were already out of power.
But help was likely already on the way for those people, as power company trucks from all over were spotted driving east on the state's Interstate system, including trucks traveling north on I-81 near Bristol.
"We do have a mutual aid agreement" with other power companies, said David Botkins, a spokesman for Dominion Virginia Power, which has customers in Central and Eastern Virginia. "We have asked for assistance from out-of-state-utilities."
Even though local people likely won't be directly impacted by the hurricane, they expressed concern for those who will.
"The people in the path, though, I really feel sorry for them," Price said.
arobinson@bristolnews.com
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