Hurricane Charley didn't pack quite the punch the state was bracing for last night and early today, with only light rains reported west of the Chesapeake Bay.
Only parts of the lower Eastern Shore reported heavy rain, with Salisbury and Ocean City taking the brunt of it. By 8 p.m., the National Weather Service called off its tropical storm and flood warnings for the Baltimore metropolitan region.
But yesterday afternoon, before the storm's threat was downgraded, the state was preparing its emergency center, people were pulling out the sandbags, and local officials were getting ready for heavy rains and winds that looked increasingly less likely to come by morning. "We're going to watch this thing closely," said Quentin Banks, spokesman for the Maryland Emergency Management Agency. "These storms can make moves that you don't anticipate."
Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. authorized the partial activation of the state emergency operations center in Randallstown, where about a dozen representatives from police, highway safety and other agencies spent last night on standby in case local jurisdictions needed help.
Southern Maryland officials called for a voluntary evacuation of low-lying areas and of Point Lookout State Park, where the Chesapeake Bay meets the Potomac River. Officials also set up emergency shelters at Leonardtown High School and at Ridge Elementary School. But as of yesterday evening, there were no takers, said Bonnie Stewart, a state police dispatcher in Leonardtown.
On the Eastern Shore, where previous late-summer storms have tested the rural area's emergency preparedness, officials were most concerned about heavy rains.
"I think one of our biggest concerns is trees coming down on power lines because we've had so much rain already in the last couple weeks," said Teresa Owens, emergency services chief in Worcester County. "It's going to take a track straight across the Lower Eastern Shore, but I think we're in good shape."
Owens and her counterparts from coastal counties in Maryland, Virginia and Delaware were reassured by the weather service as they huddled for a briefing late yesterday.
It was a ritual familiar after Hurricane Floyd devastated parts of the Shore in 1999, flooding towns from Cecil County to Smith Island. Last year's Tropical Storm Isabel reminded the Shore once again of the strength these storms can pack as residents from Rock Hall to Oxford contended with high water in their homes.
