As forecasters tracked a string of powerful storms sweeping toward the East Coast - one of which is expected to bring rain and high winds to Maryland tomorrow - Gov. Martin O'Malley convened top officials of his administration yesterday for a briefing from the Maryland Emergency Management Agency.
In a room at the State Emergency Operations Center in Reisterstown, Richard G. Muth, director of MEMA, said the agency doesn't expect large-scale damage in the state, but that the looming storms - Tropical Storm Hanna this weekend and Hurricane Ike and possibly Tropical Storm Josephine in the coming weeks - still have time to change their courses and levels of intensity.
"A 1-degree or 2-degree change in the storm track [of Hanna] could make all the difference in the world," Muth said.
O'Malley said early predictions of little damage could be misleading. In 2003, when O'Malley was mayor of Baltimore, a "wave of water" from Tropical Storm Isabel inundated some city neighborhoods after he was told the city "had been spared," he recalled. "The anxiety is that you never really know exactly where these hurricanes are going."
Similar meetings were held yesterday by local governments around the state to prepare for Hanna, which is expected to pass over the Eastern Shore tomorrow as it heads up the East Coast.
Muth said Hanna will likely produce wind gusts between 30 mph and 40 mph, 3 inches to 6 inches of rain and coastal water levels 1 foot to 2 feet above normal. While there is potential for flash flooding, the storm is expected to move quickly through the state, which will mean less damage, Muth said.
The Bay Bridge will likely be closed for part of the day tomorrow because of expected high winds, O'Malley said.
Chris Strong, a warning coordination meteorologist at the National Weather Service, said Hanna will move past the state at about 25 mph to 30 mph tomorrow, and could cause some minor tidal flooding. Predictions about Ike and Josephine would be premature, he said.
In Ocean City, officials met yesterday to discuss taking normal storm precautions such as closing sea gates and making sure emergency vehicles are fueled, said Joseph Theobald, the town's emergency services director.
"Ocean City is used to storms," he said. "Saturday is not going to be a pleasant day to be outside, and during the times of the storm, inside is where one needs to be, but we aren't overly concerned about it."
