"People feel more secure, but I'm sure everybody's taking up their lawn furniture and putting it inside," said Kim Sullivan, who lost her rancher, three vehicles and two boats to Isabel.
Baltimore County Fire Department spokeswoman Elise Armacost said the county's swift-water rescue teams were on standby. She reminded residents to place electrical generators at least 15 feet from their homes to avoid the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning, a common killer after such storms.
The threat from Hanna forced bay crabbers to pull their pots from the water this week. "I pulled 800. It took me three days," said crabber Thomas "Bubby" Powley, on Hoopers Island. He said he'll need another three days to put them back in the water.
He's also got his eye on Hurricane Ike, a Category 3 storm that was nearing the Bahamas in Hanna's wake yesterday.
"We're not gonna be able to put them back in the water until Ike comes by," Powley said. That could mean two weeks of crabbing lost in a season for female crabs already set to end Oct. 22 - seven weeks early - because of an emergency regulation designed to conserve the dwindling species.
"Everybody's sitting here idle," Powley said. "It's gonna be devastating. We're already losing a third of our income. And we'll lose several weeks more because of these storms."
Powley said he's asked the Department of Natural Resources to consider extending the season to compensate watermen for the time lost to the bad weather.
Thomas J. O'Connell, director of the Department of Natural Resources' Fisheries Service, said he could not promise relief. "It's premature for us to make a determination whether to extend the season," he said. "We will be monitoring it closely and will be following up with representatives of the waterman community after the weekend ... and see where we stand."
Not everyone was cringing as the storm approached. Kerry Muse, a Deale charter boat captain, said in an e-mail message to The Baltimore Sun yesterday that the Deale Pro-Am Fishing Tournament, scheduled for today and tomorrow, would start on schedule this morning.
"It's a go," he said. "It's a two-day tournament and the captains can fish one or both days. ... The forecast for Saturday shows winds and rain during the morning, but winds going down to 10 mph in the afternoon. We will have some die-hards out there."
"Depending on the weather," he added, "I think we will keep the weigh-in station open a little longer for those who go out later, when it's safer."
