Just curious about the "no watering." Does that mean with municipal watering? Or, does it include private wells too? After all, if it is an aquafer water supply, it would all come from the same water supply, just not treated water. Who out there has a private well for irrigation? We have an "irrigation meter" which is cheaper than the household water supply because the gallons we use for irrigation do not return in the sewer system. The charge for the sewer treatment is more than the charge for water. Mobile is lucky to have within its County the entire lake from which our water supply comes. Of course now they are trying to DEVELOP around it, and thinking of a big highway right through it, but hopefully common sense will prevail there. When I see how the water supply for the wild birds and small creatures is so important, it draws more of them to my gardn than a food supply does, I know it is a critical element in the future of a metropolitan area as well. Never take water for granted.

this is from usa taday weather not sure how accurate it is : Q Are the winds on one side of a hurricane faster than on the other side? A: If a hurricane or other tropical cyclone is moving the winds on one side will be faster than on the opposite side in relation to the ocean or ground the storm is moving over. In the Northern Hemisphere the fastest winds will be on the right side, if you are looking in the direction of the storm's movement. That is, if the hurricane is moving toward the west, the strongest winds will be on the north side; if it's moving north, the strongest winds will be on the east side. It's the opposite in the Southern Hemisphere. (See the question right above this one for why.) To see why the winds on the right side of a Northern Hemisphere hurricane or typhoon are faster than those on the left, imagine the winds are circling the storm at 100 mph, and the entire storm is moving forward at 10 mph. With counterclockwise winds of 100 mph added to the forward speed of 10 mph on the right side, a ship there will be hit by 110 mph winds because the 100 mph winds and forward motion of the storm are in the same direction.. Another ship, to the left of the storm's center, where the 10 mph forward motion is subtracted from the 100 mph wind speed, will feel 90 mph winds. This was first realize in the 19th century and was one of the first important advances in understanding tropical cyclones and other storms. In fact, this knowledge was called the "Law of Storms" in the 19th century and various scientists wrote books telling ship captions how to use it to figure out where they were in relation to a storm's center and which way to go to said away from a storm's strongest winds and highest waves. This is described in detail in Chapter 2 of Hurricane Watch: Forecasting the Deadliest Storms on Earth by Dr. Bob Sheets and Jack Williams, published by Vintage Books, 2001 Irene is moving north so winds will be greater on the east side and thus the fear of great water surges in NYC. Good luck everyone oh and the west side will still generate quite a lot of wind too just not 100 but 60mph is more than a enough to rattle homes and trees.

..thanks for the various replies to my queries here.... from what I now deduce, in the U.S. they use a single spelling of meter to cover both, whereas here we use two spellings, metre for distance and meter for our energy supply needs... there is no way for instance, I would refer to my meter box as a metre box... ...I think, if I was learning English as a foreign language, I might prefer to use the American spellings, as it seems they're a little less complicated... ...I'm not sure we have long distance readings via computer here as yet, maybe in some places, - I think this is a great idea - but we tend to take our own readings and pass them over either by phone or internet, but once a year they send someone out to do a manual reading, just in case we're cheating... it's been this way for many years as far as we are concerned here, and after living in different areas of the country... ..Melodye above reminds me that 'gas' is another area of confusion.... we would never use gas to refer to the petrol we put in our cars [autos?].... once again, more simplified maybe but confusing for me, in the U.S. they use gas to refer to different things...

You know that saying 'when it rains, it pours'? Not just a saying for us -- reality, particularly this month and last. We'll have a few sunny/dry days, but all it takes is one of these massive bad boys coming through to put us under again: My family is far flung, so I message these radar shots to them frequently. Thankfully, our area isn't prone to flooding (though the water line gets a bit too high for my comfort in the backyard!); but I know so many have been flooded, and it's just very sad.