I urge readers in the Northeast who live inland from the path of Irene not to assume that being well away from the coast will protect them.  Inland flooding is nothing to dismiss, especially when the ground is already saturated as it is in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York.   Indeed, NOAA cites inland fresh water flooding as the major cause of death from Hurricanes.   Two prime examples are Hurricane Floyd and Hurricane Agnes.  Even when the death toll is relatively low, inland freshwater flooding from a hurricane can make life miserable. I live hundreds of miles from the coast.  A year after I moved here in 2003 Hurricane Ivan dropped as much as 15 inches of rain on western North Carolina. Only ten days earlier the remnants of Hurricane Frances had also dropped several inches of rain across the region.  There were eight deaths in North Carolina, including five people killed in one mountain development by a wall of water, mud and debris that...(Read Full Post)