Under twelve hours.
We should start seeing some weather by 6PM, and will probably continue to experience direct hurricane effects for another twelve hours. The net effect of the storm’s eastward corrections is a substantially better outlook for those of us on the west side of town.
It took hours for officials to begin recommending that residents stay in their homes, even after the situation on the highways became absurd. The newscasters all wanted to say it, but since no official had given the word, the best they could do was to say “Each of us needs to make a choice, whether to chance it on the roads or chance it at home.” Finally, last night, Bill White said in a press conference that “the time to leave had past,” and so the talking heads were free to repeat it.