Charles Apple | American Copy Editors Society

Instead of working this morning — and I have a ton of work to do — I’ve been monitoring the latest forecasts for Hurricane Irene. The storm is looking much worse than it was yesterday or even last night.

Yesterday, I mentioned how the folks at the National Hurricane Center kept moving the forecast track to the east. But over the past half-day or so, they’ve been gradually moving it back to the west again.

The latest forecast came out a half-hour ago.

Now, keep in mind I’m in the extreme southeast corner of Virginia. This new forecast takes the projected path of the eye of this huge, huge storm within a half-dozen miles or so of my house. Seriously.

We’ve been in hurricanes before. Several of them, in fact — most notably hurricanes Hugo in 1989 and Fran in 1996. I know from experience that storms like this are nothing to fool around with.

And for the first time in my entire adult life, I’m not tied to a role of responsibility at a daily newspaper. I actually can pick up and move my family — and dog and three cats — to safety.

So we’re considering it. I don’t want to evacuate. I hate for my daughter, Elizabeth, to potentially miss classes on her second week of community college. I also hate for her to ask for emergency time off from her brand new jobs.

But still. Even the Navy has sent its ships out to sea. Aircraft carriers and destroyers and whatnot are safer in rough seas than in their berths in Norfolk.

Here’s the front page of today’s Daily Press of Newport News, across the James River from us.

They may have the right idea.

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UPDATE: Moments ago (about 11:20 a.m.), the Weather Channel anchor was looking at the latest computer model. That model projects strengthening of Irene and then landfall around Atlantic Beach, near Wilmington. Then, the eye would pass over the sounds of N.C. and smack Hampton Roads.

He said:

This is sort of a nightmare scenario for the Tidewater section of Virginia.

Geez. The news just keeps getting worse…

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UPDATE: 1:45 p.m.: Sharon is in an all-day teachers’ meeting. I picked up Elizabeth from her own classes and met Sharon for lunch at McDonald’s not far from the oceanfront here in Virginia Beach…

…where we held a quick family meeting to decide: Evacuate or Stay?

Even as we deliberated, an employee had been assigned — smack in the middle of the lunch rush — to begin preparing the huge, plate glass windows for the upcoming storm.

I asked the fellow if he intended to ride it out at work or home Saturday night or if he would seek shelter. “Where am I gonna go?,” he shrugged.

He wished us well as he taped the windows. He did ask me to tell you all that he’s still lovin’ it.

Good fellow. I hope he’ll be all right.

Our decision: Head for Sharon’s folks’ place in Atlanta for a few days. Take the entire zoo of animals (one dog, three cats and two guinea pigs) with us. And hope for the best.

At the risk of stating the obvious: Blog posting might be a little sluggish over the next few days.

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Repeating a brief list of hurricane coverage resources for you…

Find the most recent official hurricane data at the National Hurricane Center.

Find the most recent high-resolution satellite images on the GOES Project Science home page. If you’re looking for a nice satellite image of a hurricane, you’ll probably want “East USA large image,” on the right. There’s plenty more there to choose from, including fabulous video. So heads up, online producers.

All this information is paid for by your tax dollars, so — by law — it’s in the public domain and free to use. Be cool and give Uncle Sam a credit, though. Please.

The WeatherUnderground is not in the public domain. But if you find something there you can use in a graphic, I suspect they’d be tickled to be cited as a source. Find the WeatherUnderground’s tropical storm page here.

Why not set aside a page or a half-page for tips on how to prepare for a hurricane? You can get all the info you need from FEMA.

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That front page image is from the Newseum. Of course.