By the time it reaches New England it should be down to a strong tropical storm. I'm estimating 55 - 65 mph winds. It definitely is going to hit the outer banks of North Carolina, which means it will start to weaken significantly before it gets here. But the gloom and doom fools are in hyper mode around here and have been for the last three days.
The thing that worries me most is that this storm isn't going to be confined to one strike area as most hurricanes do. This one is going to knock down power lines from North Carolina, Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York and New England as it scrapes the eastern seaboard. When the strike is confined to one general area, the repair crews are clustered together and the work gets done faster. If they have to spread out over 1000 miles, it could take a lot longer to repair the lines.
