8pm Atlantic time: After posting the previous update on Bill, I found out that it was downgraded from a Category 1 Hurricane to a tropical storm, meaning lighter winds up to 40kph and mostly heavy rains. Rains have been forecast for my area with up to 10cm (4 inches) over the next 8-10 hours. That’s a lot of water. Usually the rainfall is forecast here in millimeters, with 10 millimeters in one centimeter.

I drove to a local store earlier and had to go very slow because there was so much water on the pavement. The gravel shoulders of the roads are washing out here on all the hills and on flatter roads small rivers of mud and gravel are building up.

There are no candles left at the store, no propane canisters, no batteries, no bottled water, no matches and no lamp fuel. The store owner has a gas powered generator set up in a shed by the store in case the power goes out, he’ll be able to keep the store open. There is talk of people whose basements are prone to flooding having moved their belongings upstairs and those who were more ambitious have actually dug shallow ditches around their houses to help move water away from the foundations.

Where I am the terrain has a lot of hills and valleys so the people really worried are the ones living in the bottom of the valleys. All the houses are near the ocean here, and the house I’m in right now is only about 30 yards from the Atlantic, but it sits on the slope of a steep hill at about 10 yards above sea level.

When I was driving earlier, visibility was only about 100 yards because the rain was so heavy. Thunder has stopped now but the air feels eerily magnetic. Rain is loud on the roof of the house.

More updates of what it’s like to go through a tropical storm at tag: Blogging Bill. Another update in a few hours.

Blogging Bill II: Heavy Rains Up To 10cm (4″) Forecast for NE Newfoundland is a post from: The Inquisitr

6:30pm Atlantic Time: The wind is blowing off the North Atlantic ocean from the Northeast at about 15kph. The sky is turning black and rolling thunder can be heard in the distance. A light rain is starting but it seems worse than it is right now because of the increasing winds.

Hurricane Bill, downgraded to a Category 1 hurricane earlier today, is moving in on my town located on the Northeast coast of Newfoundland, Canada. Alerts have been issued for the Southern portions of the province and officials there have had work crews out securing things and taking emergency precautions in preparation for the impending storm. Already there’s heavy rain falling on the Avalon peninsula area where the capital city of St. John’s is already feeling the effects. My location is about 400km North Northwest of St. John’s.

Rain has increased since I started writing this and it’s pouring now. The thunder is getting closer. I’d take pictures, but even though it’s only about 6:30pm, there’s not enough light left to get any good shots.

Keep an eye on this spot and the tag Blogging Bill for more updates. As long as the power stays on, I’ll be blogging about the storm here at the Inquisitr so that those of you who have never experienced something like this will have an idea of what it’s like.

Blogging Bill: Here’s what it’s like to sit through a Category 1 Hurricane is a post from: The Inquisitr

Hurricane Bill, with sustained winds of 75mph, has formed in the Atlantic and is expected to strengthen into a major hurricane..

Hurricane Bill, the first major hurricane of the season, was centered about 1,100 miles East of the Lesser Antilles earlier this morning and was moving West-Northwest at a speed of about 22mph. Bill is expected to strengthen into a major hurricane over the next 48 hours, according to a specialist with the National Hurricane Center in Florida.

The first two months of the hurricane season has had relatively little weather activity. Experts are attributing that lack of bad weather to an unusual warm weather pattern over the Pacific ocean that has been dampening the formation of hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico.

Hurricane Bill Forms in the Atlantic is a post from: The Inquisitr