NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — While all eyes are on Hurricane Erin, you might as well get familiar with the next three hurricane names for the 2025 season — Fernand, Gabrielle and Humberto, also known as the potential budget-busters.
Some seven years after the intrepid Andy Fox of 10 On Your Side leaned into the wrath of Hurricane Irene, Old Dominion University set out to learn what would happen to the 757 in the event of a direct hit from a major hurricane.
“There would be billions of dollars of wind and water damage in the Hampton Roads region, and it would temporarily reduce employment by tens of thousands of individuals,” said Bob McNab, chairman of the ODU economics department. “The uninsured damages in Hampton Roads would likely exceed $13 billion, and you would likely see job losses in the short-term, again, to exceed 50,000.”
A cruel lesson learned in the aftermath of Hurricane Isabel, which was a tropical storm when it hit the Outer Banks and Hampton Roads region in September 2003 — the designated evacuation route, Interstate 64 westbound, was underwater. The four divisions of the clover leaf at the Hampton Coliseum were inundated.
“In Hampton Roads, … we haven’t had a major Category 2, [Category] 3 or above hurricanes strike the region since the early 1800s,” McNab said. “That luck is going to run out sometime.”
McNab said families should be ready to hit the road immediately upon receiving evacuation orders. Have cash in your wallet, gas in your car and plans for your pets and elderly loved ones.
And on top of Hurricane Erin, the WAVY Super Doppler weather team is watching two new tropical waves in the Atlantic Ocean.
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