Ocean City residents, visitors feel impacts of Tropical Storm Ophelia
BALTIMORE -- Winds were whipping and rip currents were on full display in Ocean City as Tropical Storm Ophelia prepared to soak the popular vacation town.
Diane Oestreich said the weather was interfering with her vacation.
"It's paid for, it's bought, and I was watching the weather—and every obstacle possible tried to stop us including the weather," she said.
Terry Klinger was also in Ocean City trying to make the most of his vacation gone wrong.
"Just hope it don't flood. That's all," he said. "Other than that, I've never been in a tropical storm."
WJZ's First Alert Weather team is predicting that the storm will bring high winds of up to 50 miles per hour and heavy bands of rain to Maryland. The team projects that there will be coastal flooding.
"It's not really new to us here in Ocean City," business owner Jeb Vetotk said. "We're used to these tropical storms, hurricanes. We do a lot of preparation at our restaurants and hotels and restaurants to get ready for this."
On Friday night, patrons visiting Ocean City for the weekend filled the Wedge Bar as they awaited Tropical Storm Ophelia's arrival.
One woman says she would be heeding the warnings, though, and plans to return home to West Virginia a day earlier than expected.
"If it's going to be crappy all day, then I just want to go ahead and go home," Teresa Mcmahon said.
Some people walked the boardwalk and captured the beginning of the conditions of the storm. WJZ encountered visitors who said they intended to stay but had an evacuation plan in case there was chaos at the ocean waterfront.
"If it does get bad, we're going to head out over the Route 50 bridge, go inland and go out 113," Klinger said.
