Ophelia, Nate and Maria, Oh My!

As the US is watching a second week of news cycles surrounding the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, forecasters are wearily eyeing three other storms forming in the Atlantic - Ophelia, Nate and Maria.

Currently, Ophelia is the most threatening of the three with a position about 100 miles north of Cape Canaveral, Fla. While Nate and Maria are still too far out in the ocean to predict with any certainty, The Weather Channel is predicting that Ophelia could hit anywhere along the Atlantic Coast of Northern Florida all the way up to North Carolina.

How do you think the residents of these areas are reacting right now? Do you think that in the wake of the devastation of Katrina, mere forecasts of a possible hurricane strike in a four state region of the Atlantic Coast is enough to drive people to action and have any sort of economic impact on those regions? Will people planning to make a late summer run to the beach in Georgia or South Carolina cancel their plans for fear of being stuck there? Will hotels, motels and restaurants along the coast begin boarding up to protect their property from the storm? Will stores along coastlines close down and ship their inventory to "higher ground" after seeing what happened to the people of New Orleans?

Obviously, it would not be economically wise to tuck tail and run now, when Ophelia's path is still undecided, but when will the people in the areas predicted to get the brunt of the storm decide to shutter up, haul out their belongings and get out of Dodge? If you're looking at it from a purely economic standpoint at what point when a natural disaster is closing in on you do you make that decision? And, do you think that in the wake of Katrina, people will make that decision faster?

Take a look at The Weather Channel forecast for Ophelia.