Folks across Maryland are getting ready for the possibility of severe weather on Tuesday, including rain and heavy winds.
READ MORE: Maryland schools to close early Tuesday due to inclement weather
"It makes me a little nervous, to be honest with you," said Stephanie Giordano, president of MacGregor's Restaurant in Havre de Grace.
On Monday evening, Giordano had just begun putting out Valentine's Day decorations on the restaurant's deck.
"We've hung probably, almost 50 different ornaments so far, and I really don't know how they're going to fare tomorrow," said Giordano.
The restaurant is right on the water - and the location has proven reliable. Giordano says in 23 years, she's only seen one flood.
"Fingers crossed, that everything fares well and we still have beautiful Valentine's Day decorations still hanging after the storm tomorrow," Giordano said.
Harford County Executive Bob Cassilly began the day with a 9:00 a.m. briefing from the emergency operations center, laying out a plan of action.
Since then, Cassilly tells WMAR the Department of Public Works went out on the highways all day, preparing for bad weather.
"I encourage folks to watch out, if this thing hits at the rush hour which they're estimating, that could be pretty devastating," Cassilly said. "I'm glad our public schools have already decided to close early, get the kids home, so I encourage to move home early and get your batteries charged up, be prepared for the possibility of serious power outages."
Roughly an hour south, Annapolis is trying to prevent the same damage that occurred last September.
We all remember Tropical Storm Ophelia, the storm that left more flood waters than people expected.
To prevent history from repeating itself, leaders are doing everything they can to help residents get prepared.
“We will block a couple of streets off and we’re also giving out sandbags,” said City of Annapolis operator Norman Sharps. “We’ll try to help everyone we can even if we have to go back and get some more sand.”
The city will also bring in Norweigan tube barriers to help some of the heavy flood areas like Compromise Street.
The barriers act as a temporary wall, keeping the water confined to one area.
But Annapolis isn't the only place that sees a lot of flood waters. WMAR spoke with Keith Foye, who says flooding is pretty normal in Ellicott City.
“I think they have gotten so used to it, I guess they’re hoping since they went and redid the streets and everything, hopefully, the flood situation has been taken care of,” said Foye.
Even so, Howard County Executive Calvin Ball says the county has done a lot to prepare for future storms.
“We’ve done a lot of the preparation work of having high ground access signs, making sure that we have our early tone alerts if there is significant flooding, making sure that we cleared out the debris,” Ball said.
He continued to give a reminder to residents to stay safe if they are on the road when the storm hits.
“If you have a tree limb in the road don’t try to move it, if you see flooding water, turn around and don’t drive,” said Ball.
