Adam, I try and keep my diameters not bigger than 3/8 on the large end. As to what the spine will be on each shaft is any bodies guess as they vary a lot between each.
Mullet, we did ok here in Fredericksburg. But from here north things were not so good as you well know. We never lost power, thank God, but got lots and lots of rain and some pretty good wind gust, but nothing damaging. Our rain gauge is 4 1/4 and it was running over, so not sure exactly what the total was, but the news said over 5 inches.
I sure do feel sorry for those up along the Del, NJ, and NY coast line. This will be the storm of destruction for the history books for sure.