Hurricane Sandy! (Watch out, NE)

[sjwaste]

CT is in a state of emergency and it looks like they're going to start shoreline evacuations tomorrow. I considered buying a generator, but even after being out of power for a couple weeks last year, it wasn't really that bad. Fortunately I have a gas-powered water heater, so I still had hot water through the whole thing, toilets worked, faucets worked, opened the windows during the day, and used flashlights at night and a propane camping stove to cook.

Meh.

Maine declared a state of emergency too, but I think that's mostly so they can get around the usual rules on utility crews' hours. We have a baby, so I think I'm more interested in making sure I have enough food and water on hand. Even if the power goes out, I have enough propane to keep the propane fireplace going, and the grill outside to cook.

I started another thread before, but we had an electrician out today to estimate a standby generator. Funny timing, but I'm sure he can't get it done by Mon/Tues.

 

[Kaido]

Maine declared a state of emergency too, but I think that's mostly so they can get around the usual rules on utility crews' hours. We have a baby, so I think I'm more interested in making sure I have enough food and water on hand. Even if the power goes out, I have enough propane to keep the propane fireplace going, and the grill outside to cook.

I started another thread before, but we had an electrician out today to estimate a standby generator. Funny timing, but I'm sure he can't get it done by Mon/Tues.

Yeah, they're saying the max we'll be out of power is 3 days, and that there's 2000+ utility workers on-call just in case. We snagged the last box of diapers locally this afternoon :thumbsup:

 

[sjwaste]

I forgot about diapers, but we probably do have about a weeks' worth anyway. I'll probably head to Walmart tomorrow morning to get a few things just in case. Thankfully, I've learned that Mainers panic about the weather a lot less than pretty much everyone else, so I'm doubting that everything will be picked over. I think I'll be able to get some basic baby stuff.

I'm hoping we don't lose power. That would be a pain in the ass. I just wonder how bad it'll get if the storm stays west of us like they currently think it will. I'm a lot more worried about my folks in south jersey. They're not on the coast, but the wind could be pretty bad.

 

[Balt]

Best of luck, gentlemen. I hope the flooding isn't too bad since its landfall will coincide with high tides.

At least you won't be suffering in the summer heat if you lose power for a week. Hurricane Isaac was not pleasant for me earlier this year.

 

[Kaido]

Best of luck, gentlemen. I hope the flooding isn't too bad since its landfall will coincide with high tides.

At least you won't be suffering in the summer heat if you lose power for a week. Hurricane Isaac was not pleasant for me earlier this year.

Yeah, we had just brought our newborn home from the hospital. It was like 100F outside, no power inside, and he was colicky. That was a fun experience :biggrin:

 

[nextJin]

I had to go all the way down to the triad area of North Carolina to find a 7500w generator, and I am in the DC Metro Area.

Have to drive down there today to pick it up.

 

[WT]

Shelves in the grocery store were bare, at least in the aisle that has (had) bottled water. I have to get the PCs off the laundry room floor, which doesn't sound like a job, but I have probably 8 of them on floor level and not a lot of bench space to stack them.

Should make for an interesting start to the work week in the NE sector.

 

[shortylickens]

Bottled water is a hideous waste of money, especially in the bulk needed for long term survival. I just filled up some sturdy 5 gallon jugs with tap water (which is filtered).

Also got plenty of food, a little solid fuel stove, and gear for getting by with lack of power. Realistically Virginia is only gonna have one bad day, followed by a week of inconvenience. I'm more worried about Massachusetts and New Jersey.

 

[marmasatt]

Why not perpetuate the hype.

Latest from RI's Fred Campagna (6 reasons why Hurricane Sandy scares me):

http://rightweather.net/2012/10/six-reasons-why-hurricane-sandy-scares-me/

 

[nextJin]

Bottled water is a hideous waste of money, especially in the bulk needed for long term survival. I just filled up some sturdy 5 gallon jugs with tap water (which is filtered).

Also got plenty of food, a little solid fuel stove, and gear for getting by with lack of power. Realistically Virginia is only gonna have one bad day, followed by a week of inconvenience. I'm more worried about Massachusetts and New Jersey.

Yea the bottled water is a little absurd. I usually wouldn't give a damn about even a weeks worth of power outage or chaos in the streets but the wife is 2 weeks till she pops and we already have a 2 year old so she MADE me go get the generator lol.

Should be fun stuff, if DC gets over 8 inches alot of it will be underwater per mappers at the NHC.

 

[zzuupp]

So far, it's rained almost constantly since yesterday afternoon. It has never been particularly hard. .1 / hr usually.

 

[nageov3t]

kinda wishing I had picked up more food when I was raiding my parents' pantry yesterday.

not that I'm at risk of starvation if I have to work from home for a couple days, but everything I got requires cooking, and it's not really convenient for my lazy mindset right now

picked up rice, eggs, milk, and ground meat... think I may make meatballs tonight, and if I get desperate tomorrow, tomato soup and rice.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Bottled water is a hideous waste of money, especially in the bulk needed for long term survival. I just filled up some sturdy 5 gallon jugs with tap water (which is filtered).

Also got plenty of food, a little solid fuel stove, and gear for getting by with lack of power. Realistically Virginia is only gonna have one bad day, followed by a week of inconvenience. I'm more worried about Massachusetts and New Jersey.

I filled up 2-liter bottles and loaded my freezer with them. It's a win-win. That's an emergency water supply and also a method of helping the freezer stay cold longer in the case of an extended power outage. That could buy you an extra day or even more. Remember that a half-full freezer starts to thaw inside 24 hours when the power goes, a full one can go 24-36 hours longer. Also people, remember to turn your freezer and the refrigerator to their coldest possible settings before a storm. The colder they are in advance the longer they can last without power.

It's funny, I was out yesterday doing my pre-storm walkaround to see what had to be done. I moved the patio furniture in, put the grill in the garden shed, bolted down a slightly loose awning over the front porch, checked windows, etc. Most of my neighbors were out doing the same, the whole block was a beehive of outdoor activity of emergency prep work. And one family was cleaning their yard. In the face of sustained high winds and torrential rain that will wipe out the 50% of leaves still on the trees and scatter them any which way one house decided that it was important to get the leaves off their lawn so that the yard was 100% pristine before the storm wrecked it.

I'm always the last person to do the leaves in my neighborhood. The longer I wait the more that blow away and the more that blow away the fewer I have to rake. Never touch a rake before Thanksgiving.

 

[nageov3t]

I heard it was good to rake before the storm, since the leaves may clog drains and exacerbate flooding.

 

[lupi]

glad its coming ashore more north of where it was first slotted, we've already had almost 24 hours of straight rain and it's going to make it easy for the trees and poles to go down in sustained wind.

 

[Brainonska511]

MTA is going to be suspending service in NYC Subways and Buses, on the LIRR, and MetroNorth starting at 7PM today.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

I heard it was good to rake before the storm, since the leaves may clog drains and exacerbate flooding.

If all the leaves were already down and if you can get the whole neighborhood to do it, then yes. If one house out of 20 does it the phrase "drop in a bucket" comes to mind. Most of the leaves are still on the trees and will come down in the storm. Pre-cleaning is an utter waste of time.

 

[nageov3t]

MTA is going to be suspending service in NYC Subways and Buses, on the LIRR, and MetroNorth starting at 7PM today.

guess who's glad he's working from home today? :thumbsup:

I sent my boss an email last night and gave him 3 options...

a) I work from home
b) I go to work, but leave early before the storm hits
c) I call out sick

he picked option A

the subways flooded during Irene and it was a nightmare. I generally err on the side of caution when getting stuck at work for +24 hours is concerned after the time I got stuck in the office for a weekend because of a blizzard (although that wouldn't be so bad now... our new office has showers and a nice hotel about 50' away)

 

[sze5003]

Yeh here in Philly I think they want to close the highway and 76 which is what I use to get to work. I think they expect me there because all my coworkers live in that area. But I will rather want to work from home since car needs new tires and I would rather not drive in the storm for 25 miles or so.

 

[Brainonska511]

guess who's glad he's working from home today? :thumbsup:

I sent my boss an email last night and gave him 3 options...

a) I work from home
b) I go to work, but leave early before the storm hits
c) I call out sick

he picked option A

the subways flooded during Irene and it was a nightmare. I generally err on the side of caution when getting stuck at work for +24 hours is concerned after the time I got stuck in the office for a weekend because of a blizzard (although that wouldn't be so bad now... our new office has showers and a nice hotel about 50' away)

I can do some work from home, but I have experiments to run (I'm a grad student in biophysics), which can't really be run remotely. Fortunately, I haven't started anything yet. Unfortunately, that adds day or two of delay to my plans of getting this shit finished.

 

[EagleKeeper]

Light wind here north of Philly. Bands of sprinkles only st this time.

Concern is taking wife to Trenton on Tues for surgery. Supposed to get a call Mon on time.

Expect this to be a big false flag. Rode out multiple storms in Fla. Biggest was Andy. This is being made into a panic vs a heavy front and over water than land

 

[nageov3t]

Expect this to be a big false flag. Rode out multiple storms in Fla. Biggest was Andy. This is being made into a panic vs a heavy front and over water than land

my realistic expectation is a repeat of Irene last year, where the worst I experienced was mild inconvenience (subway getting flooded, cable/internet lines going down, and not wanting to leave my house for a day or two because of the rain).

I'm expecting the places that always flood to flood once more, and my sympathy will be limited as people and stores once again continue to refuse to move.

 

[DrPizza]

Wow, Bloomberg really downplayed this storm last night. Two sentences were spoken within the same minute: everyone should just stay inside; and, schools and businesses aren't closed. No evacuation ordered - he decided to believe the one model that had the storm hitting Delaware, and ignored everything else, including the size of this storm (2nd largest, probably largest in a lonnnng time to hit the US). But, many/most models are showing the center to come in someplace in NJ. While it won't be a hurricane when it hits shore, the storm doesn't decide, "hey, my name isn't hurricane, therefore I can't be that bad." It's generally expected to be worse than Irene.

Cuomo says that Bloomberg is still considering evacuations, but they've already ordered MTA shut down at 7pm tonight. :roll:

 

[sze5003]

Yeh I think you could be right eagle. I still need lunch meat and stuff for the week and was thinking of riding my bike today to put it in a safer place incase we do get really heavy winds. Was up this morning early and noticed the wind but just tiny bits of sprinkles here and there. I dont think it will be so nasty for people away from the waters and river.

 

[Jaskalas]

Pressure down to 951mb, "middle of Cat3" strength, IF it were tropical, but it's quickly losing tropical characteristics... meaning it'll certainly not be a "Hurricane" and the maximum winds will be nothing in comparison to what a Cat3 would do.

Big storm yes... Hurricane... not really...

I'm conflicted. Will it do more damage than Irene... more flooding perhaps? It's bigger and slower, so maybe more flooding, more wind, and at this time of year more snow? But it's still not going to be tropical. Just a big ass winter storm, a bigger than average Nor'Easter.