Hurricane Irene

[Highmac]

BBC news bulletins are giving quite a bit of coverage to the imminent arrival of Irene on your east coast. We'll be thinking of you all and hoping its effects on you are minimal.

As an aside, one clip showed a man apparently preparing his cruiser for the bad weather. He was wearing a T-shirt with the legend: "Living the Dream". And we're always being told over here that Americans don't understand irony  

Seriously, our thoughts are with you. Stay safe.

[Jack W]

I don't live near the directly affected area, but appreciate your thoughts.

Best of luck to those of you in the Eastern regions. We'll be praying for you.

Jack

[jchuzi]

I'm located 90 miles inland from New York City but my area is under a tropical storm warning. The last time that this happened (Hurricane Floyd in 1998), we lost power for two days. The outages were spotty (areas less than a mile away were unaffected) but widespread. This time, we have a generator and I'll be stocking up on gasoline and food as well as moving any outdoor stuff to a safe place so that it doesn't go flying. We won't have hurricane force winds but gusts to 60 mph (predicted) are not to be trifled with. I live in an area that does not become flooded but those at lower elevations may have problems.

We can only wait and see.

[Xairbusdriver]

I'm wondering if Krissel has a generator. I know she has a basement that needs a sump pump occasionally. Of course, she may just be staying at her dad's during this whole storm. Hope everyone has stocked up on groceries (that don't spoil without refrigeration!) and will have full pantries when Irene is but a memory! :thumb up:

Wasn't aware where Jon lived, but I know we have several in the New England area and from DC northward. Everyone pay attention, have a plan and follow it...early! Don't way to

[gunug]

The older of my two sisters is on the Delmarva Penisula (on the Choptank) and is not evacuating this time as they are above high tide it is said.  I'm a little worried I guess!

[kcourt]

Hope everyone will be OK - I guess they have lowered the intensity to a 2....

Kathy

[jchuzi]

As I write this, it has been downgraded to 1. Still, a Category 1 hurricane is no pussycat.

[chriskleeman]

We are bracing for some pretty serious wind and rain here in Vermont. The storm is expected to go straight up the Connecticut River Valley, and that's where we are, on the eastern side of South-central Vermont. Looks like it may still be a Category 1 when it gets here, or if we're lucky, downgraded to a tropical storm. New York City is expected to take an even more direct hit.

Nonetheless, whatever Irene is when she gets here, we're most likely looking at power outages for days, lots of downed trees and washed out roads. Where we live is especially susceptible to power outages when we get severe weather, and this will certainly be one of the worst storms to hit New England in over 70 years. And no generator here!

So, today, we're cleaning up in the yard to try to keep the projectiles to a minimum, yesterday I fixed loose shingles on the roof, etc. Got plenty of gas for my chainsaw, which, unfortunately, I'm sure is going to get some use on Monday!

From the forecast, we'll be taking the brunt of the storm tomorrow throughout the day.

Can't wait!

And I do hope Kris has a safe place to ride this thing out!

Chris K

[krissel]

Hi guys, long time no see.  

Just thought I'd make a quick stop by to let you know I'm hunkering down at my house for the impending storm.  Been staying with Dad of course but did not want to be away from my place under these conditions.

While they think Irene will only be a cat 1 by the time it goes through here, it will only take a gust of 60-70 mph to bring down trees all over this area. They are forecasting as much as a foot of rain in our part of NJ so there will be widespread flooding as well. If I lose power it's all over for me, there'll be several feet of water in the basement.  My battery backup pump will only last for a short time then the water will back up. During previous rains of 5" the water actually pours through cracks in the wall like a fountain and also comes up through the floor. The main sump pump is new and works great but it does require electricity.

Just spent a couple hours up on the roof cleaning out gutters and digging trenches to help guide the water away from the house. Presently I'm packing up important papers into plastic containers should the trees come down (two 60-70' ones right by the house) and open up the roof to the rain. Also doing a second backup on my computer. Did one yesterday and took it to the folks' house. This one will go in the car in the garage which is detached from the house.

Doubt I'll get any sleep over the next 24-36 hours and most likely will not be online as I fully expect to lose power.  To make it more frustrating, Verizon has once again dropped my regional carrier for no perceptible reason so I can't dial out long distance to Dad and I imagine cell phone usage will be pretty bad.   My sister is there with him and I made sure his place was tied down pretty good before I left. They are further west so they won't get quite the impact that my house will. And their generator can handle everything except the air conditioning system so they should be OK.  Our town has opened a shelter but that won't provide anything more than I have here other than a roof over my head should the trees come down and if they do I probably won't be able to use my car to get there anyway.

At this point all I can do is wait and hope.

Thanks for your concern. Will let you know what happens eventually...  

[RobW]

Well, that was a fun night here in Philadelphia.   Actually, for most of the city, we did very well. We still expect some big winds (but not as big as originally thought yesterday) around 2pm. I tried to take Lincoln for a walk around 10pm Saturday night. Once we got off of our street into a more open area, he was having no parts of it. It was really quite amazing to be out in that for about 5 minutes. Within 5 minutes, my jeans looked like I had jumped into a pool of water that was chest deep. Of course, there's nothing like the smell of a soggy golden retriever to make the night complete.    

I woke up around 4:30 AM from the sound of the wind and street lights that were seemingly flashing--it was really just the trees blowing in front of them. The happiest thing was looking at my clock radio and knowing I still had power. Around 7:15, Lincoln gave me the "it's time to try for a walk again" wakeup nudge. Fortunately, it was pretty calm by then. He was quite happy about that. Let's hope we get through the rest of the wind today. I just took a quick drive around and saw a couple of trees down, but nothing too bad as far as damage in my area.

Good luck NY and all points north! Kris--hope you're ok!

[kimmer]

Rob, glad you are okay. Hope Chris and Kris and Jon are doing okay. I'll be happier when I hear that my family member on the east coast is okay.

[RobW]

Yep---didn't mean to forget about Chris in my "good luck" at the end of my post above! As predicted, the wind is really picking up again around here. It's an odd helpless feeling waiting for this to pass. I keep seeing the tree on my lawn bending towards my front window and a power line swaying in the wind. Sure glad we had that tree trimmed a couple of months ago.

[Paddy]

Hope Chris is ok - it looks like the storm passed right over him! However, winds have dropped considerably, but 4-6" of rain is no mere shower.

http://crisislanding.appspot.com/

Hope Jane's ok too - there was a storm surge in Falmouth today. 500,000 people in Massachusetts are without power at the moment.

We were at the extreme northwest edge of the storm today - cloudy and very windy all day, with gale warnings on Lake Ontario (I'm at the cottage - 100km east of Toronto on Lake Ontario). The eastern end of the province is getting some rain, but the worst will be in Quebec and New Brunswick, I think.

[RobW]

Paddy wrote:  

QUOTE

Hope Chris is ok - it looks like the storm passed right over him! However, winds have dropped considerably, but 4-6" of rain is no mere shower.

Boy, you are correct about that one! When I was out in it walking Lincoln last night, I felt like I was on a Hollywood set. Our winds finally ended around 7p today. I do hope we hear from Kris and Chris and others soon. By the way, earlier in the week, we also got rattled by the earthquake that hit the Washington/Virginia area. (It was about a 5.9 on the scale.) On Saturday, The Philadelphia Daily News, in anticipation of Irene, had this headline: "What's Next, Locusts?"

Before Irene hit, we had already broken the rainfall record for Philadelphia in August. Needless to say, this didn't help with trees staying upright, flooding, etc.

[Highmac]

Anyone heard from Chris or Kris?

BBC TV news says the worst seems  to have passed but has just been showing us some of the terrible scenes from New Jersey. Just keeping our fingers crossed.