Come upstate to my house. We have a spare room and a baby you can play with. I lived through hurricane Gloria in 1985 when I was a kid and lots of nor’easters since then. A big bit rain and some wind and that was it.
That’s what I’ve heard. We’re picking up a few items just in case like canned goods and some formula in case my milk supply dries up but it really doesn’t sound that bad.
My big concern is that our sump pump will give out and the basement will flood but I’m not worried about the rest of the house.
cape may county in nj is under evac. now. always good to have your “go to place” picked out ahead of time. many hotels and motels will be full booked by friday afternoon.
also pick your “go to person” now. have it be some one away from the east coast that your friends and family can call and check on you. the phone lines will get a bit crazy. there was a bit of a dress rehearsal on monday with the 'quake.
i’m in philly and i expect new jersey to be the barrier island and keep irene busy so she doesn’t bother pennsylvania much. hearing that they expect irene to gather herself together between a swipe at the carolinas and coming into the mid-atlantic, is not heartening.
gloria and floyd had downgraded before hitting nj and pa. sounds like irene doesn’t want to do that.
on one hand i’m happy that i’m in a sturdy prewar apt. building. on the other hand this building has a history of being hit by lightening and is a hop, skip, and jump from the “surekill” river.
Cape May is such a pretty place. I hope Irene is gentle with it. The Wildwoods just up the coast are also one of my favorite places on the shore. Now Altantic City, that she can have.
just joking just joking just joking please don’t hurt me hurricane irony gods . . .
Great, first an earthquake, and now a hurricane. I’d expect a plague of locusts next, but that’d just be Congress returning from their summer vacation.
More on-topic, I find Stormpulse to be a good tracking site.
Time for me to make sure my non-perishable supplies are in good shape and try to eat up stuff in the fridge: I anticipate that with the ground already wet, we’ll get some power outages in the area. (Area == DC-ish.)
Aye, between the idiot who motored at high speed inside the boat stakes and the idiot who tied his big boat up to someone else’s boat stakes, it could be a bit risky.
We’re at a similar place (on the Long Island Sound), but everyone there knows what they’re doing, and we’ll probably haul the thing out of the water anyway.
As for preparation, we’re far enough inland and we’ve always got plenty of beer. So we’ll be fine.
Those in charge of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Dedication have finally come to their senses and postponed the dedication, which had been scheduled for 11:00 Sunday morning, 48 years after “I Have a Dream”.
Please be aware that flooding is NOT covered under a normal homeowner’s policy, you have to have taken out a special flood policy or have a flood rider. Use your time while preparing or during power outages to read your insurance documents. I work for an insurance company. Water damage due to hurricane winds opening a hole in your house and rain falling in is covered under a normal policy. Shit-water backing into your basement through the sewage line is NOT.
So if you’re like 2/3 of the people in the northeastern states and don’t have any flood coverage on your homeowner’s policy, get everything you care about out of your basement now.
Be aware that if you leave the house before the storm and don’t come back immediately afterward to secure and prevent further damage to the premises, your claim may be denied in part. Obviously, if there is a mandatory evacuation you can’t be held responsible for not being there. But if you voluntarily leave and come back next week to find a 5 foot hole in your roof with water pouring into your house that whole time, you’re courting the risk that an insurance company may not cover it completely. Because if you’d done your due diligence to secure and protect the property ASAP (or mitigation, as it’s called), the damages would have been much, much less.
My son just arrived today to start his job in NJ. His first task instead of revenue flights, is to ferry the company planes inland. Oh well, at least it will be a memorable first day at work.
QFT - the above happens a lot with Hurricanes. I think it was Charlie that was going to hit Tampa then made a last minute turn and went up through Port Charlotte instead. If you’re near the projected paths then pay attention and be prepared. The probability cones predict where it can go, not the severity radiating from an infallible forecast line. Pay attention to where it’s expected to go. I’ve been watching this storm since the beginning of the week when they thought it might hit south Florida.
This afternoon, the storm was projected to be a category 2 by the time it hit NJ. At the 8:00 PM update this evening, it was forecast down to a category 1. Bah. And I was getting all excited 'n stuff.
Sweet! I haven’t seen that update. I live about 1 mile from the ocean, visitors have mandatory evac now and residents are supposed to go to mandatory evac tomorrow. But maybe the forecast was all wrong and it’s just a rain storm, right?
Right?
(I do have plans to evacuate inland Friday pm or early Saturday am.)
We got several calls to pull our group’s boat in from the mooring. This has never happened before. This is shaping up to be the worst Hurricane to hit Jersey since the 60s. I hope it comes to naught, but my sister who lives near the water will be coming to stay at our place Saturday night, pets and all.
I initially read this to mean that she was bringing her pets, including cat#1, who is apparently very bad. Now I realize that you probably meant the hurricane. I apologize to the kitteh.
Our plan of attack today involves securing the boat with extra dock lines and fenders, taking down both sails, unless it’s too windy, in which case we’ll just tied them securely, removing the dodger, lashing the pedestal cover in place, cutting power to the boat, and taking lots of pictures. If we have to make an insurance claim, at least we can show our due diligence.
Then we’ll come home and give the yard a once-over, but I don’t think there’s anything out there to worry about. There is one large tree near the corner of the house where the master bedroom is located, but it seems to be pretty healthy. We will need to monitor the basement - sometimes the drain outside the door clogs and water backs up and floods inside. Been there, done that, don’t wanna do it again, so we’ll keep an eye on it. And after all this storm hubbub is over, I think I need to do some grading in the back yard. I’ve been putting it off for too long…
Meanwhile, last night’s storm soaked everything thoroughly - wonder what that’ll mean when the next wave comes thru?
The storm’s been downgraded again for us. Heavy rain is still in the forecast though. At this rate, I wouldn’t be surprised if we ended up with a sunny weekend and a cool wafting breeze.
I dropped in to link this - it’s a great site. I love the way you can get the distance from the centre of the storm to various locations, and click the clouds on! The thing I tend to watch is the speed of these things, no matter what the force of winds the fact is you want it to move through quickly. It’s showing 14 mph right now, so that’s not too bad. Best of luck everyone, Irene passed here (Leeward Islands) days ago, dumping a fair bit of rain and a few gusts of wind, she’s shaped up since then.
Just got word here in South Carolina that Berkeley County schools are closing at noon. We’re out of the path but the weather advisories are for heavy rain and gusty winds up to 50 mph.
It’s our first one of these. Our next door neighbor this morning said something to the effect of ‘Hey, any hurricane where we’re not evacuated is one I can live with.’
