Looking out my window in DC…we are getting the occasional strong gust, but nothing notable yet. I’m on the fifth floor of a very solid building, so I think I am fairly secure.
The little decorative tree in the front yard went down. No damage to anything else (well, it squished a few plants), but it was only four feet tall.
In other news, my favorite campsite on Cape Henlopen may Or may not be underwater. The dangers of being righr where the Delaware Bay meets the Atlantic…
You said it. The forecasts showed the western edge to be no further west than Detroit, a state-and-a-half away from Milwaukee, Green Bay, etc. I guess the effects are much farther reaching than what the forecast coverage indicated (or else the first forecasts are wildly inaccurate).
We’re up to 4 ft waves on the northwestern shore of Lake Michigan so far, and still mostly sunny, with heavy clouds in the distance.
As I went to school today in Whitby, Ontario, it was bleak, cold, grey… but not raining and not windy.
We’ve got wind warnings (gusts to 100 km/h) in the Greater Toronto Area. Plus 30-50 mm of rain. This may lead to waves of five to seven metres on Lake Ontario and southern Lake Huron.
Just beginning to rain in northern Manhattan. I live on a hill but am very close to the river. I can see the river from my window, and everything looks pretty normal. At the moment.
My knowledge of the geography of the area is sketchy at best. Will my sister in Montclair, NJ be heavily affected?
Yes. At the very least she will probably have no power for a day or two. I’m not far from there so I know. NJ schools are closed and all transit has been shut down. We’re already getting heavy gusts here in the northern part of the state.
Well, I evacuated. The creek didn’t flood, but the street did because of poor draining that the town doesn’t want to fix. Best of luck to everyone out there. Those winds are no joke if you have to drive.
It’s been steadily raining all morning in Montgomery County, MD. The winds have started to pick up a little. My company’s local office closed at noon. A lot of folks, myself included, are working from home.
I hope the power doesn’t go out. On the one hand, we’re served by Pepco, which is never a good sign. On the other, my neighborhood utilities are buried, so we generally fare better than other clusters when it comes to power outages/restoration.
I feel like today all of my usual aches and pains are intensified. I don’t know if it is the low pressure or what, but I am sore just about everywhere for no good reason.
This is the second big storm to hit Delaware in two years. Could this be Christine O’Donnell’s revenge for losing the election there? She claimed to be in a witches’ coven and they can do things like this. She is probably standing over a bubbling cauldron looking at a map of the mid-Atlantic as I write this.
I’m in Secaucus, not far from Montclair. It’s not bad right now, just very windy. Tonight is going to be another story. I hope I’ll be okay, I went up on the roof yesterday and looked around just to reassure myself. I live upstairs in a 2 story house with storm windows and I’m on high ground. I have plenty of food, water, flashlights, batteries and good books. A friend of mine works for the town and promised to give me updates about local conditions.
I keep hearing about filling the bathtub with water, can anyone tell me why? Is that supposed to be for washing or extra drinking water just in case?
Drinking water.
If the water supply pumps go down, or the system is contaminated, it can be days before you get water.
If you need to wash, use the rainwater. 
I just wonder how “The Situation” is dealing with this situation. Does he have the situation under control? Does being a Situation negate the situation affecting the Situation?
Please tell me the Situation is okay!
Winds and rains are picking up now.
My sister sadly has decided to stick it out in her house. I think she is nuts. She is right on the river in a coastal town. So her and her husband and 2 dogs will be hoping tonight’s high tide is now too high.
Thank you. I’ll be scrubbing out the bathtub now…
Everybody in Sandy’s path, please be safe.
If you use it for drinking water, you need a way to boil it. Unless you’re cleaner than anyone I’ve ever met, your bathtub is not clean enough for the water to be safe to drink, especially after sitting out in the open for a few days. I think it’s more for things like flushing toilets. I’ll admit that I could be oh-so-wrong about this, though, as I’m no emergency expert.
If you have any food-grade containers, especially ones you can seal in some way, fill those with water for drinking (and maybe cooking if you have a way to do so). Even better, as long as you have power and can, fill them most but not all of the way and then put them in the freezer if it isn’t already full. You get extra thermal mass and some more potable water as/if they melt.
I live in central Indiana, and we’re under a wind advisory (gusts up to 50 mph) starting later this afternoon until evening tomorrow, so the impact is reaching all the way out here. Not that it’s in any way comparable to what the folks on the East Coast are dealing with.
My parents and one brother live in Center City Philadelphia; the other brother lives in Lansdale NJ. I’ve got my fingers crossed that everyone will be OK.
Bathtub water is best for essential washing, toilet flushing (pour some in with a bucket until toilet flushes), etc. I guess you could boil it and maybe pass it through a Brita pitcher (or paper coffee filters) if you needed to use it for drinking.
You can also make emergency water storage by using strong, intact (double-bag if you want to be sure) garbage bags inside cardboard boxes. Fill the garbage bag to a manageable level, then tie off the top and move the box somewhere convenient. Considering most garbage bags aren’t food-grade, this is also not really a good idea to consume this water.
I live south of the storm’s major impact, but one trick I’ve learned in hurricane country: If you have a washing machine, run a bleach load through, wipe it down, and rinse again. Then fill with water, add a couple of drops of bleach and close the lid*. Voila, emergency water. (Yes, my “spare” refrigerator always has a few extra gallons of water, and the bathtubs get scrubbed and filled in the event of any weather emergency but the washer trick is good, since it’s quick, easy, and the lid helps keep the water clean. I personally haven’t drunk washing machine water yet, but the dogs have, and it was fine. If I’d had to drink it, I would have, but I probably would have boiled it before giving it to anyone with a weak or immature immune system.)
*This is assuming you have a top-loader. I don’t know if it works with those new-fangled front loaders. One of you whippersnappers will have to let me know! 