Thinking of you guys. Stay safe.
It’s not just the wind–but the debris that gets picked up by the wind.
Galveston had some catastrophic fires in the 19th century, so laws required slate shingles on all downtown buildings. As the Great Storm of 1900 began rolling in, before things got too dire, a number of pedestrians were killed by flying slate…
US stock markets are closed today. The last unscheduled market-wide shutdown was after Sept. 11, 2001. There’s talk of them being closed tomorrow, as well. Looks like a day off for a bunch of people in Chicago!
As has been mentioned: storm surge and flooding is the #1 threat to coastal zones. and where that hits depends a lot on the relative location of the storm and orientation of the shoreline.
The authorities find it more cost-efficient to secure the equipment and infrastructure well in advance than to do it in a rush or to let it get hit while operating. And really, people should not sneer at stiff breezes. Those of us in the usual hurricane zones have had "oh, we’ve made it through worse, this is nothin’ like the big one back in 19*" * bite us in the youknowwhat before.
As Hershele points out, Irene’s impact on NYC was less than expected but then the effect where she went next was greater than expected. Though hurricanes, in the words of Martin O’Malley, are “polite” enough to give a couple days’ notice that they may be coming, in that time frame we can only generally estimate who may be affected and how badly, we cannot yet do specific-point defense until a window of only hours.
Just some heavy rains here so far, not much winds. The gov’t offices are closed, but I’m trying to do some work from home. My house is up on a hill so there isn’t much personal danger of being flooded. I think I’ll be fine as long as the power doesn’t go out and the pine trees out front don’t get blown over in my direction.
Yeah, I’m at work this morning (financial services), but with the markets closed and most of our clients not in the office, the company has made it very clear that the goal is to get everyone out of here as early as possible. Things are supposed to get ‘hurricane-bad’ between noon and 2pm around here, so hopefully it’s before that (and it should be, from everything I’m hearing). I’d like to do my sitting in the dark in the comfort of my own home. 
Ron White addressed this in one of his bits: “It’s not *that *the wind is blowing, it’s *what *the wind is blowing.” Then he went on about getting hit by a flying Volvo, but I don’t recall the exact wording - but it was pretty funny, and it made the point.
I’m at work in Lexington Park, MD at the moment, and while it’s raining steadily, there’s hardly any wind. I know it won’t last, and once the trees outside my window start swaying appreciably, I’m heading home. I don’t want to deal with downed trees and power lines on my commute.
The HMS Bounty, a replica three-masted tall ship famous for making appearances in films, as well as being a floating “sea school,” has been abandoned off the Hatteras coast. Very sad, though thankfully it appears that all the crew have been rescued.
I’m sure those of you in NY, NJ and the rest of the East Coast have much more to worry about, but I thought I would be immune from any Sandy effects as far inland as I am. But now the Natl Weather service has issued a warning for Lake Michigan, expecting 33 ft waves. And the sat pic shows the edge of the storm heading west and just now approaching the eastern shore of Lake Michigan.
While I imagine the 33-ft forecast applies mostly to the other side of the lake, it is only 90 miles away at the widest, and there’s sure to be big waves on this side. If a 33 ft wave approached my house, it would overtop my chimney. That is unlikely to happen, since big waves like that will break a thousand yards offshore, and the resulting height will be a lot less than 33 ft.
Meanwhile, I’m taking pictures and video as things progress.
Here is a 30 sec video taken a few minutes ago in HD. It seems to cut out at 20 secs; I don’t know why.
Keep an eye on storm surge. It has a way of rendering escape routes impassable even before the main storm blows in.
Okay, guys, I’m getting nervous. Looks like the worst hits today. New Brunswick forecast predicts sustained winds of 55mph and gusts up to 85mph. (The hour-by-hour forecast calls for ‘‘squalls’’ - that’s a new one!) The mayor has shut down all public roads and is allowing emergency personnel only. My EMT cousin was recently deployed to Fort Dix to rescue all us poor people in New Jersey. Irene was underwhelming but it did almost drop a giant tree branch on top of my car (it landed in the empty parking space beside mine.) There are a lot of leaning, droopy trees around this apartment complex and I’m not sure they can deal with 85mph winds.
I am originally from Michigan and am so totally new to this hurricane concept. At least with a tornado you don’t get days to sit around and worry about it.
Our “just in case” evacuation plan is to drive homeward (to Michigan), figure we might as well see family if this place is going to be screwed up for days. I’m going to pack a bag soon.
As for shelter-at-home, fortunately our apartment has a long windowless hallway in the interior of the building if we need to hunker down I’m guessing that will be the best spot. I’m thinking power loss is more an issue of ‘‘when,’’ not ‘‘if.’’ We’re gonna be okay, right?
You’ll be okay. You may have a hell of a mess in the yard if the droopy trees come down, and you may be without power for a while, but as long as you stay inside while the worst of the storm passes through, you will be fine.
Still nothing but rain in Columbia MD. Much heavier rain, though, making me glad I didn’t have to try and commute this morning. It’s really loud on the skylights, but so far I haven’t spotted any leaks. There aren’t any sewer drains in my neighborhood until you get to the very end of the cul-de-sacs, so we’ve already got a small river in the street, and the yard is already looking swampy. Wind is still fairly calm with only a few gusts big enough to move bigger tree branches, which surprises me. I hope the winds don’t get bad enough to pull up the pines, but if the wind strength compares to Irene, it’s very likely we’ll be repairing the fence again. Sigh.
I just saw this on The Weather Network: “Up to 23 million Canadians stand to be affected by Hurricane Sandy, 70 per cent of the country’s population. Southern Ontario will be among the worst hit areas.”
That’s a hell of a storm.
Naah, it’s just the media over-hyping a little storm… j/k
Wow…so I just learned that part of the reason Canada’s so non-aggressive, and can afford fun things like UHC, is partly due to the fact that there are about 1/10th the people there as in the USA.
Ignorance fought in a circuitous way. Bravo. 
Whatever you end up doing, thanks for doing it.
i did get to the office building and got told the office was closed. in the near hour i was out there, the wind and rain was increasing. every now and again there would be a break, then bam! right up back up and a bit stronger.
the wind tunnels in philly are really blowing. i nearly got knocked off my feet on the 20th st wind tunnel. i got lucky on 21st street due to a lull.
when i got home soaked was an understatement.
my condo building already collected a “one way” street sign, that got blown off the pole.
Last night’s local (Chicago) weather warned of 40-50 mph winds and flooding near the lake and in other parts of eastern Cook County.
You’ll be fine. Monitor local news and obey all evacuation warnings.
Scrap any plan to drive anywhere. If you were going to do that, the time to do it was yesterday. It’s not safe to drive in in the storm on wet, slick roads.
Central Jersey but not on the Raritan Bay where the worse flooding is expected.
We’re hunkered down. Schools closed and even my company is closed. My sister is retreating from the shore at about 2pm to here with her dogs. We have as much secured as possible and food, water, batteries ready. Phones are charged. I have 4 propane tanks to run our little generator to power our sump pump & Fridge.
We should be safe and can only hope for the best at this point. I do expect to have some flooding in the basement but nothing we can’t handle. I also figure we will lose power at some point. I hope I’m wrong.
I even have the wood stove loaded and ready to light. Not much left to do.