Storm Watch: Hurricane Sandy

My nearest neighbors (here in town, where we recently moved) tell me they have not lost water service in the ~12-36 years they've been living here, and only ever lose power for 1-2 hours at most.  We are right around the corner from the hospital, and very close to the police and fire stations.  It will be interesting to see if that holds true in this storm, which is supposed to be fairly epic.

There are many people here who are panicking because so many have only just finished repairing and recovering from Hurricane Irene, which hit us hard last year.  It would -- will? -- be tragic if those same areas experience severe flooding again.  I suppose the good news is that town and regional agencies are taking this storm threat very seriously and issuing detailed cautions and preparations well in advance of the storm's arrival. 

However, we are accustomed here to hearing weathermen over-predict (perhaps even sensationalize) potential storm impacts, and the general attitude I'm feeling from people I talk with in town is that they just don't buy that this storm is going to be as bad as "they" say.  We have been told far too often that we are expecting a foot of snow and then we get just a few inches or even just rain.  I guess my standard response there is the same as it is here:  I'd rather be a year early and overprepared than a day late and underprepared.  I went to the food co-op this morning for more eggs and bread "just in case," and I secured or moved indoors all of the loose things in my yard.  But I'm not panicking, because I've prepared in all the ways I can reasonably manage, and all those preps moved with us. 

My kids are really hoping it won't cancel Halloween for the second year in a row -- last year we had a major early snowstorm on Halloween.  We'll see.  It's not high on my priority list, but it is on theirs!

My thoughts are with those who are further south of us and already being impacted by the storm.  Good luck, everyone.

Although well inland from the ocean, the Great Lakes are also going to take some pretty severe weather.  They are predicting over 20' waves along the south shore of Lake Ontario and those waves are likely continue to pound the shoreline for quite a while:

http://www.weather.com/weather/videos/news-41/top-stories-169/timing-for-impacts-from-sandy-31851#loc=41/169/31934

A good friend lives on the shoreline.  Although the houses along his stretch are up off the water line and set back, 20' waves will likely hit those houses or at the very least wash out larges pieces of their yards.  Many of those houses belong to snowbirds who have already left for Fla and points south.  We've invited him to bring himself and his cats to our house if he feels like evacuating.

There are also several small port towns that are lower than the houses.  The villages could take a lot of damage.

I doubt people in that area have ever experienced anything like what is coming as the direction of the storm and persistent high waves appear to be unique.

Just keep the earthquakes and tsunamis on the left coast......

Been raining since early Saturday evening.  Blustery winds but nothing out of the ordinary.  Eye is on track to be due east somewhere around 8:00AM Monday morning which will put the winds out of the north - that's good because it will scoop the piled up water out of the bays and mitigate the full moon tides.  Highest surge near us is forecast to be 6-7 feet which is easily manageable.  I realize things could change - but I'm with thc, given all of the many, valuable things we have learned from the gang here at CM/PP.com over the years, we're set for just about anything Sandy could throw at us and a little challenge would help tweak the game plan.  I started the generator and did a load run yesterday, topped of a few items in the pantry and staged the emergency kits - lanterns, headlamps, three burner camp stove, high capacity water filters.  Unless something drastic occurs in the next 6-12 hours I imagine I'll be putting all of it away this time tomorrow.  I think people north are going to get hit just a touch harder than Tidewater - hope everyone is dug in and ready. 

Cat and I did make 4 quarts of chili this morning.  27 different kinds of homegrown peppers.  Two batches - one mild: Green bell, Carolina Gold bell, Chocolate bell, Red bell, Orange bell, Red Marconi, Yellow Marconi, Sweet banana, Anaheim, Poblano, Red Corno di Toro, Purple Beauty bell.

The other represents a high water mark for me. 

Hot batch: All of the peppers in the mild batch PLUS Hot banana, Ghost, Trinidad Butch "T", Trinidad Scorpion Tail, Carribean Red, Yellow Fatali, Orange habanero, Scotch Bonnet habanero, Red Savina habanero, White habanero, Chocolate habanero, Willy pepper, Lantern pepper, Thai Dragon pepper, Chinese 5 Color Aji.

Fukushima ain't got nothing on me.....

iZulu leDuma iQuaniso

The Heavens Thunder the Truth.

After apparently feeling the Queen Charlotte Quake here on Kauai- 40 minutes after it hit QC, I checked in with my SE Alaska friends- they were prepared and dealt with it, or didn't know about it 'till I called them!  Then we got the warning for Hawaii.  Drove down to the shop.  Packed up the generators, pumps, chainsaws, and computers from the business- elevation 6'- and schlepped them and the boat to higher ground.  Got to play with my newly aquired Ham radio on the emergency net.  Appreciated having the security of my go bag already in the truck.  Waited 3 hours.  Undid previous preps- continuing this morning.  Thanks for a non-event for us.  Hope all you east-coasters fare as well.  Aloha, Steve.

I was in the big city today for a conference and people were joking, nervous and edgy. They are not used to losing transit service like this. It incapacitates a lot of people who don't have cars.  We are being told landfall will be tomorrow night but there will be plenty of rain starting tonite into tomorrow with the winds picking up speed tomorrow night and Tuesday.  I cleared off my terrace and brought my garden indoors.  I know lots of people with vastly overgrown trees thanks to the abundance of rain and warmth we had this year. It looks great until they start falling and they certainly will. I hope everyone is safe and sound.

or anyone else, PM me if you might need anything. we're prepped for any of "MaMa's" efforts. The solar freezers w/batteryb/u keep ice for my scotch and the milch coos enjoy the rain. the robinsons

I rigged up power cables in my car today to feed a 1KW inverter for backup power, and tested it on my largest critical load: a small chest freezer.  Running off my Prius should minimize fuel consumption since the Prius engine will cycle on and off automatically to keep the battery charged and not have to continuously idle.  Other than refrigeration I'm pretty resilient without electricity, but it's nice not be worrying about losing a bunch of frozen food.

The other prep today was to harvest the fall beet and carrot crops before the garden got a soaking.  A hard frost could hit anyday now anway.

Believe it or not, a power outage is a good test for your resiliency. I lost power during last year's freak October snowstorm for a week and I learned a lot of lessons/tips/tricks from it: Charge up all of your rechargeable batteries/cellphone beforehand; fire up your generator to make sure it is running fine - this turned to be an issue for me as the generator battery had discharged; stock up on candles for light; have plenty of extra dry firewood around; try walking around your house in the dark so you know where everything is; or you can get one of these solar powered cap lights. My neighbors thought I looked a miner wearing one of these last year.

I have a gas generator, which I didn't quite fill up all the way this time. My thinking is the leaves are off the trees and we are not getting flooding rain, hardly any rain in fact, so I'm expecting much less power loss than last year. I was sharing my generator with my neighbor last year so I had him get some gas too, just in case.

Sager, hat tip to the Giants. How's this for resiliency: GoooOOO Lions!

Seriously now, I have been glued to this storm, I wish all well, and have mentally gone through all possible scenario's and the preps are done, duplicated and backed up. The greatest comfort I can think of is having installed a tri-fuel carburetor to my whole house generator. Gasoline, propane and natural gas can be used, are stored, and the system is portable.

Good Luck Folks

BOB 

Very responsible Adam, and the best this community can offer. I pray your family member is moved to safety.

I can help (financially), would like to help, and if I can do this directly just let me know. Are there any PP members directly volunteering where I might be able to send a donation?

BOB

In the final analysis, the Great Lakes may be affected as badly as anywhere.  I mentioned earlier a friend who lives on Lake Ontario.  He has talked to a lot of people up there who are lifetime residents.  None remember anything like the confluence of a tropical hurricane and a system coming in from the west.  I did some searching online and found a study done by the Corps of Engineers around 1990 looking at historical weather events on L. Ontario.  The summary mentioned a number of storm types, the directions they came from and the seasons when these types of storms occurred.  There was nothing indicating a storm like this had occurred in the historical record.  Then I called a friend who works for the Corps and has access to buoy readings.  Wave heights on Ontario are now about 5 ft, but forecasts are predicting over 20 ft waves some time tonight.  There are supposed to be 25 ft waves at the south end of Lake Michigan (Chicago).  The houses along the stretch of shoreline where friend #1 lives are generally no more than 10 ft above the waterline.

The bottom line is that the Great Lakes may be very unprepared for what is currently brewing.  Give a thought to friends and relatives who live near the Lakes, particularly the south sides/ends of those lakes.

Doug

Sitting in my office in southeastern New England watching through the patio doors as the rain and wind pummel the trees below and on the ridge across the valley.  Nothing too bad so far, just a little more intense than a normal fall or spirng rain noreaster. Schools are canceled and most everything is shut down.  Very few calls or emails all day. Lights have flickered several times but so far so good.  We are worried after last year, living through Irene, which didn't come withing 150 miles of here, but left downed trees, damaged builidngs and no electricity for a week.

Left our retreat in the northern New England woods yesterday to return to town home to be with kids, grandkids, elderly parents and to batten down the hatches.  Place up there should be out of range.  It felt strange looking for flashlights and going to the emptied market last night.  In the woods we are all set for these events.  Wood stove heats whole house (and can be used to cook) (Three cords piled up behind house, another cord on porch.)  Propane cook stove for meals and hot water.  Dug well and buckets provide water when drilled well's pump goes down.  Battery backup to run computer, small lights,cd and dvd players, or to charge cell phones (has hand crank for use if stored charge runs down.) Enough canned and boxed food to last a week or two without problem.  When we were going over our list of "to do" things for final preparations this morning I told my wife that next event we should stay up north where we are good to go when disaster hits.

6:30 pm.  So far, so good in Philly.  Not as much rain (yet) as I expected.  Didn't like the way the tree in our sidewalk out front was flapping against the power line that comes into the house, so we did some trimming this morning in the 25 mph gusts.  Problem solved.  Neighbor's massive maple out back (overhanging our deck and rear of house) doesn't seem to mind the wind at all.  Wind is 32 mph steady with gusts above 40 mph.  Electrical power hasn't even flickered.  City was closed today and will be so again tomorrow.

"May the odds be ever in your favor."