I wanted to ask everyone to pray that Hurricane Irene somehow pushes out to sea, as it stands now it is a direct hit to where i live on Saturday At Cat3. My wife and I are leaving tomorrow for the north... i pray we come back to find everything in one place and no one hurt.
Marko
Well its been an interesting last few days..... i live three blocks from the beach on Oak Island NC. My wife and i had plans to be with friends for a small holiday of three days up in Delaware & Cape May NJ, so we set out on Tuesday. We were about to approach the Chesapeake bridge and tunnel when i received a call from Rick Moyer asking me if we were ok and that a earthquake had hit VA near our location on the road....WOW. (THANKS FOR CALLING RICK!) Then off to cape May where we were told we had to evacuate because a cat two storm was approaching. No one is prepared in the mid-Atlantic and northeast all the gas stations ran out of gas and extreme traffic and very pissed off people. My wife and I and two friends along with their pets were able to leave at 9pm Thursday evening and make our way through a white knuckled ride up to the Pocono Mountains in PA arriving at 4AM very tired but grateful to be safe.... life is good. five states in two days this is one trip we will not forget and the storm still has not arrived yet.... will keep everyone posted. Are there any other forum members in the path of this storm? Be well everyone and god bless.
Marko
The Poconos is going to be hit tomorrow with a cat 2 hurricane according to today's news. You gotta go west, not north, to avoid Irene. Philly is supposed to be hammered tomorrow early afternoon/evening, I'm leaving work early today to prepare the house, get everything inside or battened down, and do some last minute shopping. Good luck everyone, stay safe.
Marko - do you miss New Jersey now? ;)
Stay safe everyone!
NJ is still getting hit at Cat 2 strength I believe. Looks like it'll be a mere tropical storm by the time it gets up around here. Stay safe all.
Joe - a tropical storm in Canada just sounds weird. :)
sub tropical storm? :)
Quote from: Rico on August 26, 2011, 08:57:23 AM
Marko - do you miss New Jersey now? ;)
Stay safe everyone!
Rico..... High taxes....cold weather, snow, traffic and now Hurricanes, no Rico i never missed NJ! :)
On a serious note all my friends who live in the wildwoods where we evacuated will lose everything in the flooding, they are one foot above sea level and this will be catastrophic!
Quote from: billybob476 on August 26, 2011, 09:01:52 AM
sub tropical storm? :)
Aye, oh a sub tropical storm, eh! ;)
Quote from: MARKO on August 26, 2011, 09:05:55 AM
On a serious note all my friends who live in the wildwoods where we evacuated will lose everything in the flooding, they are one foot above sea level and this will be catastrophic!
That's really awful. I hope people come through all right.
I always have to ask, but do you guys in the path of this who live near the coast have flood insurance?
Looks like the path of Irene will being it directly over midtown, possibly as a category 2 storm. I spent the last days convincing my CEO that we really shouldn't be asking people to come into the office over the weekend, and he finally agreed. (But I still have to answer email remotely - ugh!)
My town in NJ has been told to prepare for evacuation. We're about 10 miles from the shore, and 3 from the bay. But in a very hilly area and well above sea level. A nearby town, however, has been evacuated, and people are starting to arrive at my house. What a disaster it will be if we get evacuated as well. :/ Hopefully all will be well by Monday.
everyone stay safe over there!
We've just been downgraded a little bit. The local "traffic and weather" channel says that Irene will either be a "high end tropical storm or a minimal hurricane" by the time it reaches NJ. That's very different from "a category 2 hurricane directly over the Empire State Building" that they were telling us about last night. Ugh.
Finally convinced my CEO not to have anyone come to the office tomorrow. That took much more than I thought it would. But it does mean that he wants me to check email and voicemail remotely all day long. I'm beginning to hope that I lose power. ;)
Be safe! My family up in Greenwich, CT and Bedford, NY are hunkered down. I used to work in Battery Park City at World Financial Center, hope it doesn't submerge!
I am in Quebec now with my family, but have to head back home to Philadelphia on Sunday - we will be there in the evening - so hopefully the worst will have passed....and our house won't be flooded.
Well after speaking to Phil on Heytell and my friends on Twitter, I would just like to say I hope everyone comes through ok and you all stay safe
Hope everyone "weathered" this storm ok so far. Mother Nature likes to teach us all who is the boss sometimes. Here's a pic from the Maryland area. Be safe all!
We made it through fine here. Watching "The Rocketeer" on SyFy. Looking forward to today's podcast.
Good to know! :)
Been watching about this on the news. Hope everyone is safe.
It took us 17 hours of driving to get back from Quebec to Philadelphia. All the north -south roads from Albany, NY seemed to be closed. I87 was closed - and that is a major thoroughfare. What a nightmare. The house had weathered the storm, and we didn't even loose power - which is a miracle.
@Rico - I actually do have flood insurance of a sort. When we finished our basement, we got a rider to protect the basement in the event of flooding. This is a rider on our regular policy. We live about 5 miles from the Delaware River - but are in no danger of flooding where we are located.
My town was not evacuated, but some nearby ones were. And we wound up with 8 people and 4 animals in the house during the storm. But there was no damage, and only a few fallen branches. I don't even see any flooding. However, my power is out at home, and may stay that way for a while. The radio says that power restoration "may take weeks." But at least we have hot water. And although trains aren't running, I can get to work on the bus, and charge my phone here. ;)
Quote from: spaltor on August 29, 2011, 07:06:10 AM
My town was not evacuated, but some nearby ones were. And we wound up with 8 people and 4 animals in the house during the storm. But there was no damage, and only a few fallen branches. I don't even see any flooding. However, my power is out at home, and may stay that way for a while. The radio says that power restoration "may take weeks." But at least we have hot water. And although trains aren't running, I can get to work on the bus, and charge my phone here. ;)
Glad to hear there's no damage. Hope you're power comes back sooner than anticipated.
Just spoke to New Jersey water department who said that my town is in a "boil drinking water" situation. The water pressure is up and down. Would sure like to take a shower.
My daughter's flight back to California was cancelled early Saturday morning (she was supposed to leave at 6:30 am). She missed a retreat for the weekend. She flies out early tomorrow morning.
Quote from: Darmok on August 29, 2011, 07:21:12 AM
Quote from: spaltor on August 29, 2011, 07:06:10 AM
My town was not evacuated, but some nearby ones were. And we wound up with 8 people and 4 animals in the house during the storm. But there was no damage, and only a few fallen branches. I don't even see any flooding. However, my power is out at home, and may stay that way for a while. The radio says that power restoration "may take weeks." But at least we have hot water. And although trains aren't running, I can get to work on the bus, and charge my phone here. ;)
Glad to hear there's no damage. Hope you're power comes back sooner than anticipated.
Just spoke to New Jersey water department who said that my town is in a "boil drinking water" situation. The water pressure is up and down. Would sure like to take a shower.
My daughter's flight back to California was cancelled early Saturday morning (she was supposed to leave at 6:30 am). She missed a retreat for the weekend. She flies out early tomorrow morning.
Friend of mine in Somerset is still without power.
Power outages are a lot easier to handle than a flooded home or basement. I still remember when the big power outage happened in the midwest area back in 2003 I think it was. We were out for a week. Not fun, but you can manage.
Yeah back in '98 we had a really bad ice storm in Montreal. No power for quite a few days in the dead of winter. It was quite the experience. You'd be amazed how many stupid people were trying to heat their homes by putting their BBQ in the middle of the living rooms! Needless to say there were quite a few house fires and cases of carbon monoxide poisoning.
All of the power lines here in Phoenix are underground so when we do have our big storms the power system isn't effected. We do loose power on occasion due to transformers popping from excessive use during the really HOT days, although this year we haven't had any outages.
Quote from: billybob476 on August 29, 2011, 09:05:08 AM
Yeah back in '98 we had a really bad ice storm in Montreal. No power for quite a few days in the dead of winter. It was quite the experience. You'd be amazed how many stupid people were trying to heat their homes by putting their BBQ in the middle of the living rooms! Needless to say there were quite a few house fires and cases of carbon monoxide poisoning.
I'd heard about that. The loss of life and property was really sad.
When I drove the family up there for Jazz Fest in 1999, it was eerie seeing the tops of the trees gone as we made our approach.
I miss Montreal. Wish I could live there again.
Quote from: Darmok on August 29, 2011, 11:27:55 AM
I miss Montreal.
Me too....I had a bachelor party there... :ohbaby
Quote from: Bryancd on August 29, 2011, 09:12:09 AM
All of the power lines here in Phoenix are underground so when we do have our big storms the power system isn't effected. We do loose power on occasion due to transformers popping from excessive use during the really HOT days, although this year we haven't had any outages.
Or some bonehead in a stolen truck plows through the transformer in the wash next to your house! :)
Quote from: Bryancd on August 29, 2011, 11:30:04 AM
Quote from: Darmok on August 29, 2011, 11:27:55 AM
I miss Montreal.
Me too....I had a bachelor party there... :ohbaby
I'll be there next weekend for a wedding and later on again in September for....a bachelor party :)
The ice storm was tough but we made the best of it. I was in the Air Cadets at the time (kind of like the Civil Air Patrol). We got into our fatigues and went around door to door with the police making sure people were ok. I also worked at McDonald's in a mall which was designated as a public shelter. All the stores/restaurants were closed except us and we had lines out the door. We couldn't use water because filtration had broken down so we were handing out cans of pop that we were ferrying over from CostCo.
We also ended up heeling out a friend of mine as her house burned down, the insulation around their fireplace was defective. Since it was the only way to heat the house, they had a fire going for a few days straight and the insulation around the fireplace actually caught on fire.
I also remember driving with my father to go and buy batteries and the car spun out on our way there since the roads were all covered in a sheet of very slick ice. The city couldn't do anything except spread salt on the roads but the freexing rain was steadily coming down make the effort pretty futile. Luckily we recovered and didn't hit anything (wasn't much traffic due to the conditions).
Monday Aug 29th finally back home...... no damage to my home here on Oak Island we are blessed we have power and the storm did not effect the island at all! Having said that my wife and i have been on the run for the last few days and have seen wide spread flooding damage of most of the mid Atlantic and north east. We drove from the Pocono mountains west on RT 80 to 81 south through western pa and there was wind damage and no power,also into Maryland and VA no power which meant no GAS or lodging or food water and $$$ from ATM Machines. We meaning my wife and i and a few hundred people slept in hotel lobby's off of RT 95 last night on our way home,no power or creature comforts, god bless the red cross they were all over helping people who were put out by the storm. I consider my self blessed after what i saw, i am also glad that my Hurricane Irene tour 2011 of the east coast has finally come to a close and i am home...... Life is good.
Marko
Glad you made it home safe and all is well.
I'm glad this storm didn't cause as much devastation as they thought it might. We lost our house to Hurricane Charley in '04, we were hunkered in the bathroom while it happened. It changed course at the last moment and came right into our harbor, we had no time to leave. I wouldn't wish that terror on anyone, that's for sure.
It really was nice at the time to see everyone coming together and helping each other out. Seems like at the worst of times people can be at their best.
Glad everyone and their property seems to be okay.
Nice to know everyone's still with us!
Still without power. It's mostly just a nuisance. But I commute into NYC every day, and the trains aren't right. So 10x the normal capacity of people are all trying to squeeze onto the buses. And it's almost dark by the time I get home again. I'm supposed to fly on Thursday - may be packing by candlelight!
This is a scale of event we just don't see over here. Without electricity? Unimaginable...
(OK, only half joking. I think component failure or civil unrest are probably the only things that could have any impact like that over here. The concept of really severe weather like that seems completely foreign to me. And for the other Brits, yes I do remember 1986 but the concept still seems alien.)
Really, I'm just happy that my hot water heater runs on natural gas. I may have to stumble around with candles and flashlights, but at least I can still take a hot shower every morning! And that makes a ton of difference.
Quote from: spaltor on August 30, 2011, 06:59:05 AM
Really, I'm just happy that my hot water heater runs on natural gas. I may have to stumble around with candles and flashlights, but at least I can still take a hot shower every morning! And that makes a ton of difference.
I guess it doesn't have electronic ignition or need any form of pumping then. Good purchasing choice on someone's part!
Quote from: spaltor on August 30, 2011, 06:59:05 AM
Really, I'm just happy that my hot water heater runs on natural gas. I may have to stumble around with candles and flashlights, but at least I can still take a hot shower every morning! And that makes a ton of difference.
I can take hot showers, but they're laced with sewage. :)
Quote from: Darmok on August 30, 2011, 08:47:56 AM
Quote from: spaltor on August 30, 2011, 06:59:05 AM
Really, I'm just happy that my hot water heater runs on natural gas. I may have to stumble around with candles and flashlights, but at least I can still take a hot shower every morning! And that makes a ton of difference.
I can take hot showers, but they're laced with sewage. :)
I really have nothing coherent to say to that... Eww?
Quote from: Feathers on August 30, 2011, 08:45:52 AM
Quote from: spaltor on August 30, 2011, 06:59:05 AM
Really, I'm just happy that my hot water heater runs on natural gas. I may have to stumble around with candles and flashlights, but at least I can still take a hot shower every morning! And that makes a ton of difference.
I guess it doesn't have electronic ignition or need any form of pumping then. Good purchasing choice on someone's part!
Most hot water heaters run on gas only in US homes. No need for electricity, unless you happen to use well water and need a pump. But again, many people use city supplied water. And when widespread power outages happen, getting the city water supply up and running is a top priority.
Quote from: Rico on August 30, 2011, 08:57:54 AM
Quote from: Feathers on August 30, 2011, 08:45:52 AM
Quote from: spaltor on August 30, 2011, 06:59:05 AM
Really, I'm just happy that my hot water heater runs on natural gas. I may have to stumble around with candles and flashlights, but at least I can still take a hot shower every morning! And that makes a ton of difference.
I guess it doesn't have electronic ignition or need any form of pumping then. Good purchasing choice on someone's part!
Most hot water heaters run on gas only in US homes. No need for electricity, unless you happen to use well water and need a pump. But again, many people use city supplied water. And when widespread power outages happen, getting the city water supply up and running is a top priority.
I thought gas was power failure proof myself, but the gas water heater and gas furnace at my parent's house have electric ignitions so when that ice storm hit in '98 we had no hot water despite the gas. Need a spark to light the flame! Oddly even though I have a gas furnace, my water heater is electric. Gonna look into that if/when I have to swap it out.
Yeah, we had no flooding problems, and therefore no water contamination... I'm very fortunate to be in the hilly part of town, but still walking distance from the bay. We just had falling trees knocking out power lines.
BUT, I did just get the call a little bit ago that power has been restored at home. Huzzah! Which means I can finish sewing for Dragon*Con, and then stay up all night with TV and internet. Finally back to normal. ;)
@spaltor: Wonderful! Congratulations!
I discovered the flaw in a boiler with electronic ignition wen we lost power for a day last winter. I'd thought I was being clever when I bought it but after that day I knew I should have gone for the cheaper one with a pilot light.
Glad the power's back. Welcome back to the 21st Century :)
Gotta love having a pilot light!
I'm just south of Boston and things weren't too bad for us. No flooding and no trees feel on the house. <phew>
We did loose power for about 72 hours leading up to when I left for Dragon*Con but at least it didn't stop me from getting there.
Kevin