Who is preparing for Hurricane Sandy, aka "Frankenstorm"?

[nukediver]

You know it's serious when the Weather Channel sets up shop on your state's beaches, so many of us here in NJ are well underway with our storm preparations. Last year, Irene hit us pretty hard, and it looks like Sandy has the potential to be much worse. I've taken down or put away anything outside that could be a potential missile, and have gotten most everything up off the basement floor (which wasn't too difficult, since I left most of it up on pallets after Irene!). Also, New York City is shutting down its transportation (subways, busses, trains, etc.). This is a HUGE deal.

Most importantly, I'm working on putting together my go-bags. I'll need one for work, in case I get stuck there, and one or more for home. Good thing I have bunches of TB bags from which to choose for this task :-)

What, if anything, are those of you in Sandy's path doing to prepare?

[photocat]

Me too (Central VA). Well most of the prep is already done. We are mostly preparing to be without electricity. The worst part of that for us, is no hot water and I shower / wash my hair everyday. I'm not sure how this will work with the water being so cold now (as opposed to the summer when "cold" water is more like warm water). We were hit with 2 derechos within 5 days in June (the second one gained a ton of national media attention as it impacted a much larger area, in particular the D.C. area). We lost power with first one but not the second. I can only hope that all the trees that were going to topple over have already done so!

Wishing you and everyone else in the path good luck!

sue

[nukediver]

Thanks. It's been crazy here, the tides are already running super high, and it's only going to get worse. Are you lucky enough to have a generator?

[photocat]

Thanks. It's been crazy here, the tides are already running super high, and it's only going to get worse. Are you lucky enough to have a generator?

No, no generator. The way our house is designed, it wouldn't really do us much good unless we had a whole house generator. We hope to sell / move next year and a big requirement will be either have natural gas for our hot water heater or some way to have some sort of permanent generator set up. Between the hurricanes and ice storms we are prone to get, losing power is fairly common. We aren't lucky enough to share a grid with a high priority area (rich folks with connections to the power company -- and yes it does work that way as I sadly learned during Irene -- hospitals / fire etc).

We don't have storm surge to worry about, mostly a lot of downed trees and power lines. So far though, only been a bit breezy. No rain yet for us but it is right on our doorstep. Fingers crossed!

[nukediver]

Good luck!

[joiedwards]

Stay safe!

[nsh]

I live in Boston and we are bracing for the storm too- lots of rain and high winds expected. We brought in our dock, cleared our deck, and I cooked up a storm today in case power goes out tomorrow. I hope we all stay safe though I must admit that I am excited because the college where I am professor is closed tomorrow! It feels like a snow day but I don't have to shovel!

[Darcy]

Be safe, everyone! Sending good thoughts your way.

[backpack]

Good luck on the preparations!

I am going to be a pest and post the "FlyLady’s 11 Points to Preparedness for Evacuation" FlyLady’s 11 Points to Preparedness for Evacuation | FlyLady.net

The best bags for emergency stuff are either the Brain Bag or the Aeronaute for big framed people or families. Or, the Synapse or Western Flyer for small framed people, individual or work related needs.

I think that the Travel Dyneema bags would shine in that purpose.

I packed 2 Brain Bags and one Ballistic Aeronaute before Issac, it takes time and gets heavy but really really handy to have everything put together with Packing Cubes Backpacks and Shoulder Bags in different colors.
Make it easy to retrieve things by remembering the Packing Cube and bag color pair for each group of items.

A packing list for each bag is ideal, especially in the FJN but sometimes there is no time.

Don't forget the Guardian Dual Function Light and Tri-Power Safety Whistle.

And an Emergency Kit.

Stay safe!

[photocat]

Thanks everyone! Just listening to our forecast now. The worst is expected to come in tonight starting around 6pm and go through mid-day Tuesday, which at that time will also bring us snow showers!!!! Crazy.

Hope everyone is safe!

sue

[Janine]

Be safe, everyone. I hope the worst of the weather happens out at sea and you are merely inconvenienced by the kerfuffle.

[nukediver]

Be safe, everyone. I hope the worst of the weather happens out at sea and you are merely inconvenienced by the kerfuffle.

I wish this would be the case, but forecasts have us (NJ) taking a direct hit. The flooding due to astronomical high tides plus the storm surge has been horrible already (see below), with the worst two tides (tonight and tomorrow morning) yet to come. And the worst of the storm isn't due until tonight as well. The wind gusts have already been bad (~60-70 mph). Most of Atlantic City is already under 5 feet of water. ALL of the barrier islands along the entire NJ coast have been evacuated.

This is Atlantic City's Coast Guard Station at the first high tide this morning:



These are in Ocean City, NJ:





My favorite restaurant in Cape May :-(



While we can hope for the best, I'm afraid we will actually see some of the worst storm damage in recent memory. There have been reports of FAR too many people not heeding the mandatory evacuations along the coast, and I can only hope that there isn't any loss of life. It's going to be a long 24 hours coming up.

[gochicken]

The pictures are breathtakingly mind boggling. I can't even imagine it. Stay safe, nukediver, and all East Coast people!

[nukediver]

Thanks. The wind is REALLY picking up, and the power just dipped....

[Darcy]

nukediver... those photos are shocking. Stay safe.

We know delivery of your (TOM BIHN or otherwise) online orders for those of you in areas affected by Hurricane Sandy is the least of your worries right now, but we thought we should share what the folks at UPS sent us about delays. Note that packages on their way to areas near these zip codes may also be delayed.