Popping in for a moment to suggest that those of you in the east take stock of what you plan to do if the seas come in, the road washes out, power goes off and up to five feet of snow (!) falls out of nowhere. People who know about this stuff are using very strong adjectives to describe pressure trends in the storm’s middle part.
Random thought: it would be great if some organization had offices in neighborhoods all over the affected areas and could mobilize an army of volunteers to knock on doors to check that people are okay. That could really help in a nigh-unprecedented situation like this.
lamh35
Don’t ask me why, but as a Katrina survivor seeing all the coverage of this “super storm” is very interesting. If there was one thing to come out of the devastation of Katrina, it’s that people take “storms of the century” much more seriously now.
Still, I’m alittle tickled pink at the thoughts of ya’ll “yankees” up north making a run on bottles water, batteries and non-perishable cans of vienna sausage and come crackers…or is that just me and my peeps from the lowere 9th in NOLA.
Hope everyone stays safe if the storm is as bad as it seems it might be. And hopefully it’s over by the weekend.
Raven
@lamh35: My friends have a place on Burgundy. I was very dismissive of their pre_Katrina worries. Never again.
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
Checked the flashlights and lanterns, stowed the lawn furniture in the garage, gassed up the cars, filled up a water jug, took out some cash, did the dishes.
We’re on high ground so no danger of flooding, no trees close so no danger of branches hitting the house. Power failure is about the only problem we’re likely to see.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
Good thoughts on prep needed and behavior. I hope all in its path are safe. Please make sure Max has a warm blankie to wear in the snow.
lamh35
@lamh35: okay, wow. I really needed to proofread that post…lol.
“come crackers” should be “some crackers”…lol.
Can’t wait for the usual dirty minded BJer’s to see that one…lol
Punchy
I suggest everyone buys a rain poncho and a rake. Maybe a towel to dry off the car.
The Dangerman
@lamh35:
Damn, I was just going to say those were some salty Saltines!
TOP123
Last year, day before Hallowe’en, 22 inches of snow. This year?
PurpleGirl
Yesterday I got my medicine refills for November. Yesterday and today I went food shopping. Still a few things to get in the morning (large jugs of bottled water). Since I’m on the 17th floor, I’m not thinking about flooding. I have candles and battery-powered lights, but our power system is underground so a falling tree won’t take it out. (Power problems are still possible but not probable. I do not take it for granted that nothing could happen to the system.) Also, my building is not in an evacuation zone. There are a couple of older neighbors I’ll check in on on Monday.
Argh, I just checked my supply of printer paper… need to stop by Staples tomorrow.
MikeJ
@PurpleGirl:
Romney still own any of them?
janinsanfran
Random thought: it would be great if some organization had offices in neighborhoods all over the affected areas and could mobilize an army of volunteers to knock on doors to check that people are okay. That could really help in a nigh-unprecedented situation like this.
In 1989 San Francisco experienced a good sized earthquake — right in the middle of an exciting A’s-Giants World Series and also the election campaign season.
I was running a precinct mobilization operation for the campaign to preserve the city’s domestic partnership ordinance. We had been having a terrible time dredging out volunteers to walk the neighborhoods. The weekend after the earthquake we put out the word that we’d being going door to door to collect relief funds for the Red Cross. People gave us $20000 in cash; we gave them printed advice on how to get various kinds of emergency help. It was by far our most successful canvass.
Oh yeah – and we lost the vote. After a natural disaster, people seem to become inclined to vote no on everything.
Uncle Cosmo
@Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason: Pretty much the same here in uptown Baltimore. We’re on high ground & my next door neighbor had the one large tree in range taken down some years back. I lost the back porch awning in Snowmageddon a couple of years back, & the rest of the awnings are stable steel.
Loss of power is a real concern though–we’re bracing for top winds equivalent to the June 29 derecho lasting for a lot longer over a much larger area, & that one knocked out electricity to my neighborhood for over 3 days. My
guessfear is there’ll be enough wires down on the Least Coast we’ll be calling for utility crews all the way out to Neptune. (OTOH one small blessing of that June storm is that it probably knocked down most all of the branches that were ready to go & got the local utilities off their duffs to clear others from the power lines, so …)Frank
Even though the worst of it is supposed to miss us by 200 miles or more here in Virginia Beach, much of local broadcast media are in full OMGweareallgonnadie mode.
Weather alerts would be easier to take seriously if broadcast media did not look into every raindrop and see a deluge, into every snowflake and see a blizzard, into every warm day and see Death Valley.
If they wonder why folks don’t take warnings seriously, they might try looking into a mirror.
I didn’t used to be a cynic. Life made me one.
Freemark
I live in York, PA and right now the GFDI model has the center of Frankenstorm passing directly over me, and my balloon-juice sponsored kitty. TWICE!! I don’t understand. We don’t even have gay marriage; WTF.
PurpleGirl
@MikeJ: I believe he and Bain sold their stake a few years ago. Unfortunately there are very few other places now where you can buy office supplies, no place near where I live.
PurpleGirl
@efgoldman: I plan to stay indoors the next few days. I had to walk down once; my legs were liquid when I reached the lobby floor.
MTiffany
Bolshevism! Soshulism!
clayton
@Freemark: To you and everyone else here in the storm’s way, I wish you luck and hope that even though this storm is big, because it is late in the season it won’t be so bad.
Having gone through Ike, I know how difficult a two week power outage can be. I read somewhere that utility companies are staging their workers already. I’ll never forget the day that a power company crew from Tennessee came in and restored our power.
Godspeed to all in this storm’s path.
NotMax
Once again shall pass along a helpful hint to those of you who have washing machines (clothes washer, not dishwashers).
Let the washer fill with cold water, then shut it off.
Should power or water go out, you have many gallons now stored there suitable for cooking, filling the toilet tank, etc., etc.
Should you not need to use that stored water, throw in suitable laundry and do a cold water wash after the storm.
PurpleGirl
@NotMax: I will assume that you mean a top-loading machine, because if you opened a water filled front-loader, the water would come pouring out.
clayton
@NotMax: Also remember, if you haven’t had this type of experience before — NotMax strangely reminded me — your friendships will change in these situations.
I had friends who had power the next day after Ike, but they just couldn’t bring themselves to let me come over to take a shower. (My water heater and stove are gas, but use an electric pilot, so no hot water. They brought over some V8 juice and smiled.)
I’m still friends with them, but I probably won’t ever forget that.
NotMax
@PurpleGirl
Well, of course.
MattR
@clayton: Are you fucking kidding me? If any of my friends ever tried to pull that on me, not only would I show up to shower anyway but I would leave them an upper decker. (EDIT: And that would probably be the last time I ever spoke to them)
@NotMax: Good advice. Hopefully, that will remind me to actually do laundry tomorrow so I have clean clothes for my vacation on Wednesday (assuming I can actually take off. At least I bought trip insurance for the first time in my life.)
JoyfulA
@Freemark: That we don’t have gay marriage is why Frankenstorm is going to hover over us.
If it hits you, it’ll hit me in Cumberland, and probably the Governor’s Mansion will take heavy flooding and Corbett will have to move to Fort Indiantown Gap for a month.
But, hey, remember all those East Coast snowstorms that gave Lancaster a foot or two and us (or at least me) nothing?
Linkmeister
I remember in the aftermath of Hurricane Iwa in 1982 we had power while many of our friends did not. We cooked three Thanksgiving turkeys that year, one for us and two for friends.
SiubhanDuinne
A good friend who lives in Indiana posted on Facebook earlier today that there were literally hundreds of emergency vehicles, Red Cross trucks, power company trucks, etc. all heading east on I-70. Somebody is doing a good job of coordinating a preëmptive response.
Thlayli
I still have aromatherapy candles left over from Irene, on the principle of “if I’m going to be cooped up in this place, it might as well smell good”. Since then I have picked up a crank flashlight* and an NOAA radio.
It’s funny what gets cleaned out of the supermarket. White bread, but not whole wheat. D batteries, but not other sizes.
* — yes, “cranking the flashlight” is what the kids call it these days.
debbie
@PurpleGirl:
I lived through an NYC outage. You probably have, but if you haven’t, be prepared for the overwhelming darkness in the hallways. Get familiar with any sort of obstacles between you and the stairs. Even doormats can trip you up if you don’t know they’re there.
Good luck.
Poopyman
@MattR: Jesus! There’s a term and a tactic I did. not. need. to. know.
@Thlayli: Yep! No D cells in our stores here in Tidewater MD. Don’t really need more, as I have nearly new ones in the flashlights, and we’ll be running kerosene lamps for primary lighting.
And like Uncle Cosmo said, between the derecho and the power company coming through afterward there’s not a whole lot left to fall on the wires. Still, need to keep the fingers crossed.
Also too, it’ll be interesting to see what high tide looks like here on the raging Patuxent River.
am
Very good to see you pop by, Tim, hopefully it becomes trend-forming. It seems like this is being intentially treated low-key as to not raise panic levels, but there are really some of those worst-case scenarios for Raritan/Delmarva/LI.
Elmo
NoVa here. Deck furniture and plants stowed in the garage, laundry going, 20 gallons of water in the garage, and pot roast in the crockpot. Bought candles and firewood yesterday. Horses have extra hay and the water troughs are overflowing. Dog food stocked. And I just got a haircut.
Opal Sky 42
I’m in central Michigan so I’m not sure what effect it could have, but our house is rural and if we lose power, the pumps go and they take the water and the toilets with them. So, I’m getting a box of office trash-can sized plastic bags and a 50-lb bag of kitty litter to use in the toilets since it sure beats heading outside with a trowel and a roll of toilet paper! Not to mention lots of candles, a container of kerosine for the lamps, several flashlights and Coleman camping stoves, a sterno stove and cans of sterno, jugged water up the kazoo, lots of dried and canned food, and plenty of wood for the fireplace. Oh, and a white dog coat for the black greyhound because at night, in a power outage, a dark dog get stepped on constantly – he’s a velcro dog and he is bloody hard to see in the dark!
cg
Organizations with offices: Churches. They will care.