Anyone on the east coast and especially in the washington-new york area should watch this development since it is going to be a big storm moving up the coast and then inland. It should be a big one.
Sandy left our area of Fl overnight leaving behind a beautiful sunny breezy day with waves of 15 - 20 feet. We live in an ocean front condo and spent the last two hours just sitting at the beach on a log at the base of the dunes. Mother nature's sounds and fury of the waves pounding the beach were hypnotizing until a large rogue wave caught us off guard, came right to the dunes waist high and nearly swept us out to sea. We were sitting 15 yards from the shore line and never saw it coming.
Our daughter in NY has been putting into place our no power survival tip.. freezing all your zip lock baggies half full now. and distribute them in fridge upon loss of power.
We're in the zone-central NJ. Bracng for 10+" of rain (not on the coast but inland) and 70+ mi winds. Have 30 gallons of bottled water, a cooked turkey breast, whole cooked chicken, 10 bags of ice, a generator to run sump pumb and well, buckets of water to flush toiets (won't flush w/o well) moved everything off deck into garage and just waiting. Already dementia DH is anxious and in full anxiety mode. Praying for the best and hoping the worSt won't happen. I am very seasoned with hurricane preparedness but not with a demented, unpredictable, frightend DH and an aide who doesn't take this seriously. Wish us luck.
Like LFL we are in full preparedness mode. I have frozen every container of water that I can fit in the freezer. Tomorrow I will switch everything I think we will eat in 3 days to the refrigerator freezer in the garage. That way I will not have to open the tall upright freezer. We have four 5-gallon jugs of water plus 9 gallon milk jugs. Milk jugs are for drinking and cooking. We have plenty of flashlights and batteries. Will fill buckets for flushing, tomorrow. Hope we have thought of all we need.
I need to buy a good hand can opener,I am lost without he electric one,have no strength in my hands.Otherwise I am all set for the storm.Yes,Bama,I have three jars of peanut butter,always good to have on hand.Gotta get out my stovetop coffee pot,have plenty of coffee.
Live in northern Virginia. I'm not worried about water but about power, though we have been lucky in the past few storms. Hoped to buy dry ice today but the local Safeway doesn't carry it anymore. Producing as much ice as possible in the fridge.
Had to do all of the shopping today, cut down the garden (water will now flow fast we away from the house). Preparing for possible basement flood but with 5 to 10 inches predicted, and it looks like we are closer to 5 from the maps, we should be ok. It took 15 inches to cause sewer backup and water infiltration in 2006 but we have since regraded the land around the house, did gutter related work and the sewer system has been improved.
Wondering if son's school will be cancelled on Monday.
Yes, have lots of peanut butter. Will make extra coffee in the am. Daughter works at WalMart and brought home a Sterno setup so we can heat on that. Also have cone filters so can just heat water and pour through the coffee. Have enough water for a week, I think. Some easy to heat food and then stuff to cook on the gas grille outside once the storm is over.
Not worried about flooding here..But our power goes out very often for just a little thunderstorm so it could be out for days. We are getting warnings that if trees are down no one will be out fixing it until the storm is over.
I think we are ready though DH is getting agitated already.
Should get interesting. My teens and I (i am a teacher) are already off school for 2 days. I bought a generator last Christmas, so glad I have it now. If I loose power I can at least drink coffee! :) Filled the tubs, filled the cars with gas, got cash, have 10+ gallons of water, junk food, extra gas for the generator, plenty of batteries and flashlights, and a partridge in a pear tree. Poor hubs is kind of lost in all of this, he has had a rough 2 days, I wonder if it's all the commotion with the storm
I find it very odd that the last gigantic hurricane and now this one are going to hit up North, rather than down here in Florida. Talk about climate change! In the meantime, I checked the thermometer on the patio this morning, and it is 57 degrees! That is FREEZING for this neck of the woods.
Please check the storm resource on the left side of the home page - www.thealzheimerspouse.com for important information about staying safe during a storm.
Wind is picking up-gusts around 35-40 mph and dh was up shaking half the night...he's truly afraid of dying! Worried about the generator-not supposed to run it in the rain! If we lose electricity I'll have at least 12" of water in basement and I'm not looking forward to that again!
It is very strange how far inland the winds and rain can affect the weather. When I took my dh back to Illinois to be buried the hurricane from some place in the south had just happened. Can't remember the name of the hurricane, however when in Illinois we had rain and winds the entire time we were thre. So if you live in the mid-west expect to get the end of the storm.
My sister lives in a suburb of Chicago, and she said they are expecting THIRTY FOOT WAVES in Lake Michigan. I didn't think the storm was going that far west, but apparently it is.
We all hope that everyone will be alright. Even where I am up in Ontario we're going to get hit. And LFL, here's hoping this thing spares your basement this time.
Just checked on my friends in Massachusetts. The State is basically closed and everyone is home - lots of wind and rain now, but the brunt isn't expected up there until midnight or later.
Update- Sandy will most likely hit bwt Atlantic City and Cape May-very southern NJ. Although I am concerned about people in South Jersey it looks like we will have a lesser impact but still a danegrous one. Less rain and the wind field will still be strong but not the 80+ mph orignially forecasted. So far, electric is still on and generator is ready. Wolf, thanks, praying we don't have the wet basement again.
Although we're in the zone, hoping all of you in the storms path are safe and will be spared any devastation.
We are in the very southern corner of PA where it joins both MD and DE. It still looks like we are in the bulls eye but our power is still on. It has blinked a few times but comes back. The next few hours will probably be the critical time.
We don't have a generator but are not really concerned with flooding. We have a sump hole but there has never been a pump in it as there has never been water in the basement since the house was built in 1976. We are now up to 6 inches of rain but no standing water anywhere in the yard.
Strong winds here in NW IN. Leaves drifted high in front of garage door just like snow does. Hope it's not blowing in the a.m. when I have to get out for work. Blowing leaves don't stay where you think you're putting them. To get in the garage tonight, I pushed the leaves into a BIG rectangular pile and covered it w/2 old sheets and 2 very OLD feather ticks of my great-grandmother to hold it all down. I KNEW there was a reason for keeping those old things in the garage. HA TV shows Lake Michigan as a great place to surf. You wouldn't expect all this so far from the storm.
A Toronto woman has been killed today by a falling sign in 65 mph winds and Sandy's center is just now touching the New Jersey shore. This storm is HUGE in size.
Here in Maine we got a lot of wind and rain with some power outages, but nothing like farther south. Our retirement Inn only lost power during the night for a few minutes. I can't imagine how people are coping in New York and New Jersey.
We were extremely lucky and came through unscathed. Didn't loose power or have any flooding. I know NJ and NY got hammered. And hundreds of thousands without power in PA alone.
Hope others check in and let ua know how you weathered the storm.
Daughter in NY w/o power, but loving their generator and gas stove and gas fired HW heater. In Oh report was high winds 30 degree freezing rain and our grandson saying I want to live with Pop in Florida, I hate this weather, and he needs my help with Nan. We've had the dunes breeched at high tide twice resulting in flooding in our exercise room offices and storage areas.
Well, we were Sandy victims in NJ and just got power and internet back after 6 days. We're almost on the PA border near Bucks County but because our area is so rural with lots of trees near power lines we lost power around 4:00 pm on Monday, October 29th and were just put back on line tonight at 7:00 pm. Fortunately our generator held us pretty well until last night when it decided it needed to die. Until last night we had heat, refrigeration, lights and most importantly water and the sump pump worked. Last night was terrible for many reasons-DH was uncontrollable (I think the total power outage once the generator stopped working freaked him out), didn't sleep at all inspite of the extra meds. The house was VERY cold (@55 degrees), no water, no ability to flush toilets. In fact, it was the first time he got up at night and didn't make it to the bathroom (no lights) and peed on the bedroom rug. Until last night we were faring reasonably well considering the circumstances. The major problem became getting gasoline for cars and more importantly generators. Lines were long, police were at exits/entrances for gas stations to keep the peace. People like us who didn't need gas for the car but for the generators parked cars in nearby lots and walked up to the gas station pumps with several gas cans to be filled. Even with that there were 25-30 people in line with multiple gas cans. Our generator uses 1 gallon of gas/hour, so to keep the utilities on 24 hours it takes 24 galllons of gas. And to make it worse, the gas stations stopped taking credit cards and demanded cash. The governor has now established rationing with the even/odd license plate syStem...those with license plates that end in a even number get gas on even numbered days, odd, on odd numbered days. We were lucky to have support from our neighbors.
I think we will retire the old generator and look for something newer. Oh, tjey are now predicting a Nor"Easter on Wednesday with rains, snow and high winds. Maybe we can't retire the old girl yet.
paul, going to buy a generator which we can connect to our natural gas. Expensive but probably worth it because it should have fewer issues. DH was generally good until last night-then he was terrible. It really is stressful for them and us.
My FIL was without power for 4 days. West of Philly. They had tree and power line damage from the high winds. Aunt in Cape May is ok. She had just sold her trailer last year and moved into an apartment. Thank goodness, she did that. FIL was able to stay with DH brother for the week. I still can not believe how bad this storm was. And so many without any kind of help still.