Winds are picking up. I just moved the cars to a part of our lot where they have the least likelihood of being hit by trees or branches. There are no totally safe spots from downed trees. The basement is flooding and the pump is set up and will hopefully work. Long Beach Island’s dunes have already been breached and the ocean will meet the bay before too long. Darby Creek is rising and will probably back up and flood much of Delaware County. There’s not really any sand left at Rehoboth Beach in Delaware. Cape May’s downtown is flooded for the first time since 1892. I think their seawall is screwed. Ducks are swimming in the streets of Absecon, New Jersey.
There’s a line for the showers here this morning because we have well water and we won’t have fresh water once the power goes out. We’re cooking our frozen food so that it doesn’t go to waste.
The Hurricane is headed right for our house as a strong Category One. It will probably hit the coast tonight and pass over us around seven or eight in the morning.
You can use this as an open thread to talk about the storm, politics, or whatever you want.
Be safe. Update us on your situation as you can. Good luck.
Best of luck.
Nothing major yet. 25 MPH winds with 50 mph gusts and light rain. It’ll turn to heavy rain later tonight and early tomorrow.
Boo:
I don’t know where you live, but if your basement is flooding .. it’s not good. Thankfully, I live on a hill, so if it floods here Noah would already be floating by on the ark.
we’re on a high ridge but we’re lower than the road. So, we get water rushing down the lawn toward the house. We won’t get any flooding from creeks, but the runoff from the road is enough to put several feet of water in the basement.
Is it too late to fire up the car and leave? In ten hours you can be in Toledo, another ten brings you to Chicago. I’ll help you find a place. I’m worried about Finn as I’m sure you (plural) are too.
We’re now getting very high winds and drizzle here in the Hudson Valley. Lots of stuff blowing off the trees. We already lost power momentarily. It will likely go out soon. Best of luck to everyone in the path.
Hang tough! I just saw some storm footage on the news from NJ and it looks like a doozy. In SW Ohio we’re getting nothing like the coastal states, but it’s cold, windy, and we’re getting flurries mixed with rain. They’re calling for landfall soon and it’s supposed to be a slow-moving storm, so that means lots of rain.
Stay safe, do what they tell you, and know that everyone is pulling for you!
Just felt compelled to say I’m thinking of all of you, who I know only through your writing.
Fill your bathtub with clean water, so you’ve got something to drink when your well is dead. Better that than drinking toilets. Cover it with a tarp or sheet to keep it clean.
Know where all your shutoffs (gas, propane, electricity, etc.) are, and have any needed wrenches on hand.
After it all blows over, assume there are live wires everywhere. Paranoia saves lives!
And, remember, it’s just a ride.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMUiwTubYu0
I’d wash the tub out firest. Good suggestion though.
Washing machine holds a lot of water, too.
Also the water heater. Its a good precaution to flip the breaker/gas off before emptying in case the power comes back on before the water service.
Toilet tank water is OK. Bowl is absolute last resort.
stay safe, BooMan and family
Hang in there, everyone.
Thinking of all of you in harms way. Be a safe as you can, good luck and update us when you can. BTW strong NE winds today and the next few in Ann Arbor, MI.!
I’ve just pulled in a some toys from outside and tied down a few items.
Stay safe folks.
What are 3 states with NO early voting? PA, NY, NJ.
Nutty.
NJ Can request a vote by mail ballot early, or absentee vote, but early voting would be better still
No early voting in VA either, unless you have a really good excuse. Having a long commute to work, like me, is not legitimate enough (although I could have requested absentee if I wanted).
no excuse needed for absentee ballot in NJ
Yeah, pretty strict access here. And we love electronic voting. I don’t get why they haven’t been able to pass stringent voter ID laws here.
Here’s a thought to make you smile I hope. MSNBC is discussing the idea that this may be the end of the campaign, that Obama will be busy doing his job and Mitt really can’t push his lies effectively during the hurricane.
That leaves Bill Clinton. And I’m wondering whether Bill, campaigning today in Florida, will begin working an open field. An ironic and perhaps profound twist.
I see Beau Biden left the campaign on Saturday to join the Nat’l Guard callup. It does strike one that this is a moment where the actions of the Dems are going to be speaking leadership loud.
Interesting point. And we have a side by side comparison of response to this vs the privatize-everything patchwork response to Katrina, where also, recall, Bush at McCain’s birthday party. I write this evacuated to Manhattan (doing some work while the electricity holds here) from NJ; trying not to watch the raw video footage. Issues in Manhattan even on higher ground, presumably safe from the storm surge, is windblown debris, the glass windows and construction sites.
Not making light of it, but we’re sort of hoping Wall Street gets washed away.
yes, understand!
Which is nonsense. Is it a bad storm? Sure. And almost everyone knows someone in the storm’s path. Those of us not there all hope the damage and death toll are as minimal as possible. However, over 80 percent of the country’s population will not be affected by the storm itself at all.
The idea that nobody, anywhere in the country will be working on or thinking about the presidential campaign for the next week – not to mention all the state and local campaigns – shows, yet again, just how much our political media are wed to the NY/DC axis. It’s always way more important to those folks when it happens to them. (Which is also why poverty is virtually never a topic of discussion, but that’s a different rant.)
Following national political news, sometimes you’d think it’s 1760, and none of them are aware there’s anything but wilderness and savages west of the Appalachians.
To clarify, I was responding to @mainsailset. Errol posted while I was writing. I thought of the likely contrast with Katrina in the storm response, too. I do wonder, though, whether this storm, as with Katrina, will also point up what a miserable job this country has done in the last generation in maintaining and investing in its physical infrastructure.
Also, too: tempted, while I’m watching the news, to play a drinking game involving the phrases “climate change” or “global warming.” I’m needing to stay sober this week…
well I don’t know about infrastructure issues, NJ did much work on that in summer 2001 after we had some rolling blackouts. Maybe humans just should build where there is climate
Well…there is the element that this is one of the targets of the storm is going to be Wall Street and all that it means to the economy; that various companies are already saying they’re going to delay their reports; and MSM is, by necessity, going to be forced into hurricane reporting and cleanup for the next week and beyond crowding out much of political.
The question discussed was if Sandy would ‘freeze’ the election stats where they are today? 50 million people plus will be without communication, no robo calls, no Fox.
And of course in the vs Katrina, this is a Democratic president who will have the Rep machine after him. Now we went after Bush but we were Innocents compared to what conspiracies the Right is going to manufacture.
I’m still intrigued by the question. But I’m more intrigued by the roll Bill Clinton is going to play in the next few days and what impact he’s going to have. Biden too, for that matter. If Obama can secure a reasonable outcome when the damn storm clears while Bill and Joe are putting their arms around the rest of the Country it’s a pretty strong argument to keep Obama and certainly qualifies as an October surprise
I tried to write a response to your dismissive comment, but I couldn’t think of anything.
here’s what I just found on the orange place though
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/10/29/1152064/-EXTREMELY-Dangerous-situation-unfolding-in-NYC-NJ-
IMPORTANT-links
we may live in the NE, but we are people too is all I can say
Lots of savages here in Illinois. Joe Walsh for example.
President Obama just addressed the press:
When asked about the effect of the storm on the election, he said:
[Updated 1:00 p.m. ET] President Barack Obama said Monday he isn’t worried about how Hurricane Sandy might affect the election. “I am not worried at this point about the impact on the election. I’m worried about the impact on families. I’m worried about the impact on first responders. I’m worried about the economy and transportation,” he told reporters. “The election will take care of itself next week.”
Spoken like a true leader, one who has his priorities straight.
Fortunately for your little wee one, he has a very level-headed set of parents. We can all feel better for that.
Stay safe, and report when you can.
From the land of hurricanes, although we haven’t had any in several years:
vicki
Stay safe, Cabin Family!!!
To all the people in the path of Hurricane Sandy, from one hurricane survivor to another, stay safe and just be happy ya’ll got a good man in the White House, too bad NOLA couldn’t say the same!!!!
I’m in a coastal town north of Boston. So far, not much rain, but the winds are picking up; we should be seeing gusts up around 60 mph tonight and part of tomorrow. I expect to lose power at some point during the worst of it, what with all the trees in this area, but am high enough and far enough from the shore not to be in danger of flooding.
There are people in town, though, living hard by the coast on land that’s barely higher than the salt marshes they abut, who I greatly fear are going to get hammered at high tide. I hope they’ve evacuated because it will be a bitch to rescue them.
It’s the South Shore of Massachusetts, though, that will take the hardest New England hits, and down into Rhode Island and Connecticut.
here in NJ the storm is supposed to hit just at high tide.
fortunately, it picked up speed and will hit the coast any moment now rather than at high tide.
excellent news, a difference of 2 ft of surge
Stay safe, Booman & family.
A very blustery day here in Providence RI, where I am attending a meeting. Horizontal rain and fairly high winds. We’re in good shape here at the convention center but closer to the coast there will be flooding. Here’s hoping everyone stays safe, warm and dry.
Hoping for the best for all of you out there. Keep your heads down and your powder dry.
No comment required:
Those satellite pictures of Sandy are eerily reminiscent of the images in the Day After Tomorrow. I know, I know, that movie was loaded with absolutely scientific crap. But one of the expectations of a warming earth is an increase in catastrophic storm size and intensity.
Our niece lives in lower Manhattan and received a call from ConEd about an hour ago telling her to prepare for them shutting off the power.
Saw the storm surge maps, which now I can’t find to link to. will link if I find them. Lower Manhattan is a red zone. iirc they estimated surge at high tide cat 1 hurricane at 14 ft
nws has good situation/prediction/warning page up for hurricane sandy.
be safe everyone.
thanks
For informed, unhyped analysis of Sandy and other weather matters I recommend the Houston Chronicle’s SciGuy: http://blog.chron.com/sciguy/
And always, Dr. Jeff Masters weather underground.
Wishing good fortune for you and yours, booman. Please keep us informed as your situation permits.
thanks!
Just got a call from a friend in the Belleville/Newark, NJ area. She has no electricity as of 4 PM Monday.
I’m here in Morristown NJ with wife and two cats. We still have electricity and I entertain the naive hope that since we’re not in the dead center path of this thing, we’ll be spared major damage and the multiple-day electricity losses we’ve experienced in prior storms.
Mitt and Ryan’s desire to gut disaster relief is to me perfectly emblematic of the “modern” Republican mentality. “I got mine, screw you!” These barbarians don’t understand anything about community or the common good of society. If they have any philosophy at all, it is pure Social Darwinism, where “survival of the fittest” really means stacking the deck so that only the 1% benefit.
I hope this storm serves as a reminder to the “average voter” that with Republicans in charge, we can look forward to institutionalization of post-Katrina incompetence.
Meanwhile, I hope we all get through this storm with no deaths. Haven’t heard of any in the USA, yet.
We NEVER lose power. Why is that? SD is a state with many winter storms.
We have NO overhead wires in my neighborhood. None. They must have passed the law about that 40 years ago. So, regardless of how bad it gets, we will have power.
When it’s 30 below, that’s important.
That law probably has a lot to do with it. Freezing rain is very hard on overhead lines. Even a little bit of icing and some gusty storm winds and you’re likely to find wires on the ground. Of course, underground has its own problems, but at least you can schedule those.