Sandy Check In

[Annarchy]

 

 

 

I want to say, "Stay Safe".

 

I hope all come through the storm without a scratch.

 

 

 

The news is reporting huge areas are already without power. They said the electricians have to wait until the wind is below 35 mph before they will be able to begin fixing it.

 

So, please check in when your are safely able

[Mt_Rider]

Good idea for this thread! It becomes a prayer vigil too!

 

We know Arby, AmishwayHomesteaders, Lumabean, are in the path of Frankenstorm. Others I'm not remembering.

 

Also my brother/niece and MIL/niece/her family. Both groups of kin have checked in this afternoon and are OK.

 

 

MtRider [ Lord, keep them all safe and dry and warm. It's extra chilly for this time of year with the rain and wind. Keep roofs on and trees upright. Bless those who work to keep others safe during these emergencies [fire, police, hospitals, utilities folks, etc. ]

[lumabean]

We thankfully still have power, and the winds/rain have not been that bad as of yet, our local weatherman is saying between now and 2am we may see an increase. Interesting he referred to the storm as being "bizarre" because he said it's just not doing normal things they'd expected. When it throws the professionals for a loop, I don't hold out hope for understanding it myself.

 

A guy on the weather channel said potential for 10 million people to be without power for days. I can't seem to wrap my mind around that number. Hoping we continue to not be part of that number.

 

Continued prayers for all in the path, esp. the harder hit areas.

 

I did see on Yahoo and the local news that the soldiers guarding the tomb of the unknown soldiers are staying at their post -- teared up a bit when I saw that, their dedication is more than admirable and a true inspiration.

[CrabGrassAcres]

Praying!

I think Martian may be in the path of the storm, but inland some. Haven't seen her today.

[out_of_the_ordinary]

We've had rain most of the day. It's gotten steadier as the day has gone on. There's a little breeze, but it's not very windy. They are saying the wind will be the worst in my area from 9 pm-9am (at least the last time I saw).

 

praying for everyone

Edited October 29, 2012 by out_of_the_ordinary

[HazelStone]

All well here. Just a quiet day working from home...and staring at the trees buckling in the wind...

[Amishway Homesteaders]

Doing OK so far..................................

They keep moving the time that we should be getting the high winds back? was 4:30 pm , then 6pm, now maybe 9 pm???????????????

 

The wind is blowing outside but not the 50+ they called for. Some areas around us have trees down and some lose of power but only 1 block here and there. Scanner keeps us informed (and busy) about what is happening so when it gets close to us I wil know.

 

For now w eare heading up to bed to read for a bit before sleep.

[Motherhen]

I'm in N.Ontario and not sure how much of the storm we'll get up here. We had some snow this a.m and moderately high winds/gusts right now. Rain tomorrow. Toronto,Ontario has already had its first storm victim earlier this evening when a sign got loose in the wind striking a lady dead. My family in the Niagara Peninsula (S.Ontario) are getting lots of rain and high winds tonight.

[The WE2's]

Not anywhere near the east coast...but still concerned about all of ya's that are. It's been pretty chilly here during night hours but low 50's during day. No rain or snow. Not expecting any bad weather this week at all.

 

[Mt_Rider]

My brother/niece are now without power. He has a generator but furnace isn't on it. Normally they are still quite warm in Oct. but they're getting chilly. He doesn't feel it's safe to use his wood-stove with the high winds whipping this way and that. I suppose you could get a back draft down the pipe? They've lost two [dead] trees already but otherwise holding ok. Not sure if they'll get snow later but the rain has been constant.

 

This, btw, is my brother who good-naturedly teases me about my preps but he spent the last 3 days prepping! He knew what to prep and did all the right things. Water bags in freezer. Water in tubs. Buckets of extra water. Food. Lamp oil. Gas. Generator fuel. Close up barns and other animal considerations [horse boarding farm]. Mostly he had to button up his construction work sites!

 

Of COURSE I asked him if he'd taken out the 100 hr emergency candles I gave them for Christmas last year.

 

 

MtRider [...keeping vigil on this Frankenstorm... ]

[Amishway Homesteaders]

well...... still here. Never even had the lights blink? but all around us there are blackouts and trees down , some schools are closed for today and the scanner is busy with calls for this and that. Poor Lori has to go to work today. We were so looking forward to a few days without power - now we may have to 'fake it' over the weekend?

[themartianchick]

Things are fine here. We had rain and a bit of a breeze. Looking at the weather maps, I think that we have a lot more rain in store. It appears that we haven't gotten the real waves of rain from the storm though. I don't know of much local damage yet. I've been watching the damage downstate on CNN. I'm still in bed and posting from my phone. I wanted to see the sunrise from my bedroom window. Yesterday morning, the entire sky was reddish pink! Today we've got nothing but grey.

[themartianchick]

I did want to add that I was so ticked off by my step daughter and hubby yesterday... This is the one that has become more interested in prepping, which is good because she has 5 children. I called her Saturday night to make sure that she knew about the storm and explained the magnitude to her. I figured that she had food, since she is the one with a deep freezer that is around 6 feet long. I mentioned that our city doesn't lose water access when the power goes out and that there might be a lot of rain, possibly snow, downed trees and powerlines, etc... I told her what my preparations would be and left it at that.

 

So around 7pm, I get a text message that basically asks if this storm is supposed to be really serious like the Labor Day Storm that was the worst storm in our area in my lifetime. ( I found out later that she had been posting on Facebook about how she didn't understand why people were acting as if this was the storm of the century.)

 

WHAT?!?! Didn't we just discuss this?

 

 

So I called her and tried to get it to sink in. I suggested that she have the kids round up their flashlights in case of a power outage. Uh-uh...can't do that, they are all broken, missing parts, etc... I was ticked because I bought all of then flashlights so that they would have them in an emergency. I probably spent about $25 on them total and they did use them once when the power went out for an hour.

 

I started telling her that she needed to be and in case she lost power and that she shouldn't bother trying to get bottled water, flashlights, etc...from the stores because they were all out. She has a gas stove, so I knew that she could cook and possibly heat the house with the stove if need be.

 

I scrounged up some little LED lights that are designed for cabinets and closets. I bought them at Dollar Tree a couple of months ago before deciding that they wouldn't work for my purposes. We dropped them off at her house (5 minutes away) on our way to unlock a door for a tenant. On the way home hubby told me that I was selfish for not giving her some of our "good" flashlights since we have so many. He said it in a light-hearted manner but I wasn't so sure that he didn't mean it. I pointed out that if they had all kept their flasklights in good condition (or even just one!) that this wouldn't be an issue. I told him that if she had heeded my warnings a couple of days ago, she'd have had time to buy some before they were all snapped up from stores. Then I pointed out that I'd already given them $25 worth of flashlights and that I wasn't willing to take chances with the things that we keep for our use in an emergency. In fact, some of our flashlights were given to us over the past 20+ years by my parents to keep us safe. We always kept them in good condition and that is part of the reason why we have an assortment. I also pointed out that I didn't have to provide her with the LED lights and that time spent in the dark might actually help her to understand that she is the only adult in the house (since her divorce) that can protect her children. Considering how dire the storm predictions were, this could have been a really serious situation. Hubby immediately apologized when he realized that we can't always be there to pick up the slack for her. Good thing he did, too! :frying pan:

 

I must have scared her pretty well... She got up this morning and went to the new Tops grocery store that is having a grand opening today and bought 2 of the last three flashlights (store was only open for 45 minutes and that was all of the inventory they had left) and then filled up her gas tank. I really hope that she is scared straight. I'd hate to have to disown her for a breach in preparedness!

[out_of_the_ordinary]

We're okay here. Thankfully, we didn't get the winds that were predicted! Just rain last night and continuing today.

 

The local weather forecasters kept going over that with all the rain the ground would be saturated making trees fall easier when the heavy winds hit. I understand that, but I don't think they were taking into account how DRY it has been here all summer and most of the fall. With rain half of Sat., most of Sun and yesterday, I was getting concerned that I hadn't heard our sump pump kick on. (It's in the basement....there's a sump "pit" and french drains empty into it. There are springs in the hillside up the hill behind us.) I was getting concerned as I never heard it run. DH pulled the cover off last night and looked down in with a flashlight (for some reason I find it a little creepy and don't like getting to close to it!) Anyway, it was bone dry!!

Edited October 30, 2012 by out_of_the_ordinary

[sassenach]

My town is ok

[Jeepers]

I didn't see this thread before I posted in the shout box. It was very bad here last night. My county is a real mess. It has rained bucket loads and it's still coming down. Lots of people are flooded out. It is not supposed to stop raining until Saturday. Plus it was raining about 3 days before the storm blew in.

 

There are trees down everywhere. I didn't see any down on my street but the street around the corner from me had a lot of them down. As luck would have it, I just had a lot of the big trees close to my house cut down; also one tree close to the neighbors house. One was a big pine tree. Of all the trees I saw, in my neighborhood, that came down, all but one was a pine tree. Just something to think about. The one other tree that came down was one of those trees that have a split trunk. Only one side of it came down. One pine tree was broken off and the others were uprooted. All mature trees. I saw at least a dozen on one street.

 

As I was out I saw that part of the roof of our Burger King was blown off. I was only out for a quick errand so I don't know what all else was damaged around me.

 

The power is out all around me and some places may not get it back for 5 days. They said the sky was lighting up all night from substations blowing and power lines comimg down. It looks like a tornado came through. A very long tornado.

 

I feel very fortunate today. My lights flickered a couple of times but never went out. My fence and trees stayed up.

 

People who have lived here all their life said they have never seen Lake Erie so violent. I'm in the Cleveland, OH area...far away from the storm???

 

http://www.cleveland.com/weather/blog/index.ssf/2012/10/upload_your_hurricane_sandy-re.html#incart_maj-story-1

[themartianchick]

So glad that you are alright, Jeepers. I still don't understand how the storm missed us and nailed you! We didn't even get much rain today. A few times we had filtered sunshine and the temps stayed in the 50's. I hope that cleanup in your area goes smoothly.

[out_of_the_ordinary]

I'm glad you're okay, Jeepers!

[Jeepers]

Thank you all!

 

What a difference a day makes. Except for the rain, it's quiet. Still over 161,000 households without electricity in my county.

 

 

What I learned:

 

Pine trees are the first to come down. Especially large ones. They must have a shallow root system?

 

I had the local radio station on all night and it was all weather related call in. As the evening went on they started talking about being prepared. Every single caller talked about how they are prepared all of the time for disasters. Many were talking about what all they have. It was anonymous of course, so I guess they felt free to discuss. I was pleasantly surprised by how many people in my area are secret preppers. Good to hear.

 

Then they got on the subject of sharing. The general agreement was, "I know it's comimg, you know it's coming so if you don't prepare then that's your tough luck." And, "If you can afford beer and cigarettes while I scrimp to prepare...too bad." They also talked about if a disaster was an extended one, then they would run out of food and water for their own family. None said they would take in neighbors for fear of running out of supplies for themselves. They mentioned if food and water ran out, people would turn violent and steal from them.

 

I do have to say that I haven't heard of any looting.

[HazelStone]

 

People who have lived here all their life said they have never seen Lake Erie so violent. I'm in the Cleveland, OH area...far away from the storm???

 

http://www.cleveland.com/weather/blog/index.ssf/2012/10/upload_your_hurricane_sandy-re.html#incart_maj-story-1

 

Mom took some amazing pictures of the harbor "back home." Lake Michigan was crashing over the breakwaters like they were sandcastles. But that was just the snowy arm of the storm heading onward.

[The WE2's]

Are there still some who haven't checked in that might have been in the pathways of the storm? Just wondering. As for flashlights...just last night I rounded up our regular type and had MM load them with new batteries. Rounded up the LED lights (pucks as we call them) and put new batteries in them. Then went to WM after he got home from work (before supper even) and bought new batteries to replace the ones we had used last night. Glad to be reminded to refresh them!

[Annarchy]

It is so nice to see you all checking in.

 

Sandy left such a path of chaos. Living up to her name she also moved a whole lot of sand everywhere.

[dogmom4]

Heard from Kimba today. She is in the New Jersey area. She and her family are OK but her town did not do so well. Many friends lost homes completely or were damaged. She also said many were seniors. We might want to keep them in our prayers. It sounds like it's going to be a difficult road back. Plus, our news said another storm is heading that way.

[Jeepers]

[themartianchick]

I heard about the other storm last night. It is already getting cold here. I've been chilly all day, but at least I have options. I've been working on something for my nonprofit employer to try to send some able bodies down there to help to clean up after the storm. I may get an opportunity to see the damage up close, though I'm not sure that I want to. I don't handle cold weather very well.