Hurricane Irene’s ominous approach
Hurricane Irene is being hyped as the storm of the century. And perhaps it will be, at least in scope; it is due to hit the entire Eastern seaboard from North Carolina on up. That includes me, of course, although I’m not fortunate enough (or unfortunate enough, in this case?) to live on the shore itself, where the storm surge is expected to be greatest.
I also don’t live in Manhattan, where floods are predicted to inundate the subway system. But floods are not limited to the storm surge area; there should be enough rain that floods could happen elsewhere, too.
I’ve been around long enough to have personally seen a number of the storms that this one is being compared to: Donna, Bob, even Hazel of my extreme youth (whose name I remember but virtually nothing else). For me and my family, they weren’t all that bad. I’m hoping this one won’t live up to the hype, either. Hurricanes often don’t—but of course sometimes they do. Sometimes they even exceed it.
What do you think will happen with this one? Have any of you in low-lying areas evacuated?
[NOTE: I’m using the “nature” tag rather than the “disaster” one for this. Hoping for the best.]
Don’t risk it. GET OUT NOW! Pack car and drive west! Pack a lunch.
I’d go visit some inland relatives if i lived within 30 miles of the east coast from N Carolina up. But i predict it will only be a tropical storm with lots of rain by time it gets north of Virginia beach.
As a Katrina survivor I can tell you these things are not to be trifled with. I live 60 miles from the Gulf and was without power for two weeks. I was without drinking water for almost a week. Fill your gas tank and get some cash so that if you decide to leave, you can.
I reluctantly observe this century is only 11 years old. Storm of the Century indeed. A hurricane track like Irene’s has been overdue for a long, long time. We shall see more anon.
The esteemed Greta van Susteren worried last night about all the folks on the Outer Banks who lacked vehicles for evacuation, and inhabitants of hospitals and nursing homes. She’s applying the Katrina template of the wretched Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans to some barrier islands covered with costly homes and lots of cars; vacationers don’t get there by bus. There is surely a dearth of hospitals and nursing homes there, too; that’s what the mainland is for.
I recently left NYC to move north. Good timing. However, I am worried that people are not taking it seriously enough in the city. There will be flooding, and if it is heavy enough, many many buildings’ basements (and thus their electrical systems) will be flooded. Older buildings, especially, do not have the capability to quickly clear a flooded basement. If there is heavy flooding, many buildings will be deemed uninhabitable for weeks as they take time to drain and the inspectors certify them to be rehabitable. I doubt the wind will cause much damage, but the potential for severe flooding goes beyond what might happen to the subway system.
As a New Orleanian exiled to the north, I’m kind of looking forward to seeing how the progressive, enlightened Blue Staters in the Boswash corridor handle a serious hurricane. And if anyone’s basement floods I’m going to immediately blame Obama.
I’ve got 10 gallons of gas for my generator, extra propane for the grill, and prayers that the trees near my house do not decide that my roof is an inviting place to lay down.
On the upside: most of the models have Irene over land after NC landfall. Jeff Masters over at weatherunderground just put up in his blog that the eyewall has collapsed and the storm is getting into some shear. He predicts that by the time in gets to NYC/New England it will be down to TS strength. Lots of rain, but less wind would be a God send.
Downside (for my family): what will the OBX look like? We spend at least 1-2weeks there every year, our favorite spot for the beach.
Come to California. Nothing ever happens here.
I’ve lived through enough New England hurricanes and tropical storms to prepare for the worst and hope for the best. I do not take Irene and the threats of tornados lightly, but we’re not panicked, either. At times like this I am am extremely grateful for all my years as a Brownie and Girl Scout! [vbg]
I have cash, both cars filled with gas, propane tanks for the grill are all filled. Since I don’t have a generator, I’m prepared to lose an entire freezer chest full of meat and poultry. Before it completely defrosts, I hope to be able drive around to the homes of friends and colleagues who have gas stoves and grills to give this food away. The beehives are all strapped up and I ask God to protect my “girls” from wind and rain. That is all I can do for them now.
Since I live on a hill I worry about wind damage to my home. I live in a coastal town and expect most of it will be flooded; driving around could prove difficult or impossible. I’ve booked a room in a hotel in a city about an hour away and hope for some overnight comfort and a hot shower there. Oh…and I’ve negotiated a hot shower, courtesy a friend with a generator if I don’t have any electricity by Wednesday or Thursday.
I’ve packed away the few most valuable things I care about. I’m about to take interior and exterior photos for insurance purposes. After that…well, we are in God’s hands. But if a Cat 2 or 3 hits 65 million people along the Eastern Seaboard, I don’t think we’ll talk about Katrina again for a long, long time.
Stay safe, everyone.
Hurricanes as STIMULUS!
For fun i am going to see if we can download “key largo”….
not much else to do but crack the windows, stay away from them, and sit around…
“Hurricanes as STIMULUS!”
BHO & team are probably drooling over all the potential jobs created by widespread destruction and praying that enough damage is done to bring unemployment down to 8% by October of 2012. 😉
Parker, nobel prize winning economist krugman already suggested such things completly pretending that there is no such concept as the broken window fallacy.
however, as a caveat towards greater understanding… from the perspective of government, productive, unproductive, etc.. doesnt really matter..
which is why to real economists from the perspective of whats best for man, not whats best for some men i promote (and they promote me)…
so the broken window fallacy only applies if you generally care about the actual outcome of man, and you want him to actually be more prosperous in real value terms tomorrow
however if all you care about is that the numbers on your philip dru administrators spread sheets.. well then the measures cant tell the difference between a real productive expenditure, or a wasteful one paying for something already paid for.
and you all thought the difference of economical views and such were two sides of the same coin and we cant decide whose right… non non mon ami’s
its the difference between actual benifit, which would lead to leaders changing and such as a natural and acceptable progression.
and seeming benefit where leaders can leverage the illusion to stay in power beyond what they naturally would by claiming benefit from waste, as the reports numbers are blind to that variable.
a bureaucracy can only see whats in its reports and so, as in the soviet union, everything in that dirty engineered world, realizes that engineering the numbers on the report is easier than actually achieving them in any kind of real way. especially when all the other reports are similarly skewed…
@aine, fill your freezer chest with large bottles of water(milk jugs, apple juice bottles). They’ll freeze and help keep the food frozen if the electricity goes out. Plus, they’ll provide you with a source of clean water if needed.
Also, email those photos to yourself… put them in the cloud for safekeeping.
Here on the west coast of NJ, I stopped by the library for a couple of good books and picked up a bottle of wine. Maybe I’ll finally get a “quite” weekend.
The biggest fiasco is storm surge: the vacuum effect of the eye lifts the ocean as much as twenty feet above normal.
Until one witnesses it, it goes uncontemplated.
Irene figures to be a whopper. Late August, the Gulf Stream, and the Big Apple — the perfect storm.
Well, i pulled it out…
my wife said.. whats that?
Where i work they had an electrical problem with the power dipping, and each time it did, a UPS would go beep. they had bought two others, and threw them away, and decided to buy a 4th and i asked can i have the third one.
so basically tomorrow i will be charging that puppy with a light as a pass through use…
once charged i get 5 hours
950 Watts / 1400 VA
that should allow us to have full light all night as we want… i have a coleman grill/burner stove that runs off of propane..
we are loading up bottles with filtered water… as thats the most important thing… you can go without food easy for a week (check the world record it would boggle your mind). water, no way.
i am debating whether i will be going out into the storm to do some photojournalism work… you know, fury of the storm stuff for news, and hope for one of those great one of a kind moments that capture the day. that kind of shot distributed can earn more than usual
oh.. i forgot.. its also good to run the bullet on and make strawberry and bananna smoothies too.. (or if you like, pina coladas)…
I think I’m about as well-prepared as I know how. I have plenty of non-perishable food, bottled water, beer, tobacco, flashlights, batteries, toilet paper, hand-cranked radio, etc. My car has 3/4 tank of gas, which should be plenty since I can’t envision a scenario where I would be forced to evacuate. I don’t live near the water, and there don’t seem to be any tree branches that could pose a threat to my house. There is a tree in my front yard which could pose a problem if the whole tree blew down, but it’s a young one.
The thing that I’m most concerned about is losing power for a prolonged period of time. A couple months ago I lost it for 24 hours, and that sucked. I’d rather not repeat that experience.
Yesterday at work I thought of buying a backup generator. I’ve never used one before, and after talking to a co-worker about it, I decided to give it a try. If I could use it to keep my refrigerator and computer running, it would be worth the expense.
So when I left work on Thursday, I headed to Home Depot. I asked the guy if he had any generators, and he sort of laughed and said, “No, we sold the last one this morning. We don’t have any rental units, either.”
I then drove up the road a ways and tried Lowe’s. I walked in at the same time as another guy and we were both looking for generators. The man at the counter said that he was expecting a truck that evening, and to call back in an hour or two. I went home and called at 8:00. He said the truck wasn’t going to get there that night, and to call in the morning. When I woke up this morning, I called and was told they were expecting a delivery, but they were only going to get a limited number. They already had a bunch of people waiting for them, so they were going to be sold out the moment they arrived.
Well, that was the end of that. I went in to work and worked a normal day, picked up my paycheck and headed to the bank afterwards. I went in to the bank, deposited part of my check and took the rest in cash, as I normally do. I left the bank and decided to go to the gas station to pick up some ice, which I figured I might need to keep my food cold if and when I lost power.
I pulled out of the bank onto the road. I was behind a flatbed truck which was carrying a load of boxes. I noticed that all of the boxes said “Portable Generator”.
The truck was heading to Lowe’s! I followed it, and pulled into the parking lot right behind it. I went inside…and saw a whole bunch of people standing around near the entrance. I went to the service desk and asked if there was a waiting list for generators. The woman said, “No. We’re getting 30 generators, and there are already 30 people waiting for them.”
So my spotting that truck when I left the bank was almost Providential, with emphasis on “almost”.
After I left Lowe’s, I fell back on Plan B which was to go to a gas station and buy some ice. I have a big Igloo cooler, and I can also stuff as much as I can in my refrigerator and freezer. When I got to the gas station I thought I was back in the 1970s with the lines at the pumps. Luckily I didn’t need gas.
But the ice in the gas station’s freezer was almost gone. I had to go into the back of the freezer, with the door closing behind me, to reach some.
I might try to get some more ice tomorrow. Fortunately, there isn’t any other shopping I need to do. I would prefer to stay far, far away from any kind of store or gas station on Saturday because they are going to be absolutely nuts.
We Texans will gladly take some of that rain y’all will get off your hands.
texexec:
The Philadelphia area has experienced the wettest August on record. The ground is saturated, and the stream beds are full. Inland flooding is going to be a very serious problem with this storm.
I’d gladly overnight some of this rain to you, but I don’t know how to pack it up so that UPS will accept it. 🙂
I don’t think it will be all that bad for New York. It’s been downgraded. This storm may have been a bit overhyped.
I made it out of Virginia Beach today, no problems with the flight but there was a lot of tension at the airport and gas stations.
On the preparedness angle, you cant wait until a situation is imminent to gather the required items. Build them up over time. I’d watch Craigslist for used generators after it is over Rickl, that’s where I got mine. Good luck and I hope this storm isn’t as bad as predicted.
“Parker, nobel prize winning economist krugman already suggested such things completly pretending that there is no such concept as the broken window fallacy.”
Artfldgr,
What can I say Art? The guy is a well paid idiot. 😉
To all in the left coast who may be in the path of the tidal surge & high winds I wish you safety from the storm.
rickl says, “The thing that I’m most concerned about is losing power for a prolonged period of time. A couple months ago I lost it for 24 hours, and that sucked. I’d rather not repeat that experience.”
You will survive 24 hours without electrons because you have “plenty of non-perishable food, bottled water, beer, tobacco, flashlights, batteries, toilet paper, hand-cranked radio, etc.”
We have a major ice storm in the midwest every 5 or so years which cuts us off from electricity for 2 to 10 days. We survive just fine. Canned soup cooked on a camp stove followed by wine & euchre by candlelight is a delight. 🙂
Stay safe rickl and enjoy those canned goods with wine & tobacco.
Cat 2 storm + media hype = distraction from failing economy
“The one function that TV news performs very well is that when there is no news we give it to you with the same emphasis as if there were”
David Brinkley
Irene has weakened overnight and is now a Category 1. Its forecast track has shifted east again and it looks like it will pass off the coast of Delmarva and New Jersey. Long Island and Connecticut are still firmly in the crosshairs.
8 AM EDT Intermediate Advisory 28A
So no, it’s not the Storm of the Century. But there is no cause for complacency. It is still a large storm which will affect areas and populations that are not used to this sort of thing. Its storm surge will cause coastal flooding and its rain will cause inland flooding. The preparations and evacuations are fully justified.
I don’t watch TV news, so I haven’t experienced their hype. I can get all the hype I need from the internet. 8)
rickl, take a look at this:
https://www.gplus.com/Hurricanes/Insight/The-storm-cannot-master-its-own-strength
I’m still taking everything off the deck, and putting the house in secure mode, but now I expect my biggest worry will be how to ration my generator between my well, the refrigerator, and the sump pump.
Generators: after going through numerous blackouts, when we built our new hosue 10 years ago I made sure I had a generator and the appropriate wiring installed. BTW, just hooking up a generator without the correct switiching internal to the house is very dangerous for that lineman half a mile away working to restore your power. You can send 240V down the line to him without him knowing about it.
Best of luck to all of us who encounter the storm.
physicsguy: Yes, I saw that link earlier this morning.
As for generators, it sounds like you are describing a permanent installation. Those things look nice, but are pricey. I’m just thinking about getting a portable generator and running extension cords through a window to hook up essentials like the refrigerator and computer. I’m the first to admit that I don’t know much about electricity, though.
A major flaw in my plan is that I can’t open my garage door manually if the power to the electric door opener fails. I’ve tried, and it won’t budge. There must be some way to disconnect it, but I don’t know how. So if I kept a generator stored in the garage, it would be completely useless when I needed it.
Since I’ve decided that getting a generator is something I would like to do, it’s probably best that I wait until things settle down so I can read up on them and shop around without pressure. And figure out what to about the damn garage door.
they make UPS for homes…
230 in 230 out…
maybe thats better for you…
no muss no fuss… put it in, and your whole house gets extra hours of time… of course turning everything off and unplugging at that point would extend it. but everything would work like normal in your home… also if you ever suffer glitches where the power dips and your computer stuff gets lost or the clocks reset, that will stop happening as the system will keep a constant flow even if the power dips for hours (until its battery runs out)
while more expensive in initial costs, it can be a better option as in none emergencies it conditions the lines in the home so that your appliances work better and last longer