Hurricane Irene: Yikes!!!

[ny biker]

I didn't buy any bottled water. I have so many water bottles for cycling and working out, I'm just going to fill up a bunch of them, along with two pitchers that I have.

[rubysoho]

I am thinking the biggest threat is loss of power. So we'll turn the fridge and freezer to lower settings now and maybe fill the bathtub tonight. Other than that, I think the terminology being used is a bit over the top. I hope I'm not wrong.

[skhill]

It might turn out to be not so bad, but... if you have pets, be sure to have plenty of food for them on hand. When we had a bad ice storm about 10 years ago, much of the city was without power for a week or more. Between power outages and missed deliveries in the immediate aftermath, store shelves were pretty thin for a while, and they had to set priorities for restocking. Pet food was pretty far down the list, and I remember driving from store to store trying to find cat food, 4 days after the storm.

Hang in there, y'all!

[ny biker]

For the DC area, I think the media is being over the top because their audience goes all the way from a few inches of rain in the western suburbs of DC to a 15-foot storm surge in Ocean City. And local governments have a responsibility to prepare for the worst. Think back to the superdome in New Orleans.

With Isabel, I lost electricity for 4 days. My neighbors across the street never lost power at all. I was renting a condo at the time, and my landlord, who lived a few miles away, was still in the dark for several days after my power came back on. A co-worker who lived a few miles in another direction had no water for several days. It's so unpredictable and variable.

I just spoke to my mother. Back in the early '90s there was a nor'easter that caused 4-5 feet of water to cover the main roads in and out of my hometown; both my parents wound up abandoning their cars on their way home from work and wading through it. It was the worst flooding in my lifetime there, and I think the worst they've seen, too. Anyway, I told her I thought they should expect the same with this storm, and she totally agreed. They're assuming they will be staying in their house for several days, and that they will lose electricity. The main concern is all the tall, old trees surrounding their house. They've survived a lot of wind up till now, but the last time they had hurricane-force winds there was 30 years ago.

Another thing I'm glad about -- the people who live next door to my parents always keep an eye on them in bad weather.

Something I'm wondering about -- a couple of my cousins work in construction and they're working on the World Trade Center site. One of them is a crane operator. They must be so busy right now trying to secure everything in advance of the storm. Crazy.

[ny biker]

Mayor Bloomberg has ordered evacuations of some areas in NYC by 5 pm Saturday.

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/08/...g-evacuations/

"Bloomberg also announced a mandatory evacuation of all residents in the coastal areas dubbed Zone A and also extended the mandatory evacuation zone to include all of the Rockaways. Zone A includes Battery Park City and parts of Lower Manhattan, the Rockaways and Coney Island. Roughly 270,000 residents are affected."

There is a link in this article that you can use to see if your address is part of the evacuation zone.

Also, to get news in NYC on twitter, follow @nycmayorsoffice, @notifynyc, @CBSnewyork.

[PamNY]

Another thing I'm glad about -- the people who live next door to my parents always keep an eye on them in bad weather.

Something I'm wondering about -- a couple of my cousins work in construction and they're working on the World Trade Center site. One of them is a crane operator. They must be so busy right now trying to secure everything in advance of the storm. Crazy.

I'm so glad your parents have someone nearby to check on them. And yes, I'll bet they are busy at the WTC site.

I have seen lots of worried-looking people in hard hats today.

And I have decided that I need a nice long bike ride this afternoon.

[Trek420]

People, log off of TE and make sure you are either safe, or evacuated to a safe spot, or prepared or best of all all 3.

I imagine if phone service goes down and you need folks on the board to call others to let you know you are ok or where you are we can work something out when the storm passes.


But for now for gosh sakes log off and be safe. Our thoughts are with you.

[tytbody]

But it's gorgeous today Trek420. It's hot, those darn insects that make that buzzing sound are about and darn it all, a young man just passed my back door riding his bike. It's the quite before the storm... There goes someone else sitting out here in the parking lot of her VW with the roof down in her convertible.

[ny biker]

I'm just about set. I went shopping on Wednesday night, before everyone went into panic shopping mode. I also filled the gas tank in the car and got some cash from the ATM, just in case we have wide-spread power outages.

Last night I got the flashlights together and made sure I had plenty of batteries. BTW the brightest light I have is my new Bontrager Ion 2 headlight -- it's a lot of light for $40. I think it burns through batteries in 6 hours at the brightest setting, but the less-bright setting will be fine for reading in the dark.

I've made a list of radio stations and websites I can use for news if the cable TV and/or electricity goes out.

Tonight or tomorrow I will fill up lots of water bottles and put them in the fridge. I might cook up some pasta and put it in the fridge so I can have pasta salad even if the power is out. I also need to figure out where I put my old-fashioned deck of cards so I can play solitaire in the dark. I haven't used those cards since Isabel hit...

The worst is expected to hit here late tomorrow afternoon. If I get lucky, I will be able to squeeze in a bike ride in the morning before the rain starts. After that, well, I've been needing to do some cleaning and decluttering around the house, so this seems like the weekend to do it.