Hurricane Irene: Yikes!!!

[Crankin]

Went for a 20 mile ride, now going to fill my car with gas, do some errands. Going out for dinner, with friends who left their second home on the Cape to ride out the storm further away from the ocean at their house here. Turned the fridge down, did laundry, and outdoor stuff is folded and down or brought in.
It looks like we will have 30-40 mph winds with gusts up to 50-70. That's enough to send the power bye bye. I am glass we have a local utility just for our town, so we don't have to deal with a mega company.

[PamNY]

I went to the pet store to snag a few more wee wee pads this morning. The guy ahead of me in line was buying a complete
aquarium system and wanted it delivered.

Blueberry, good news about your mother. I'm going out for a Xootr ride before it starts raining harder. Maybe I can get Jim Cantore's autograph.

[ny biker]

Advice from an expert in Miami...

http://www.davebarry.com/misccol/hurricane.htm

Somehow I got a small splinter in my finger last night. I'm soaking it to soften the skin, then will need to break the skin with a needle so I can remove it. Nothing a little self-inflicted pain on a rainy day...

BTW I've heard that my cousin is expected to be at work at the WTC site today and tomorrow. He's already secured his crane for the storm. They have water pumps in place but there's nowhere to pump the water to.

[ny biker]

And here is some real advice, about communicating during emergencies. Good stuff.

http://transition.fcc.gov/pshs/emerg...release-01.pdf

I'm hearing of power outages in Richmond. One friend there lost power 3 hours ago.

[Trek420]

You can listen to Irene here:

http://youarelistening.to/irene

[ny biker]

My poor cousin was going crazy on Tuesday after the earthquake. She was on Long Island, her husband and brother at work in lower Manhattan, her son and in-laws in Virginia near the epicenter. And she couldn't reach anyone by phone. I texted her, she tried to call me and was able to leave a voice mail even though my phone never rang and the call never showed up in my call history.

I just emailed her and asked for her son's cell phone number, and told her she could give my phone number to him and her in-laws. Hopefully it will never happen, but in an emergency if they can't reach her maybe they could reach me and I could get a message up to family members on Long Island.

[tulip]

Power went out in my part of RVA about 3-4 hours ago (I'm reporting by iphone). It was a series of dramatic transformer explosions. Lots of big branches down in my yard; they are loud when they hit and roll off the roof. Lots of rain and wind and gusts.

I am glad I still have a landline and regular (corded) phone. Cordless phones don't work with no power and cell phones need to be charged. It's nice to know I can call out if needed. I also found a 1980s-era Walkman with radio in my shed out back. It even has a weather radio!

I heard that I-85 at Petersburg is completely blocked by trees. The Fan also apparently has lots of trees down, but I'm not in that part of town so I dint know the extent. VCU area bars are doing a great business, apparently.

If your power goes out and you have an automatic icemaker in your freezer, it's a good idea to fill up water bottles/pitchers/jars with that ice and turn off the ice making switch. Otherwise your freezer will be a wet soggy mess.

[ny biker]

I'm hearing that 70% of Dominion customers in Richmond have no power.

There is a tornado watch for the NY metro area until 5 am. Tornado safety info:

http://www.spc.noaa.gov/faq/tornado/safety.html

[Trek420]

My poor cousin was going crazy on Tuesday after the earthquake. She was on Long Island, her husband and brother at work in lower Manhattan, her son and in-laws in Virginia near the epicenter. And she couldn't reach anyone by phone.

When there's an emergency we instinctively reach for the phone. Phone service whether traditional dial tone or cell is really not designed to handle every mothers son of the users in the area all at once. Plain ol' telephone service shuts down to protect the network for 1st responders if enough people dial all at once

Which is why we all (yes, self included, I need to revisit this) need an emergency phone plan. One person you call or contact outside of your area, that person calls everyone else to let them know you're ok ... or not.

Also in an emergency stay off the line unless you have an actual emergency. If you must call and you have no dial tone don't hang up and try again ... you just make matters worse. Wait, it may come on in a few seconds or a minute or two, make that one call and hang up.

http://www.att.com/gen/general?pid=1325

[jessmarimba]

I haven't heard from my mom yet - I hope her house is ok. She had to work today and her new store is pretty far from home. I have no idea if she had to work late b/c of all of the people at the grocery store, or if she can't get home b/c of fallen trees, or if she's just home already but not answering. Argh. I'm not desperate enough yet to send my BF to check on her but I'm getting a little worried.

[Aggie_Ama]

I'm about an 1.5 hours north of the city. They have already shut our county fair down two days early and cancelled everything else for Sat/Sun. Should be interesting to see what actually transpires. I'll charge up our mtb lights and fill our cooler with water. If worse comes to worse, we've got several gallons of homebrew to get us through!

Well at least you will lose cares with the homebrew! Power out? Oh well, let's drink another. Hope it doesn't come to that.

[ny biker]

I haven't heard from my mom yet - I hope her house is ok. She had to work today and her new store is pretty far from home. I have no idea if she had to work late b/c of all of the people at the grocery store, or if she can't get home b/c of fallen trees, or if she's just home already but not answering. Argh. I'm not desperate enough yet to send my BF to check on her but I'm getting a little worried.

Where is she?

[jessmarimba]

Richmond, Va.

[Crankin]

Raining like crazy here. Just got home from dinner. People out and about still, but the winds won't start until around 5 AM.
Public transit will be shut down in Boston tomorrow. Dreading the power loss that most likely will happen.

[Jolt]

Just started raining here less than an hour ago, not raining that hard yet. Got a phone call this afternoon saying church is cancelled due to the storm (not that I was planning to go anyway--too much chance of getting stranded along the way because of downed trees/power lines in the road) so am planning to sleep in and recover from my busy week. Hoping we don't lose power but it's pretty likely that it will happen. My kitchen is pretty cluttered right now--I brought all my plants (container vegetable garden) inside in anticipation of the high winds.