Hurricane Sandy

[NWBasser]

I guess it's time to check on my East Coast friends to see how everyone's faring.

Any problems yet?

I really hope you guys don't get it too bad.

[tjcurtin1]

So far not so bad here in Plymouth, MA, but the worst is yet to come from what I hear, around midnight. LOts of wind, not too heavy rain, some folks with power out, school cancelled most places. Keeping my fingers crossed that it won't get any worse... Hope everyone else is OK.

[Tig***]

The large, disorganized eye crossed South Jerset below Philly a few hours ago. The shore took a huge hit from Wildwood to Long Island. No telling what will happen inland with the Nor'Easter collision!

Battery Park surge peaked at "13.88 feet".

[Robert****]

"Sandy" seems like way too nice of a name for something like that.

[piebaldpython***]

It's been absolute hell around here.....lots of rain and 60-80 mph wind. Stuff blowin' all over.......trees down. At 7 PM they closed all of the major roads in Philly. Part of the Atlantic City Boardwalk was torn apart and sent into the streets. The eye came ashore at Sea Isle NJ (South of AC) at 6 PM.

Lots of friends of ours have taken on water in their basements. The soil is soft from the rain and with the wind, they expect lots of trees to come down.

Lots of people lost power.....NYC got flooded out and lost power. It's been with us all day. The power loss was terrible as you can't run wet/dry vacs without electricity.

Schools closed Monday/Tuesday. Phila. Gov't closed Monday/Tuesday. My work closed Monday/Tuesday. Public transit (a huge thing out here) closed Monday/at least half of Tuesday.

Will sleep in the rec room tonite in case the power transformer on a huge pole decides to fall over in the wind and come into our bedroom.


This ain't fun.

[Tig***]

I hate hearing how bad it is for you, PBP. Losing power limits everything for a while, but damage to your home is much worse to deal with. Living here, we deal with the threat more often and learn to prepare for it like you would for a big snow blizzard. Still, all the preparation in the world won't help when something completely unexpected happens. I hope things get better for you and your family soon.

I have some in-laws about 25 miles south from you that I'm worried about. Luckily for them, the storm surge didn't angle up into Delaware Bay.

[marnold***]

Crazy that Sandy is even being felt here in northeast Wisconsin. Mercifully it's just windy. My hometown in Michigan got hit pretty hard with wind, rain, and sleet. Not the kind of place that typically has to worry about anything hurricane related.

[piebaldpython***]

This was a huge 1K mile wide storm which is why Marnold is getting the effects too.

You always have plenty of lead time with a hurricane to prepare.......but it doesn't matter if the power goes out. Being a big-city we all can't have generators out back to tap into. A couple of idiots tried (generators in their house) and the carbon monoxide alarms went crazy.

Their was a sharp line of demarcation with this storm........meaning that Tig's in-laws could have been hit harder than we were (rain-total wise) that we were while we would have gotten more of the wind.

We came out pretty well and our sturdy Norwegian maple out front survived intact. Still, friends who only live 2 miles away have NO power.

The worst thing of all of this is STRESS.....waitin' for the other shoe to drop. A 2nd floor condo sounds delightful to this ole-boy about now. Sick and tired of crazy-A** storms and winter snow.

Philly made out good....in comparison to NYC. Devastating to say the least.

[Tig***]

My Pennsville area in-laws made out OK. Just minor wind damage.

Hang in there PBP!

[otaypanky***]

My heart goes out to all of the people whose lives were changed by this storm, and my thanks to all the people who are working to help.

They said the eye of the storm was lingering about 90 miles west of Philadelphia. By road, we're 113 miles. The weird thing was it was eerily calm here. We had rain and wind but nothing at all like the areas around us a bit further out from the 'eye'.
I spent my first 50+ years in NJ. Seeing the level of devastation there was hard to believe. So many places I have been in the NY and NJ area were just decimated.
There's lots of speculation asking "Is this the new normal?" I suspect it will be. Although I get the determination behind rebuilding, when you consider areas like the NJ shore are just delicate little strips of sand between the ocean and the bay I question how long before there is another horrific disaster. Sea levels have been rising, it's no secret. The oceans are warmer, the gulf stream and wind patterns are changing, the caps are melting. I think many major cities all around the globe will be dealing with similar occurrences. Nature is bigger than all of us and always wins in the end.

[mapka]

I went through the storm. Lost some tree limbs. Lost power for 3 days. Got it back yesterday morning. Neighbors across the street still have no power. Found pieces of aluminum trim in my yard, along with a mop bucket? Thank god I bought a small generator before the storm. It was not big enough to keep the house warm or the well water flowing, but it did keep the sump pump running so my basement did not flood.

[piebaldpython***]

Well we're getting a nor'easter today with interspersed periods of rain/sleet/snow to add to the fun of lots of wind blowing at trees on still sodden ground. Damn cold out there today too. lol

People at the NJ Shore towns are crapping their pants as their protective dunes are no more since Sandy came through last week. Lots of people still without power.