I hope you've prepared - Sandy

after hearing about Hawaiians fleeing the tsunami scare driving their cars into others because they're too busy status updating, and people fighting and firing guns at the GAS STATION over $5 gas, i'm worried about the way media is setting people up to panic in advance, this could get real ugly when you factor in the human response just to some flooding and howling wind, hope people don't hurt each other or take advantage of this inclement, suspicious extreme weather

reply to post by ThePublicEnemyNo1


I wouldn't worry about your daughter too much, if she's at Temple I'm sure she'll be fine - the college will already be going well out of their way to keep all of their students safe - if not they'll get sued like crazy - think about it. I actually only live about an hour north of Philadelphia, and have Bloomsburg University in my backyard - all the colleges have back-up generators for power, lots of fresh drinking water (or at least will have top priority in getting it from the military police if it needs to happen like last year :T), also have lots and lots of available food with the cafeterias etc, even have really REALLY loud alarm / warning systems that are tested at least once a year. If anything it will be a lot better to keep all of the kids calm so they're not freaking out all over the place and causing tons of problems. They will be completely safe.

reply to post by MidnightTide

I live in Western Mass. and we were HAMMERED by a close to Halloween Blizzard LAST YEAR which downed more trees and power lines than I have ever experienced in MY LIFE in Mass. The Blizzard last year was so bad we did not have power for 7 days and some people went without power for close to 3 weeks!

Being a former teacher of Winter Survival I and my Family had no problem getting through 7 days and nights of extremely COLD weather and Huge amounts of snow as well as no electric light. In my home...I was sure to purchase a Gas Fired Hot Water Heater with a pilot. They now have Gas Water Heaters with some form of Nuclear Isotopes ignition that does not require a pilot or an electric connection but at the time I purchased mine these were not available so never the less...we had HOT SHOWERS and HOT WATER.

I also have a Gas stove without a pilot but the burners can be lit with a Match or lighter. I have two generators and we had power while others were not so lucky. Food was placed in coolers with fresh snow or ice to keep our food from decay and this ice or snow was changed daily. We also had time to do some reading as well as go to a few friends homes for STORM PARTIES but this was not possible til day 4 as there were TREES DOWN EVERYWHERE. The snow fall was HEAVY AND WET and as the trees had not lost their leaves completely...this caused the snow to attach to leaves and as I have said...entire FORESTS CAME DOWN!

I hope we do not get one of these again as the clean up was time consuming and expensive...but this is what happens when you have Global Warming...Strange Storms at unusual times of the year. Split Infinity

yep, power will probably go out. power goes out every time the wind blows the wrong way. you would think someone over there that learned how to put a man on the moon or invented the inch wide tv could come up with a better way to distribute power other than having them hanging in the wind. guess not. cell phone that can bounce off a satellite in orbit and bounce back to anyone on the entire planet? doable. learning how to put electric lines underground? impossible.

Hope all of you get through this storm ok.

Stay safe.

Being in Southern Ontario Canada , i am unsure of what exactly to expect.

They are saying heavy rains, mixed with the potential for snow. We are quite a ways from the east coast, however the storm is tracking to land right ontop of us.

The question i am left with is, how much strength will the storm cell coming from the east still have after crossing hundreds of kilometres of land.

Regardless, I guess it does not hurt to make sure my windshield fluid is topped up and my flash light works.

Be safe all

Originally posted by atsandy
after hearing about Hawaiians fleeing the tsunami scare driving their cars into others because they're too busy status updating, and people fighting and firing guns at the GAS STATION over $5 gas, i'm worried about the way media is setting people up to panic in advance, this could get real ugly when you factor in the human response just to some flooding and howling wind, hope people don't hurt each other or take advantage of this inclement, suspicious extreme weather

I've been through several bad hurricanes and other weather events that shut down power for days and even weeks but my experience has always been that these kinds of events bring out the best in people. Normally, drivers are rude and impatient but when there were no signals people were polite and seemed to consider others first.
I've met more neighbors and made more friends in the aftermath of these storms than I have at any other time. It was the people who randomly stopped by offering ice, food, help of any kind that have restored my faith in humanity.
When things get bad, people start being good to each other. That's been my experience here in Virginia anyway.

reply to post by Time2Think


While I thank you from the bottom of my heart, this is her second year, she moved off campus and out of the dorms (it was cheaper ). My family could not afford the dorm costs since we have two other daughters in college....fortunately both here in state in Cali.

My daughter, is not "attentive" to things of this nature. We haven't had anything really bad ever happen to us since last year when hurricane like/Santa Ana winds came roaring thru my lil' town here in Pasadena, CA., which she wasn't even in attendance for (it costs us an entire new roof btw).

So, while I completely appreciate your comforting words..."what if" the worst was to happen out there... she'ld be
up $()!#$ creek without a paddle so to speak and wouldn't know what to do if she had to live self sufficiently for more than 72 hours at best.

I am very concerned. I think I will send for her later today...just until the weather passes. I do realize, I am probably over reacting, but when you consider where she's from to where she's at, this thing/storm will no doubt take her by surprise if it's as bad as they (meteorologist) say it is.

I'm probably just freaking out, but my kid has worked so very hard academically to get to where she is and has a family that has put her in the forefront of what an education means (she received over 55 letters from colleges wanting to take her, even 3 from international universities into pre-med we went with the cheapest...Michigan State is the school for future research government workers and she wanted no part of that so we gave into Temple out of the rest, besides Temple was cheaper), that it would really be a shame to see her get discouraged by this crazy storm "Sandy".

I could completely see her the day after saying "Mom-Dad I want to come home", if all goes well. I'm not willing to wait and see if all goes well. But Dang! It's gonna cost us tons just to get her home for a few days...oh well.

Thanks for your encouragement from the bottom of my heart.

Signed,
A Worried Mom


ETA
As you can see it's 5:33 am my time PST and I can't sleep...she should be getting outta that hell hole in a couple of hours hopefully.

Originally posted by Dishonored
yep, power will probably go out. power goes out every time the wind blows the wrong way. you would think someone over there that learned how to put a man on the moon or invented the inch wide tv could come up with a better way to distribute power other than having them hanging in the wind. guess not. cell phone that can bounce off a satellite in orbit and bounce back to anyone on the entire planet? doable. learning how to put electric lines underground? impossible.

its doable just a lot more expensive
Most gated communities opt to have them underground
but does not help when the other 90% are above.
Also fixing electric wires underground is more expensive and dangerous.
Under ground power lines also are a hazard to the general public who
do any digging. Wireless power would be best.

I noticed you forgot to put alcohol on your list, I'm sure thats just a mistake....

Don't let your guard down just yet - be watchful.

The good news and the bad news.

The projected category progression of mph has gone down quite a bit; but, these monsters typically DO lose mph at night when the sun is down and normally speed back up some when the sun rises and solar heating re-stokes the fire so to speak.

The bad news though is threefold.

1. I don't see the models changing the track projections.

2. It's already the second largest in area coverage size for that area.

3. And worst of all, I see some very nasty millibars down to 960. This is the central pressure and THAT's the important figure which determines the actual power and punch of these monsters.

There's still room for hope though as I've seen projections get completely ditched by these monsters. They can be unpredictable at times and at the very last minute, change their fickle-little hearts and go off the other way. Don't let hope keep you from preparing though!

I remember one in the 70's that was to hit us at 5AM. I went to bed, ready to wake up in a hurricane or tropical storm. When I woke up, it was quiet. I turned on the news and the tropical storm had changed it's 'mind' at the last moment and trucked completely across the Gulf of Mexico, hitting Florida instead of Texas.

The point is, people yelled at the forecaster for "crying wolf" and evacuating Galveston etc. His response? Paraphrased as close as I can remember - "It's not like there wasn't really a wolf out there. There WAS a wolf out there. But, people are angry that the wolf didn't come, huff and puff and blow THEIR door down?"

So, be prepared and hope that big bad wolf doesn't come to YOUR house.

967mb
That was the Atmospheric pressure of the hurricane that destroyed Galveston in 1900 and killed somewhere around 8000 people due to flooding.

Sandy as of Sunday morning has an atmospheric pressure 951 and still falling.

The point has been made that the wind speed isn't that high but the wind doesn't cause that many fatalities.

It is the storm surge that kills the most people. Galveston was essentially leveled.

The storm that hit Galveston was very deceptive. It was sunny and clear right up until the storm hit. The only real warning was barometric pressure and it was so low that the weather forecasters concluded that their barometer was broken.

Sandy has a lower atmospheric pressure now than the measured pressures in the 1900 Galveston hurricane.



Everybody be safe.

Evacuate if told to do so and stay out of low lying areas.

Don't drive across water. It's very hard to gauge depth and current.

Western New Yorker here. The current weather models (as of this morning) for our area talk about heavy rain and the potential for high winds from Monday afternoon through Tuesday evening and maybe into Wednesday morning, but our local forecasters don't seem to think that there will be a lot of damage from Sandy on our end (at least not compared to what she is probably going to do to the East Coast... ). She has about 700 miles to go before she even gets close to our area, and it looks as if she will die down considerably from what she could potentially do to the East Coast.

IF the winds get high enough to knock out power, I've already got a manual pump bypass ready to install on my well water pump system (the pump is run by electricity: no power, no water...). The only thing I worry about is the sump pump. I can take on roughly six inches of water in the basement before it reaches the bottom of the concrete slabs where my furnace, air cleaner, and washer and dryer live. I've got buckets ready to go just in case.

I own a small car battery jumper unit that I'm currently charging in my workshop in the garage. It comes equipped with a car cigarette lighter port, and two AC ports, an LED light which is rather bright. It's not good for powering the house, obviously, but it's good to keep the radio plugged in (since I don't own a battery operated radio), and to keep my electronics charged.

Got enough canned goods to last about a week, and I have a large refrigerator-sized freezer that will keep food frozen for at least 36-48 hours if the power goes out (I was going to run the defrost cycle on the freezer, but in light of the potential of Sandy, I'll keep all the frost/ice buildup on the inside of the freezer until Friday).

Quite honestly, at least for my area, I'm not too entirely worried about this storm. I've seen worse thunderstorms pummel my area compared to what they are predicting from Sandy. I'm still keeping my thoughts out there for all you ATS'ers on the East Coast, however. If you have your B.O.B.'s, I'd recommend dusting them off and recalling all your survival information. Nobody has to die over this storm if you are adequately prepared with rations, water, and fuel for cooking, heating, and driving your car. Just stay safe, keep a level head, and get the hell out if you feel that you need to, or if things get too rough.


-TS

I'm Northwest of Baltimore and it's already raining on and off here. Local stores have been out of generators, batteries, bread, milk, etc. for 2 days now. We have underground power lines and rarely lose power where I am, but I have everything ready just in case, including a battery powered pump to drain my sump pump if we do lose power. Our sump pump runs even when it's not raining, so 8-10" of rain with no power could fill my basement quickly.

reply to post by ThePublicEnemyNo1


I feel for you. It is hard enough to deal with a child living away from and just learning about the world, but in a threatening situation it can be heartbreaking.

If you plan to fly your daughter out of there, you better do it ASAP. I heard they are cancelling flights out of Philly.

reply to post by CoolStoryMan


I will agree that we cannot know if Nibiru is real or not. So far as we know it may be composed of mostly or all ‘dark matter’ whose properties we are still groping to find and struggling to understand.

But Nibiru is real to some. So real that it occupies more than some of our minds; it occupies some of our hearts. The idea of Nibiru utilizes vast swatches of human consciousness, so much that the name Nibiru is now part of our history.

It was the second part of my comment: ‘It could then be seen as a physiological response of our planet to the return of a long lost lover or nemesis.’ that I hoped would attract comment.

When and if it does I will elaborate.

This morning my father went to the food store for a few more snacks.

He said there is no water, no canned soup, no tuna, and many other shelves are bare. I know it was getting to that point the last 2 days, but it sounds like stores are now cleaned out.

It has started raining here in Eastern PA and the wind is picking up. The sky looks ominous. They don't expect the heavy stuff here until tomorrow morning.

Being from Japan, and experiencing everything that has happened here in the past few years, I might be able to give some additional advice.

I am sure there is going to be a run on food before this storm hits. I remember when the big quake hit here in Japan. The shelves went bare pretty quick. Businesses had to put a limit on people buying food to prevent food shortages. Buy as much instant stuff as you can. Things which you can prepare without water or actually having to cook. Also, it might be a good idea to buy some tanpons(if you are a lady). Several of my lady friends complained about not having any tanpons after the quake. Toilet paper is also a good buy. There will not be any toilet paper for a few days after this storm hits.

reply to post by Asktheanimals
Keep your cell phone plugged in and charging until the power goes out and only use candles as a last resort.

reply to post by slumlord6374


I am just a few minutes south of you and no rain. Funny how that works. That is Maryland for you.