Just across the border in Eastern Canada in the "low" threat level zone, which still means the biggest storm this year ~3 inches of rain in total and a fair bit of wind Saturday night, all day Sunday and Monday morning. Hard to imagine what some of you people are going through right now and will go through in the next couple days, but everyone stay safe on the whole East Coast.
Also, watched the full After Armageddon the other day. Great Documentary.
Funny you should bring that up, Poet. I am pretty prepared here on Cape Cod except for power outage. We have several fruiting plansts…lemon, lime, fig, on our deck out back. I suggested we bring them in last night when things were fine. My spouse, an anti-prepper, said to wait and see what happens. i said I’d rather bring them in now, not in a windy downpour.To make a usual story short, we brought them in this AM in a heavy downpour.
CS
I can tell you from experience from our EF5 (talk of it being an EF6) tornado losing so many trees is awful. Here in Joplin,Mo we not only lost 30% of our city which there is nothing left of the loss of so many trees has made the wind & dust…plus all the ground up glass hard to live with. Lots of strange weather these days. Hope everyone is out of harms way. Death count now up to 160 in Joplin.
…from Philly and done pillaging the garden and bringing in the lawn chairs, etc. Calm before the storm now. But we’re ready. The pop quiz gets underway here sometime around 3-4 a.m. Appreciating the reports from CMers up and down the EC. I’ll be submitting mine as long as the cell net stays up. V/S
I read somewhere yesterday that nuclear plants are required to be shut down when winds are forecasted to hit 74mph. So we may not only not have electricity if trees start tumbling onto power lines, we may not even have electricity being generated. Although I don’t know what the restart time is for a nuclear reactor. Assuming they aren’t damaged. I wish it was 5pm tomorrow when the storm has passed the area just to not have to go through this suspense and torture.
Good night everyone, talk to you tomorrow, hopefully.
Like 65 million other people, the 5 people in my family are facing a pretty good blow. As luck would have it the latest storm track has the eye pretty much passing over our house. Of course, that will probably change, and there really won’t be an eye by the time it gets this far inland, but all the same, whatever this storm has left is going to pass over us the long way.
Right now, with 240-mile radius gale force winds, this means a nearly 500-mile chunk of 39+ MPH winds if you cut through the storm’s middle to the other side. The way I calcualte it, even if the storm breaks up and travels at 50 MPH, that leaves us with roughly 10 hours of high winds, and a lot of rain. And if it stalls or goes slower…
At any rate, our preparations, such as they were, were mostly complete yesterday. All we needed was a little ice to fill in the voids in the freezer (easier to cool, stays cool longer without power), topped off a few 5-gallon gas cans in case anyone needs some for their generator, and bought a rack of Klondike bars. Hey, it was a grueling trip to the store, what can I say?
We feel really good about all of our prior preparations and have very little to do around here except wait. We did clean up around the outside with an eye towards anything that could become airborn, but other than that, not much besides pick all the ripe vegetables and fruit (peaches, yum) that might otherwise end up wasted.
I also feel really good from the feedback from those I know who have been steadily preparing for other circumstances; they all feel wonderfully ready for a power outage as compared to how they would have been before. No worries, plenty of material prepations in store, ready for use.
Of course, we will all discover things that we could or should have done better, but our lists will be shorter than most and (this is the kicker) deficiencies will most likely be tended to whereas most people will instead forget to remedy their shortcomings.
So best of luck to everyone in the path. We’re good here at Martenson Central, and the kids are very much excited and looking forward to this storm.
We’ve been very busy with most of my years supply of corn, potatos, peach, tomatos to be harvested anyway, and the storm has expedited that. The dehydrator is running full steady. On top of that, a batch of chicks just hatched yesterday; that’s a mission critical item to keep their light bulb heater going in the brooder, so I have backup systems for that. Even if this doesn’t hit hard in Maine, I’ll try not waste the opportunity to test and implement preparations rather than take a chance. Good luck to all.
Has anything like this ever happened before? I mean, NY is as far from the equator as Tasmania is in Australia, and if a Cyclone headed for Tasmania, surely the meteorologists of the world would be scratching their heads…
Personally, I can’t help but feel that this is a major departure from "normal" climate, and that this might be the very first sign of serious climate disruption…
As someone who’s been through a couple of storms like this downunder, I can say my thoughts are with all my American friends… stay safe, and good luck! If ever prepping will pay off this is surely it…
Mike
Hi Chris, when I saw the storm path went straight through Massachusetts, I did instantly think of you!
I’ve never been through an eye, but my wife’s cousin has, TWICE, and he says it’s a truly weird experience… first, the wind steadily builds up for hours to whatever the maximum speed is (in his case, Yasi was 200MPH!), then the wind totally stops all of a sudden and the sun shines… and no rain of course. But the unexpected, even if totally logical bit is, when you hit the other side, there is no build up, the wind suddenly hits you at maximum speed… so don’t get complacent when it all suddenly stops, he reckons the shock of going from no wind to 200MPH almost instantaneously was the most shcking thing he’s ever experienced. And whatever you do… don’t go outside to check it out!
Again… good luck to you all. That’s if you still have the power to read this 
Mike
while i had power today i canned and freezed garden jewels, and got the laundry done
i have a solar powered freezer and computer among other things…
i just can’t put all that work into the garden to have the power go out and ruin it .
i’m not sure why you all are relying on gasoline generators when you think peak oil is here. solar is here
i planned for no gas no electricity as i head into the sunset of my life
also just finished my moveable greenhouse…well don’t know if it will move but the fresh salad this winter will be nice
i’m zone 5
take care , please survive and then get ready…this was only a test
[quote]
Has anything like this ever happened before? I mean, NY is as far from the equator as Tasmania is in Australia, and if a Cyclone headed for Tasmania, surely the meteorologists of the world would be scratching their heads…
Personally, I can’t help but feel that this is a major departure from "normal" climate, and that this might be the very first sign of serious climate disruption…[/quote]
This event is not unprecedented, although it has apparently been a few decades since the last hurricane hammered the east coast this far north. As we all know, a single weather event cannot be solely attributable to climate change, but the cumulative bizarre weather we’ve had the last couple years does have climatologists wondering. As one put it, the question is not whether a weather event was caused by climate change. The question should be to what extent a weather event is attributable to climate change.
As it is turning out, this hurricane is not a particularly windy one, but it is massive, slow moving and is dumping a lot of water. We’re hearing reports of over a foot of rain in many locations. I would be concerned if I lived in a particularly flat area, an area subject to flash floods or a flood zone in the storm’s path.
Doug
[quote=Damnthematrix]Has anything like this ever happened before? I mean, NY is as far from the equator as Tasmania is in Australia, and if a Cyclone headed for Tasmania, surely the meteorologists of the world would be scratching their heads…
Personally, I can’t help but feel that this is a major departure from "normal" climate, and that this might be the very first sign of serious climate disruption…
[/quote]
Nothing that hasn’t happened in this area before. I remember Hurricane Donna in 1960. We had sustained wind speeds of 105 mph in the NYC area and a storm surge of 11 ft. In the woods behind our house in central New Jersey, in a grove of old red oaks, at least 3 large oaks with trunks 5 ft. in diameter were uprooted. Their root systems were so large that small ponds were formed where their roots were pulled up with the soil. My great aunt had a house on Long Beach Island (one of New Jersey’s barrier islands) that was in the center of the island well inland from the beach. They watched a wave devastate the house across the street from them. The only reason their house was spared was because that house broke the largest wave and the storm subsided from that point on. Donna was quite a storm, worse than this one.
An acquaintance of mine in Massachusetts said he walked around his house taking pictures just in case he needed "before" pictures.
Also, he walked around the neighborhood with a spade and a stick, checking storm drains and making sure they are cleared to take away run-off. He pulled out clumps of dirt and weeds.
This guy is smart!
Poet
I was barely able to sleep last night. I’ve been up since 4:30 and I still got power here just after 7AM. The power has gone out twice for a couple of seconds, but that’s it, knock on wood. This hurricane doesn’t seem to be as bad as Gloria in 1985. I think we’re at 170K in power outages for the state, Gloria caused 700K. We still got a few hours to go, but the storm is weakening, so my guess is whatever we have seen, it won’t get any worse here and for those of your farther north than me.
One thing I picked up and I need to do is to walk around my house in the dark, so I can familiarize myself with where things are in case I don’t have my Lantern with me.
Joe, I’m glad to hear that the storm didn’t hit you guys hard. It also makes me hopeful for others here at CM on the East coast, as well as family who lives on the north eastern coast.
Here in Central NY we’re just getting big fat raindrop drizzle (we are NOT near NYC; I’m not sure what their story is now weather-wise). I haven’t checked the latest local weather updates yet to see if they are calling for more rain, and are still warning re chance of flooding, or if this is it.
Ok, so just checked weather.com and am now pondering that big red swatch across Central NY…think I’ll go check local news now…
I checked the local news station on tv. There are warnings about potential wind gusts (but nothing outrageous; maybe 35-44 mph) and still posting flood watches. But they don’t seem all that worked up about it here, at least.
miles of fence to be ridden,trees to be removed. The garden didn’t wash away but stood firm holding much water.Has anyone heard from DIAP? 2million outa power in VA. We’re fine but burning diesel to generate electricity.
Robie,husband,father,farmer,optometrist
Wind picking up here on Cape Cod.Ferralhen, some time could you post info on solar-powered freezer that works for you?
CS
A-OK here. The worst has passed. Now we just have to see if the strong but diminishing winds cause any more damage. Rivers supposed to crest about 8 pm, so we’re going to walk down and see the Schuykill about then. Just wind and rain, kinda anticlimactic. We didn’t lose power (since falling tree limbs seem to cause the most outages, we’re low threat because of so few trees). The massive, old maple in my neighbor’s backyard which shades our deck is completely intact. The fragile spar pear in our sidewalk out front lost a big branch a month ago in a normal thunderstorm (landed on MY car without damaging it). Overnight it seems to have lost 20% of its leaves, but that’s all. Good luck.
an 8cu.’ "sundanzer" 12volt freezer for a couple years and are happy
robie