I guess buying rum would be a sensible step to take toward preparing for the storm.
Thanks for the thread. Apparently, according to various news stories, NJ Transit shuts down at noon tomorrow, but for some reason they haven't thought it necessary to say so on their webpage.
I composed a hurricane-related song for my friend who's getting married tomorrow.
I'm gone less than a day and the whole state of Pennsylvania is declared a disaster area.
3: That's a good start. You'll need an alibi.
a hurricane-related song
Is this the story of a hurricane?
We've just informed my disappointed sister that we won't be driving down to New York tomorrow for my niece's birthday party in a "Zone A" evacuation zone.
Dammit. I live in Zone A, right on the East River, and Mayor Bloomberg says "Mandatory evacuation for Zone A." But I live on the fifth floor, and the storm surge is supposed to be like 4 feet, max.
I don't want to fucking evacuate, and it sure seems like it would be pointless. And yet, "Mandatory." What the hell is that?
Nils Lofgren's covers of Neil Young's songs, and of that song in particular, are pretty good. Secon track here:
http://8tracks.com/lw208xx/meaning-it
Its Big Gummint taking away my Freedom(TM), I tell you what.
Nadene Albini is an anagram for "need an alibi. " You're all welcome.
JPS prediction with 95% certainty-- this is total fucking overkill. NJ Transit closed at noon tomorrow? Jesus. And minor flooding at most in Manhattan. The giant rat is more of a concern.
Of course I'm not the guy they call or fire if I'm wrong, but still ...
I'm out of town. And would have gone with a picture of a chronometre avec tourbillon.
Ah, now NJ Transit updates its webpage. Someone there must read Unfogged.
I am in OH, but were I not, I'd be in Zone C, directly across the street (in two directions!) from the non-evac zone. My mother in coastal Monmouth Co, NJ, is thankfully at a wedding in TN.
The worst-case scenario for me would be to get stranded at the airport, doomed to eat in a food court for days.
Which I sometimes feel is my fate anyway.
I'm leaving my children at home with my elderly father while I go to Vegas. On the one hand, this seems wrong. On the other hand, we're in a masonry building on high ground -- what's a hurricane going to do to them?
19: On the other hand, we're in a masonry building on high ground -- what's a hurricane going to do to them?
And the kid next door seems like such a nice boy, too.
I think "make them live without electricity for a few days" will be the most of it. If that.
Who's going to teach those kids flintknapping in the hour of need?
JPS prediction with 95% certainty
My college notetaking abbreviations lead me to read this as Sartre prognosticating from the grave.
Stormcrow might know this: What are the historical precedents for an area experiencing simultaneously an earthquake and a hurricane? Or other, unrelated natural disasters?
Don't be silly, Blume: Sartre didn't worry about the future.
My landlord is leaving letters on all the apartment doors advising everyone to fill their bathtub with water so it can be used in emergencies, and to have a full gas tank to be prepared to leave the area. Um, really?
August 11, 3114 BC, in Peru.
Coincidentally the data of creation according to the Maya.
I swear I once read about an earthquake/hurricane happening in Jamaica in the 1600/1700s and killing a lot of people. But I havnt' been able to find the reference since.
Although I did just read about a typhoon/volcano at Mt. Pinatubo in the early 1990s.
As to the OP, that glass isn't even half-full.
28: Probably the Port Royal earthquake, although there was no associated hurricane. The earthquake did create a tidal wave that caused a lot of the destruction.
30: No, it wasn't Port Royal, it was some lesser known one. Apparently lesser known enough that it is no longer on the Google.
26: fill their bathtub with water so it can be used in emergencies
"emergencies" == "flush the toilet in the absence of electricity/water pressure"
I'd fill up that bathtub.
24: I thought that had come up here before, probably in connection with Haiti last year, even though it was nearly a year between those two events. I don;t know of anybody off hand.
Yeah, filling the bathtub is not really overkill. But if it isn't a clawfoot, you're not cool.
And no one on here is allowed to die or get fucked up in any significant way by this storm now that I've pooh-poohed it.
Their grandfather, apparently.
More likely to remember the techniques than the younger generation.
32: Yeah, that makes sense. I was imagining drinking it and getting squicked out.
The grocery store is insane. Lots of people who could only be trying to buy enough bottled water to provide for the daily bathing needs of a family of four for a week.
I filled up the filter pitcher, and made some ice, and bought wine and beer and bourbon. I'm ready!
I just made the mistake of tuning into my local news broadcast. They're in full-throated PANIC mode.
Huh. I guess the forecasts are already being toned down? A Cat 1 when it makes landfall in NJ?
There are predictions that "MANY thousands" of people could be killed by the hurricane. Although the consensus view seems to be that many fewer deaths than that are expected.
40: Yes. However, from what I am aware of the primary caveats are:
1) It is still a relatively large wind field for a hurricane, so a pretty broad impact even if the winds aren't in the blow all your shit away category. (The opposite of Andrew, which was small but very powerful.)
2) High tide at The Battery is ~8:00 AM Sunday morning which might well be about when it is coming in on NYC. However, like most hurricanes that wander up that way its trajectory (moving NE or NNE) is such that NYC will not really be in the NE quadrant for the most part (more powerful winds and bigger storm surge) unless the hurricane is already inland a ways (for every mile out you are on Long Island this becomes progressively less true).
3) Shit happens. Models are incomplete. Butterflies flap their wings.
41: My prediction: 17 deaths in the US (and you've got to watch what they count).
I'm going to secure the loose tennis ball on my balcony.
I'm clearly tempting fate by feeling annoyed that the forecast is calling for rain briefly this evening, right when I'm supposed to be setting up for an outside gig.
44: Yeah, that's my median. Mode would be 11 and not really sure on the mean (a long, very narrow tail). If it goes much over, I'd say that would be more likely from inland flooding. (Of course, the estimates take into account the preparation.)
45: Right. A tennis ball propelled by hurricane force winds can be as deadly as an Andy Roddick serve.
43 41: My prediction: 17 deaths in the US (and you've got to watch what they count).
But didn't you read 41's link? Their source is Reality, dude.
I'm no doctor, but I believe "If you dont run with the bulls in Pamplona you dont die," another quote from 41, probably isn't true.
They are saying they are going to cut power in my building at 5:00 PM tomorrow. Jerks.
A FB friend posted a status of "Come on Irene" today. I feel better thinking maybe I've passed that eaarworm along now....
I'm somewhat more concerned with the fact that the LOC is going to shut down their wifi for maintenance. The reading rooms will be open, though, and I plan to be reading. I guess this means I'll walk outside about when the storm is supposed to arrive. I hope nothing falls on me except water.
And I guess I'll fill up the bathtub before I leave.
I think my favorite headline yesterday was something like "Irene Considered Threat to East Coast", as if the storm were the leader of some terrorist faction.
A chat with Debbie, our office cleaner, has revealed that offices in our building have sealed their computers and phones with plastic wrap and cleared off their desks in the event that the windows blow in.
Seriously. I'm boggled. I might mention that we are in a major downtown office tower and the odds of anything like that happening are somewhere between Slim and Tiny.
My big "preparation" here is taking the tape backup home with me, which I do periodically anyway as a good practice in off-site storage.
I have to say, the Wrightsville Beach, NC, web cam is pretty cool to watch right now: http://www.surfchex.com/index.php
Almost like being there!
My friends are insane. They were scheduled to fly out of JFK to Venice to catch a cruise to the Greek Islands. They didn't buy travel insurance.
They've been biking and hiking through Maine and NH this past week. At 5:00 they were waiting for the train down Mount Washington.
We were supposed to meet them for dinner in Providence tomorrow evening. We offered at least a few of them (they have other friends from western MA and Providence with them) an air mattress to sleep on if they needed it. Their plan is to drive straight through the night to Queens!
57: offices in our building have sealed their computers and phones with plastic wrap and cleared off their desks in the event that the windows blow in.
Yeah, that seems like overkill.
I was willing to take things as they came until I saw this photo on TPM this afternoon. Oh my.
Now, to be honest, I'm thinking about the reality of high winds and heavy rain and anticipating the electricity going out, so okay, I'm charging my cell phone (a haphazard task usually), washing dishes, grinding coffee, and mentioning to my housemate -- who is not taking this seriously at all! -- that we should probably expect things to be blown about pretty significantly outside. Trees down, that sort of thing.
Candles I can figure out if/when the time comes.
Question: why are people thinking that they're going to have no water?
No hot water, yes, if the power goes out, but no water altogether? I understand that the storm drains will likely overflow and be backed up, and there will be flooding, but water lines are separate for stormwater drainage and tap water, no?
Sorry for my ignorance here, but I'm used to stocking water only during winter storms, when pipes might freeze/burst and so on.
I'll go 20 bucks on somebody with the under (for me) on 5 hurricane related deaths!
I'll also go an additional 20 on the under on 17. Sheesh, probabilities on winds over 58 mph only reach 50% south of the New Jersey hook. Is somebody telling me there's never a 58 mph wind gust in Manhattan? (I'd think there'd be at least one a year.)
.... And I was going to then say I withdraw that based on the apparent (sample) ARC dart, but never mind, I find a study for electrical transmission lines and it sayeth peak *average* windspeed for Manhattan (over a 50-odd year sample) at 70 feet above ground level is between 100 and 110 MPH, which is well above (twice) the peak hurricane landing speed for Manhattan. (Well, when it lands it'll be a tropical storm, so not even a hurricane.)
So no problem! The water that far north is too cold to generate a serious energy pick up and the thing is likely going to miss anyways.
60: I was willing to take things as they came until I saw this photo on TPM this afternoon. Oh my.
's average, kinda on the smallish side, really.
Now, to be honest, I'm thinking about the reality of high winds and heavy rain and anticipating the electricity going out, so okay, I'm charging my cell phone (a haphazard task usually), washing dishes, grinding coffee, and mentioning to my housemate -- who is not taking this seriously at all! -- that we should probably expect things to be blown about pretty significantly outside. Trees down, that sort of thing.
Well, Pepco does suck mightily, so a power out wouldn't be surprising, but given current target track tons of falling trees is unlikely. (If the thing plowed straight up the Chesapeake and then hooked to the left (this far north generally, hurricanes hook right), then yeah, but otherwise no.) If someone north of Virginia is going to get screwed it's going to be Eastern Shore and Delaware and that's mostly some noxious flash flooding. (Hasn't Ballmer been getting the nasty rains we've been getting this summer?)
max
['I'm with roomie.']
max!
I still think that my friends are crazy to try to brave the traffic that way.
If the thing plowed straight up the Chesapeake
Hurricane Isabel did. That's mostly what I'm remembering, to be honest.
In the end, I just don't like being without power. BGE (Baltimore Gas and Electric) has sent robocalls everywhere around here saying that they anticipate up to 50% of their customers to lose power for possibly days.
Perhaps it will be minimal; my neighborhood has antiquated infrastructure, and we lose power several times a year even without 50 mph winds.
61: Depends on the water system where you live, I think. When I lived in a rural home and we had a well, no power = no pump = no water. In urban areas, I think the worry is with contamination of water systems, (maybe if power at the treatment plant goes down?) so you might need potable water as a backup.
Ah yeah, here it is from the Miami-Dade County.gov site:
Why do I need to store water before a hurricane?The reason for this is because of the possibility of contamination of the drinking water supply. When electrical power is lost due to a storm, water utilities cannot operate the pumps that maintain water pressure in the pipes that travel to your home. Maintaining that pressure is one way water utilities ensure that your water is free from harmful bacteria. When the pressure is lost, a boil water order may be issued by health authorities.
if power at the treatment plant goes down
Ah, yes. Thanks, wrenae.
Although I still don't know why you'd need to fill the bath tub with water for flushing the toilet, or anything that extreme. Just steal bottled water from an unattended grocery cart because the shelves were empty.*
*True story from my facebook feed. But she put "unattended" in quote marks, not sure what that's about.
Most water-supply systems require pumps at some stage of getting the water to homes. Of course most also have generator backups and relatively elevated reservoirs. So amount of time any particular system will be able to supply water varies. The NYC systems says that 95% of the water it supplies to consumers is by gravity* so it should be in good shape on that front.
*But I'm having a hard time reconciling that with high-rises, but that is what it says on its website, Hillview Reservoir is at 295 ft. Maybe "delivered to the consumer" means to the building at street level; pretty sure most tall building will have electric pumps, although many have reservoirs.
Floods can also shut down water supply in various ways including contamination.
Also what wrenae said in 65. And a place like Miami-Dade will be much more reliant on pumps.
The water for flushing the toilet thing I've only encountered, again, in the winter, up north, in a well-water situation.
45: Right. A tennis ball propelled by hurricane force winds can be as deadly as an Andy Roddick serve.
Hmm. Andy Roddick serve: 130-150 mph. Hurricane Irene: Category 2, 96-110 mph. Whew, the tennis ball can go outside again!
I confess I don't know how you flush a toilet that won't flush itself. This is just to fill up the back, I assume?
68: the water it supplies to consumers is by gravity
Heh. When I said something about water to my housemate, he said something about gravity, with a facial expression suggesting that he didn't see the problem. I was in the meantime going on to say that if the power went out, we'd have trouble grinding coffee*, so I hadn't paid attention.
* Actually not: we have a hand-grinder that my mom gave me a few years ago. We're fine for pretty much everything, with a camp stove and all. I consider this a good approach to life.
72: I think you dump water in the bowl while depressing the flushing lever. This allows/causes the bowl to actually drain, and then yes, refill the tank and the bowl.
I'm not very good on plumbing. I cannot lie.
This is just to fill up the back, I assume?
Yes. You get one free flush, from the water already stored in the back. But then you have to manually fill it up.
It's like jump-starting a car. Dumping water in the bowl causes the float-ball in the tank to ... oh, I'm not sure.
I'm pretty sure parsimon is most accurate in 74.2.
Well, NYC doesn't want us, so we are about to head out the door to evacuate to Maryland. This sucks.
Good luck, all.
Can you put the water in the tank (the back) itself, then? People seem to dump the water in the bowl when this situation arises.
If I lived in hurricane country, I would take lots and lots of precautions. But then I'm a bit of a lapsed preparedness freak. The thing is, it's usually more a question of convenience/money than life or death. Keep breathing and maintain a body temp of somewhere around 98.6 and you should be okay. This is for values of "okay" that include being massively inconvenienced and possibly having to shit in a bucket for a few days. A lot of those east coast cities have ancient infrastructure too. I've seen on This Old House where they still occasionally find sections of water pipe in Beantown that consist of hollowed out tree trunks with iron bands around them.
Most toilets, you can just lift the lid off the tank. I've never poured water in - I've usually opened it just to fix the stopper or whatever - but I don't see why you couldn't.
79: You could, but it's kinda inconvenient. Good way to put yourself in the market for a new toilet tank lid too, what with all the taking it off and putting it back on again. Chequamegon.
Right, just take the lid off the back and pour water up to the water mark.
How often do you break toilet lids there Nat?
85: Only once, but it was really annoying. (Not in an emergency -- just with a toilet that was running all the time and had to have the thingy jiggled after it was flushed.) It wasn't my apartment.
Betting the under on 17 deaths is clearly the right move, but if I do so won't I look like quite the asshole when 45 people die?
The safer reputational move is to bet the over.
Anyhow, Spike, that sucks; having to flee the house with a bunch of kids would totally suck.
I often take the lid of a toilet, put it on a pile of books, and make a temporary TV tray. I've never broken one.
84: Good to know.
It's inconvenient in the extreme to keep taking the toilet tank lid off, but I figure in this situation you'd just leave it off. I mean, it's an emergency arrangement.
Why would you take the top off the tank, rather than just dumping water in the bowl?
The only reason I could think of would be if you didn't have a big enough bucket to dump water from. Then it would make sense to fill the tank (in several bucketfulls). But otherwise?
There is a stopper preventing the water from the tank from getting in the bowl until you flush. So it seems weird to try to fill the tank uphill by filling the bowl. At least to me.
won't I look like quite the asshole when 45 people die?
Do people actually bed on this stuff, with real money?
Unless you're claiming your toilet will flush if the bowl is full but the tank is empty. I'm pretty sure it won't.
68: Most NY buildings have a water tank on the roof, so water from there serves the apartments by gravity. There's enough of a head on the water supply that even fairly tall buildings don't need a pump to get the water from the main to the roof -- maybe 12 stories? Which covers probably most of the residential buildings.
I'm glad I've never had to face a non-flushing flush toilet. I'd have been paralyzed between deciding whether to pour the water in the bowl or the tank.
93: if you dump enough water in the bowl, the toilet will flush.
90: The swirl isn't right if you just dump the water in the bowl.
Unless you're claiming your toilet will flush if the bowl is full but the tank is empty. I'm pretty sure it won't.
Of course it will. All the tank does is release water into the bowl.
93: pour water quite quickly into the bowl and you can flush it that way directly.
97: It will flush, but it flushes without style.
I guess I was thinking the toilet wouldn't flush unless it had all the weight of the tank water weighing on it, and that was what made the trapdoor open. I suppose the trapdoor just opens from the flushing mechanism itself?
All the tank does is release water into the bowl.
Erm, I guess that should be "All the tank does is store water ready for release into the bowl, and "flushing" is just releasing that water into the bowl.
I suppose I should note that I'm talking about standard old school toilets. I've never had one of the fancy modern ones; they might operate differently.
that was what made the trapdoor open
I admit I honestly don't even know what you're talking about. I googled and this urban dictionary entry was all I could find:
A trap door is when you take the toilet lid off and poop in the tank, then cut the metal wire holding the tank door.
Heebie: I think you may be using your toilet incorrectly.
106: The trap door keeps the alligators out.
There's got to be something preventing the water in the tank from going into the sewer system, no? On airplanes it's a trap door.
109: more water. And the shape of the pipe.
The waste water is backed up all the way to the bowl? Flushing is just moving the assembly line of poop forward by two feet?
109: the water in the tank or in the bowl?
The water weighs the same whether it is in the tank or the bowl, gravitational microanomalies notwithstanding.
Can it be that some people have never emptied a mop bucket into the toilet?
There is a flap between the tank and the bowl, but once the water gets into the bowl, there is nothing stopping it from the sewer except the shape of the bowl, u bend, and what not.
Here is an informational video for heebie.
111: flushing is rapidly filling the bowl with water, such that the contents of the bowl are moved through the reverse bend in the bowl drainage attachment and then left free to fall down into the sewer. So, yes, flushing is moving the assembly line of poop forward far enough that it falls down into the sewer. The water that sits in the bowl serves to block to odor from the sewer line from traveling back into the bathroom.
I don't think I've ever emptied a mop bucket in a toilet. I'd either take it outside or dump it in a tub or bigger container, thinking I'd make a giant mess if I tried to dump it in the toilet. Mostly I avoid mopping until the floor feels sticky.
I was being slightly facetious in 111.
The mysteries of the universe, explained: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flush_toilet
On another note, have you ever noticed how model names of various toilets all express delusions of grandeur? "Diplomat", "Regency", that kind of thing? It's really kind of poignant.
But there is something preventing the water from flowing out of the tank - it's the stopper that opens when you push down the handle.
There's nothing physical preventing the water from flowing out of the bowl.
Flushing is just moving the assembly line of poop forward by two feet?
pwned a bit by Sifu, but do you imagine that the pipes between your toilet and the sewer are horizontal? They're not. Things fall.
117: and yet, you would not make a mess. That water would magically disappear, leaving the toilet at the same water level it was at pre-mopping.
Ok, I watched the video. I've dealt with toilet tanks enough, but somehow never wondered about the second half of how a toilet flushed. Neat!
123: Oh yes, I would make a mess. I mean pouring and splashing and missing because the bucket is heavy and I have a tendency to half-ass manual labor.
I mean pouring and splashing and missing because the bucket is heavy and I have a tendency to half-ass manual labor.
And yet women wonder why wen miss the toilet so often when we pee.
126: If that's why you're missing, you're probably holding for too long.
||
I have just discovered that my father hangs out with a guy who blogs under the name of Lizard. That's really, really weird for me.
|>
On another note, have you ever noticed how model names of various toilets all express delusions of grandeur?
The toilet model we got in our bathroom remodel is called "Guinevere", which is faintly ridiculous.
95: Most NY buildings have a water tank on the roof, so water from there serves the apartments by gravity
Yeah, that is what I inartfully meant by the final "most have reservoirs"
maybe 12 stories?
Since it seems to almost all be staged from Hillview, 250 feet or so would be the absolute maximum, so allowing for that makes sense (and different ground elevations in the city of course). Ah, and here is from the 2003 blackout.
High-rise apartment dwellers around New York City, already sweltering in darkened rooms, also received a cruel lesson in the dynamics of urban water systems, as the lack of electricity for pumps meant that depleted rooftop tanks could not be refilled. Those living on the highest floors were hit the fastest.
This reminds me that there's some silly tourist site in Taiwan where the whole "attraction" is the mystery of whether or not water is flowing uphill or if it's all an optical illusion. The water is flowing over a manmade structure.
It could actually be either at that site - with the right equipment you could settle the issue - but they make a big deal about how it's impossible for water to flow upwards.
The verdict is that one should dump (not pour, but dump, rapidly) the water in the bowl, then, I take it? While depressing the flushing lever?
Or 6-8 stories.
OT: What does that preview button do? Anyone ever try it?
135: No, I think you would want to pour it fairly carefully, if swiftly. Depressing the lever would be useless.
135: You don't need to touch the lever unless you're using the tank.
Looking around here, I might have to put the water in the tank via a watering can, as I don't see a bucket anywhere and I don't think the watering can has the flow to trigger the flush.
Without a running shower, I wouldn't even be able to mash stuff up in the bathtub with my feet.
137: Right. Got it. Carefully, without splashing it all over the damn place, obviously, and there's no point to the lever, because. This thread is hilarious has made me laugh.
129: It would be weirder to find out your dad's friend DJ'ed under the name Lizard.
134: There's an equally silly but much touted ride at Schlitterbahn Water Park near here, where it's an UPHILL WATER RIDE!1!1 Because the uphill part of a roller coaster is so much fun, and water slides have always been woefully horizontal or down.
The mechanism is not as clever as that toilet suction action, though. It's basically a wet conveyer belt and that part of the ride is really slow and boring.
138: I'm thinking one would need, say, a gallon of water. That's a guess. You don't have a couple of pots that, combined, would make a gallon?
I have learned many interesting and useful things about toilets tonight.
I haven't caught up on the thread yet, but my flight was definitively canceled a few hours ago. Currently the forecast for the time that it's canceled is something like "chance of thunderstorms". I can only assume that they're pre-emptively canceling flights in some sort of effort to prepare the airport for the hurricane in advance; maybe they don't want any unnecessary planes to be on the east coast because of the risk that they'll be damaged, or something.
I'm sorry that that is your story of a hurricane.
I'd love to see a video of this James Dyson-created "uphill" fountain. Clever people are clever!
145: Even worse, by the end of the weekend it could be a story of a tropical storm.
146: That and the fancy vacuum. Some people keep on making wonders.
Wow, they're even canceling 7 AM flights out of Newark tomorrow. I can't imagine any rational justification for that.
5, 145: Are you waiting for explicitness beyond 7? But then why should a 36-year old Dylan song be better known than a 36-year old Neil Young song?
87
Betting the under on 17 deaths is clearly the right move, but if I do so won't I look like quite the asshole when 45 people die?
The safer reputational move is to bet the over.
Isn't this backwards? You would rather be the guy who bet the over collecting your winnings?
I just thought that I was teasing essear about getting Neil Young stuck in his head the last time, like re-getting it stuck in his head all over again.
Damned airlines with their cancellation notices flashing in the hot New Jersey night.
I can't imagine any rational justification for that.
Airlines don't need reasons. "Weather-related" is enough for them to pocket the fares.
149: Has Hurricane Irene hit the Carolinas yet? If planes that were scheduled to be in Newark at 7 a.m. were to be coming up the coast in the early morning, they might not be making it, so.
NYC water supply trivia I discovered (or possibly re-discovered). The freaking Catskill aqueduct goes under the Hudson in a tunnel 1100 feet below water level!
I have learned many interesting and useful things about toilets tonight.
Indeed. I should probably print up these comments as a reference guide, before the power goes out.
The panic shopping in my little corner of NJ seems a bit ridiculous. Empty shelves, empty aisles at the grocery store, and no "D" batteries or bottled water to be found. Because yeah, that extra gallon of water is really going to help you when the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse coming riding through town.
154: I was just on the phone with my parents, who don't fly much, trying to explain that. They kept insisting that the airline would have to reimburse me because it was their decision to cancel, and just couldn't believe that it doesn't work that way.
157.last: I got the last loaf of bread from a grocery store tonight. Most of the store was still pretty well-stocked, but no water or bread, and almost no peanut butter. I've just filled some bottles with tap water...
157: For my first and only hurricane, we had bagels instead of regular bread. The grocery store was empty but Brueggers was stocked.
155: Nah, it is still on pretty much the same schedule, eye near Norfolk Va. tomorrow night at 8 PM. It should start to accelerate then.
Also, I saw one family checking out with a truly unfathomable amount of toilet paper. Planning for the worst, I guess.
Perhaps they'd benefit from reading this thread.
162: The joke in Pittsburgh is every snow storm people buy bread, milk, and toilet paper.
I spent my first 17 years in Florida but I've actually never been in, or evacuated from, a hurricane.
I have bought bread, milk, and toilet paper, though.
I already had bread and peanut butter. I bought some orange juice, spaghetti (and sauce) and one can of chili. I'm prepared for high winds and some rain. This place has a gas stove, though I don't know if there are any matches. I still haven't looked for a flashlight.
Safeway was really busy, but quite a few people were doing what looked like normal shopping combined with some extra precautions. I didn't see the battery aisle, but there was still a fair amount of bottled water. I wonder if the person buying a bag of charcoal is planning on grilling in the eye of the storm.
Oh shit, I don't think I have any matches. Didn't even occur to me.
166: I use the Restoration Hardware catalog if I'm short.
I did bring in some folding chairs and weight down other furniture on the back deck. My landlady - whose away - hasn't seemed very concerned. She sent me an e-mail saying, essentially, "not much you can do, but if you have the chance, bring some stuff inside." She's from North Carolina and presumably has been in hurricanes before.
Also, I saw one family checking out with a truly unfathomable amount of toilet paper.
See, this irks me, even though it shouldn't (it's really none of my business, after all). In the event of a 'toilets not functioning as per usual' situation, shouldn't people be using less tp than usual, rather than more?
Nice score on the last loaf of bread, essear. No word of a lie, when I went to my local grocery earlier this evening, the bread aisle was empty.
How are the strawberry Pop-Tarts holding up?
The experts mined the data and found that the stores would indeed need certain products - and not just the usual flashlights. "We didn't know in the past that strawberry Pop-Tarts increase in sales, like seven times their normal sales rate, ahead of a hurricane," Ms. Dillman said in a recent interview. "And the pre-hurricane top-selling item was beer."
Thanks to those insights, trucks filled with toaster pastries and six-packs were soon speeding down Interstate 95 toward Wal-Marts in the path of Frances. Most of the products that were stocked for the storm sold quickly, the company said.For a few years you couldn't talk to a data warehouse or analytics software vendor and not hear that story.
The bread aisle at my local grocery store was nearly cleaned out--only the grossest wonderbread and the double-fiber whole wheat bread. I scored the last semi-normal loaf: some sort of honey wheat-nut.
The only candles left were nastily perfumed. So I went to the specialty boutique for cute beeswax tapers: much pricier, but clean-burning and decorative! If the power does not go out, I will not regret having bought them.
Strawberry pop-tarts are one of those things that I eat once every eight years, thinking "That sure looks good. I bet it tastes good this time...Nope, still surprisingly yucky."
The only candles left were nastily perfumed.
If you have a relative who died, say, August 31, you may have a little trouble with Yahrtzeit this year.
Just looked around. I didn't find a flashlight but I did find a giant battery powered lantern. Honestly, my plan for a power failure is to go to sleep, so I think I'm fine on that side of things.
I also found a lighter, but it doesn't work. No matches. I guess I might go down to the 7-11 and buy something tomorrow. Or eat cold chili.
This place has a gas stove
Which won't work if heavy rain leads to gas outages, of course (water in the gas distribution system could really mess things up). Hence the run on bread, peanut butter, granola bars and strawberry Pop-Tarts...
In that case I'll have to drown my sorrows in my rye-pumpernickel swirl.
1: In fact that is exactly what I did.
My girlfriend and I are having a joint birthday party Saturday night (ours are about a month apart and this is a convenient in-between point). People are worried about the hurricane, so we've adapted to the situation by (1) pointing out that if anyone gets stranded at our place we have airbeds, and (2) we will serve Dark 'N Stormys. Since I don't usually drink rum (it's only good for Dark 'N Stormys and Gunfires), I had to obtain some.
And then I got 25 beers and a 2/3 full handle of Bourbon for free as leftovers from a work party.
BTW if any DC Unfoggeders want to go to a party tomorrow night you're welcome to come by.
So aside from our personal difficulties, isn't there some kind of interesting policy question lurking here? Does it really make sense to order a mass evacuation and, almost simultaneously, shut down almost all forms of public transit? It seems a little... problematic.
182: It's an interesting policy question, but I find myself stuck at the juvenile, petty stage of devoutly wishing that somehow the elected officials who voted to cut NOAA's funding would suffer direct and substantial fallout from their votes. If only there were a way you could write in your reasons when you cast your vote in November.
182: I think it's happened a number of times before, but I don't think I've ever seen anyone explain why they've gone with this policy instead of some other. It could be that they've carefully weighed the options and decided this was best, but who knows. (That seems unlikely.)
63: max!
BG! Baby!
64: Hurricane Isabel did. That's mostly what I'm remembering, to be honest.
{sigh} OK. Here's the NWS Hurricane page: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/. This is the only thing you should pay attention to since the stuff on TV is late, incomplete and based on this info anyways. Click on the red hurricane symbol labeled Irene, then click on the small map on the page that comes up to get the big map. See the eye spot? That's almost immediately due south of Ballmer. Hurricanes, as they head north, bump against the colder air that surrounds the pole, which slows them down. As they slow down, Coriolis effects become larger than forward momentum. So the hurricane hooks right. If you look at the track of the hurricanes over the last fifty years, then you will see the tracks showing that as they move north from the latitude of approximately the upper Gulf Coast they hook right, incessantly. And as time goes on they pick up speed and deflection. Which is why Georgia and NC get hammered by hurricanes all the time and New England barely gets touched. So. If the hurricane is slowing and moving due north from way due south of Ballmer, then by the time it gets as far north as you, it's going to be headed off to the east and away from you. Promise. One of those hurricanes last year (or the year before?) passed just east of here and I think it passed kinda over you, but only because the thing had been headed to the northeast and made landfall around South Carolina or some place like that (that is, to your west).
It's losing strength already, it wasn't strong to begin with, and as usual the (bored) media centers are having an August freakout. So you'll get some rain. Delaware might get some heavy rain from it as the thing passes to the east, and that might be a problem because Delaware is very low and very flat and the water tendeth to pool up in those circumstances, speaking as someone used to very flat.
Seriously, just because Bloomberg (and apparently Obama!) is someone who likes to wear three condoms, a surgical mask and a buttplug while having intercourse, that is not a good reason to be frantic about it.
The people who are going to have a rough time are in eastern North Carolina (and as near as I can tell, no one cares, except people in eastern North Carolina). They are used to it, however. Somebody on Long Island might die, but it'll be a financial 'services' guy driving a BMW 120 on a 40 who hits a big water puddle and hydroplanes into a concrete stanchion (which they will dutifully mark down as 'hurricane-related' instead of 'dumbass-related').
BTW you can dump water into a toilet slowly or quickly - getting the brown stuff to go down requires a faster pour. It isn't hard. (You have to do it when the house has the supply line turned off, even if it's all sunshine outside.)
max
['The media is unhappy and anxious and they need a nice little lie down for a couple of months.']
Yeah, I don't know. You would think there could be some phase of trying to run public transit in a mode streamlined to facilitate evacuations, or something. Not sure exactly how that would work, but you would think something could be done.
They are used to it, however.
True. Watching the news, I think that this must be how the Californians felt when we were all excited about the earthquake.
It does look like the little league world series championship game on Sunday is going to get rained out. And maybe the semi tomorrow between a Montana team and a SoCal team.
Driving against traffic at 3 or 4 in the morning when the second person is a really bad driver who shouldn't be allowed a license and they spent all of Friday hiking just seems like a bad idea--whether there's a storm on the way or a football game between you and your destination.
I assume the point of the evacuation was the Rockaways and Coney. But the OEM has worked up this nice little colored map, so Bloomberg had to announce Zone A plus the rest of the Rockaways.
It's the barrier islands that will be worst hit. There will be houses on Fire Island fall into the sea. And the Rockaways and Coney are sort of like barrier islands.
No-one disputes the wisdom of evacuating Fire Island nor the wisdom of stopping ferry service to/from it.
190.last: Ferry service to Fire Island should be doubled and all of Polk County, Iowa moved to the beaches of the island.
My landlord replaced my ancient rotted through, shaky, single paned windows a couple days ago. (Not related to the hurricane) Or at least some of them. Two were deemed to be in good enough shape to remain. One which was in particularly bad shape (frame already rotted through and broken from an AC) was broken out and then put back in when it turned out that they hadn't measured properly. I'm a bit worried about that one.
The organization of the storm does seem to be getting increasingly ragged this morning. NWS wind speed probabilities have it at less than 50% probability of being a hurricane in 12 hours.
Wow. I turned on CNN out of some kind of morbid curiosity, and they're in full-on crazy mode, repeating in Very Serious Tones that New Yorkers have to heed their warnings and flee the city now or face "devastation".
194: I am now voting "Big Dud," but will feel bad if/when you all die.
Depends on what you mean by 'dud'. Over at W-underground they're saying the equivalent of a really bad Nor'easter, minus the snow but with more tree damage because of the season. Or in other words about a once every three or four years level storm. That's not a dud, it's not OMG we're all dead either.
196: Right. We know from nor'easters. I meant dud as in not "ZOMG HUNDRED YEAR EVENT JUST GO TO THE HOSPITAL NOW!!!!!!" But we'll see!
I remember getting school off for Hurricane Gloria. The radio was all Doors and U2 all the time. My parents were out of town and my brother took me to the beach to watch the storm. Well there was no beach -- surfers were ending up in backyards a block away. The storm ended up hitting LI, I think.
I'm betting one death, by tennis ball.
Oh dear. I *know* the guy -- mentioned in a Reuters report as out surfing right now -- Ebert has just proclaimed a "Darwin Award Finalist" on Twitter. (Guaranteed there are dozens of folks surfing right now.)
201, con't.: Come to think of it, when I worked for him (summer 1988?) he bought me a Brave New World (surf shop) shirt.
Thank you for making me look at Ebert's Twitter feed. My plans for this evening now include watching Le Doulos.
Mmmm. Belmondo. I sometimes practice saying "dégueulasse" like he does.
200:they really changed The Prisoner in this new American reboot, didn't they?
Right now, it's just overcast and mildly gusty (the new nicely bouncy) in Durham. Some modest rain overnight. Some dead branches fallen here and there but we live in a forest, so that happens pretty much every storm. So far, a non-event in central NC.
It just started raining here in SE PA, and the wind is picking up, but it's been gray since early this morning.
It's raining and gusty here in the Blue Ridge foothills. I saw a nasty car accident, but I don't blame Irene.
Can it be that some people have never emptied a mop bucket into the toilet?
Way upthread, but Natilo gets it exactly right. Down the tub? Ew, gross. You'll step in it in your post-cleaning shower. Outside? Enviro-hating Texan talk.
So far, they're reporting two dead (one person hit by a falling limb and one who had a heart attack while nailing plywood over a window) and another person missing in the Cape Fear River.
A tulip tree fell on our roof during hurricane Gloria. I loved that tree, but I think that it was starting to rot, and any decent storm would have felled it.
People have cleaned out the smelly white-people candles at my supermarket, but the Goya section has tons of candles left that don't even have saints and virgins on them.
The smelly candles left at my local grocery store were more awful than any darkness could be. However, since my area is gentrifying at an astonishing clip, I was able to get beeswax tapers at the new boutique-thing that opened two weeks ago. Because I am that white.
The situation here is still: overcast, no wind, very light drizzle. Totally justifying canceling my flight five hours ago, I'm sure.
(No, really, I'll get over it soon enough.)
I guess the smaller tree limbs are kind of gently wobbling back and forth. We're all gonna die!
A friend in Richmond reports on Facebook that his power went out. Dude! Save your phone's battery!
It's now raining in earnest here, though if I didn't know better I would think it was just another rainy Saturday.
Hurricaine festing: Salty pita chips dipped in homemade tzatziki, dark sweet cherries, bacon cooked in the oven, peach lemonade.
185: that is not a good reason to be frantic about it
Who's frantic?
Totally meh here so far, of course. The primary difficulty has been book customers who ordered something last night at 11 p.m., then emailed to say that they had ordered Expedited!!!! shipping, dammit, and their class starts on Monday, so please ship ASAP, and how long do I think it'll be before the book arrives, and by the way they live in South Carolina. Silly, silly.
I kinda like storms.
My parents lost power in Richmond but are otherwise fine. I'm off to a wedding at a dead president's house.
A relative of mine in New York e-mailed and called twice (last time at about 10 this morning) saying I could go up there to sit out the storm. Why would I want to go to a city with mandatory evacuations and public transit shutdowns, when I could just have a normal day over here?
I did get soaked on the way home, so I'm now doing laundry. Soon I'll probably take a shower. How ironic.
Did anyone link this radar map already? Handy.
Report from the field: Heavy rain. Basement already wet, no surprise.
222: Everybody in Richmond appears to have lost power. They aren't even close to the center of the storm. What gives?
I'm actually a little concerned about this basement, as it's where I'm staying. The water is pooling at the stairs and there's probably only about 6 inches before it goes over the little seawall concrete barrier just in front of the threshold. There doesn't appear to be any drainage for that spot. It's all dry now, though.
That is, the basement is dry.
223: I bet you some of the people I saw buying alcohol yesterday have found some unpleasant things in their chardonnay.
Everybody in Richmond appears to have lost power. They aren't even close to the center of the storm. What gives?
The storm has presumably knocked down a lot of trees, and if any of them fell on power lines large portions of the grid would have gone down.
The storm has presumably knocked down a lot of trees
A friend of mine from Richmond posted to FB that there are two trees on houses in her neighborhood, and one next to her own house that just missed.
I confess I parked my car in not-its-usual-spot (under a fairly big, and leaning tree) when I got home. Not that I'm frantic or anything.
I saw branches falling off trees while I was out, but nothing major. It's not all that windy here yet.
FA, for what it's worth, there's been a call around here for citizens to try to see to it that storm drains (on the street, I guess) are clear of debris. Does water usually pool at the stairs to your basement? Maybe you haven't been living there long enough to know. But I guess you could see if there's a storm drain up on the street or something. Or not. Kind of an idle thought.
My landlady said something (months ago) about the basement sometimes getting wet. But I actually just looked a few minutes ago and there must be some drainage I can't see, as the pool is smaller. I guess it's not raining quite as hard now.
Talking Points Memo is so New York centrist!
We've been in the very outer fringe of the wrap-around clouds and air mass and as a result it has been more humid than I would have liked as I did house and yard work. This is totally Obama's Katrina.
This is totally Obama's Katrina.
I've sort of been assuming that the possible overreaction, with mass evacuations and whatnot, is a function of everyone thinking that we don't want another Katrina, now do we? And, well, no, we don't.
Hurricane analogies should be banned.
236: Yes, not lost on the White House.
Irene is totally Obama's Elián Gonzalez.
Wait, Irene is a hurricane? I was wondering why everyone was talking about that song all of a sudden.
238: That picture at the NYT article's site of Obama biting his lips, or clenching his jaw, or whatever exactly that is, is something.
Winds are picking up here now, above the (deciduous) tree-line still. We have a lot of trees here. I do like storms, however perverse that is.
I guess I should close the windows soon. My housemate is just hammering and welding downstairs.
244: Does he do that often, or is he over reacting to the storm?
The storm will be defeated by parsimon's roommates GIANT HURRICANE-EATING ROBOT!
we don't want another Katrina
How many major cities are with significant areas below sea level? That's one of those things I wondered about all the supply-buying around here. We're on a hill and we're inland.
I should have previewed that.
How many major cities in the US have significant areas below sea level and are on the path of this hurricane?
As for the supply-buying, I mean at the local Safeway, not DC in general.
194: I turned on CNN out of some kind of morbid curiosity, and they're in full-on crazy mode, repeating in Very Serious Tones that New Yorkers have to heed their warnings and flee the city now or face "devastation".
Heh. NYT:
"I'm not taking this lightly, but a flood can only do so much," said Laquan Bostick, 22, who lives in a ninth floor apartment in the Beach 41st Street Houses, a public housing complex, with his mother. Mr. Bostick said his mother left and urged him to come with her. But he declined, and instead bought food, batteries, ice and even vitamins to wait out the storm. "I feel comfortable staying here," he said. "It's better than being put in some school turned into a shelter." Mr. Bostick, a student at Nassau Community College, acknowledged that he wanted to see the storm firsthand, and that having the apartment to himself gave him a chance to invite his girlfriend, who lived nearby.
Now t hat kid is on the stick! They should make him mayor. Further down they say they're going to turn off the elevators in the public housing come dark. And I am thinking that that's very silly. At least wait until the storm turns up. (I'm with you, BTW - shutting down Amtrack? And canceling more flights then they canceled during the Iceland volcano thing? And shutting down the subways? In somebody's head the lights are on and the music is playing but there ain't nobody home.)
208: I saw a nasty car accident, but I don't blame Irene.
Well, here you go:
PITT COUNTY -- A wreck Saturday morning killed one man, the Highway Patrol said, as Hurricane Irene was making its way onto the North Carolina coast. It happened in Pitt County on County Home Road. Jose Coronoa, 21, crossed the center line, ran off the road, and hit a tree, a trooper said. Hurricane Irene made landfall in Carteret County around 7:30 a.m., but Pitt County was feeling the effects of the upper-left quadrant. At the time, the area in which Coronoa was driving was experiencing high wind and heavy rain. The Highway Patrol said the wreck happened right as the wind levels were picking up, but they have not yet determined for sure if the wreck was weather related.The media is scoring this as hurricane-related. I am thinking, hrmmm, what do 21 year olds in eastern NC get up to on Friday nights? Go to prayer meetings, I suppose.
236: I've sort of been assuming that the possible overreaction, with mass evacuations and whatnot, is a function of everyone thinking that we don't want another Katrina, now do we?
Yeah, but Katrina was a Cat 5. (Until it dropped to Cat 3 as it rolled over New Orleans.) And same with Rita and so on. This was a Cat 3 for while and now it's a Cat 1. Wee bit overboard.
max
['Maybe we should corral some doctors to write generous scrips and ship all the news networks boxes and boxes of Xanax.']
He does it often. He's a metal sculptor, and does practical metal work as side work: designing and making decorative looking but practical window and door security gates/windows/door thingies. I'm not sure what he's working on now. He had a pending alleyway gate/door project. Neighborhood community associations tend to be the clients.
Weather gets in his way. He's unflappable by temperament anyway.
Winds are picking up here now, above the (deciduous) tree-line still.
What does 'tree-line' mean here? I'm only familiar with it referring to high altitudes.
248: How many major cities are with significant areas below sea level?
Pretty much just the one as far as I know. The Back Bay in Boston looks to have been filled at least to sea level. Did not realize that Schipol Airport is below sea level.
We should be careful or a hurricane might flood Death Valley. Oh wait. something like that already happened.
Parsimon has taken refuge atop Mount Washington?
The events in 254.2 (and subsequent smaller episodes) in part led to the Hoover Dam being built.
Hm, I had not known this:
The storm already has shortened gasoline supplies as refueling barges wait out the storm off the coast. Experts are now bracing for widespread power outages that could switch off automated delivery networks for gasoline stations, forcing them to individually call terminals for more fuel. That would slow down fuel deliveries, and motorists likely would be stuck in longer lines as gas pumps dry up.
"Power is the lifeblood of oil supply on the East Coast," said Ben Brockwell of the Oil Price Information Service, which tracks gasoline shipments around the country.
253: Sorry, I mean that the wind is blowing up there, above the treetops, so the trees themselves aren't yet blowing wildly around.
You're right, tree-line properly refers to something else. Also, the top of Mt. Washington is awesome, in the true sense of that word.
258.last: Currently 52, fog and 23 mph wind up there.
what do 21 year olds in eastern NC get up to on Friday nights?
The really good-looking ones can get up to several hundred dollars. You want me to make some calls for you?
260: Wages are so depressed in the South. The 21-year-olds should unionize.
259: Huh. I am attracted to wind reports from the top of Mt. Washington; if you've been up there, you know what I mean. Irene hasn't really gotten up there yet.
260: You want me to make some calls for you?
No, thank you. I wouldn't want to contribute to reducing North Carolina's no doubt generous supply of moral fiber.
max
['Also, I'm old. I could spend that money power tools!']
Given that the last couple of years there have been windstorms in Vancouver with winds up about 60 mph, I just can't get worked up about the reports that National Airport is now getting winds up to 35 mph.
OK, now actual tornado warning for next 20 min. Am sitting on basement steps.
OK, now actual tornado warning for next 20 min. Am sitting on basement steps.
I assume that the tornado has twisted time.
OK, no tornado here. Seems to have touched down west of here, though no confirmation. Am sleeping on the couch as precaution since there is a watch (not warning) until 5 a.m.
Now fretting about whether there is a safety issue if the water that is creeping higher in my basement gets to the pilot light of my gas hot water heater....
James Monroe: I once hung out at his house during a storm. People got married.
Apparently there was a tornado in my NJ hometown. Madness. Facebook tells me there is no power, trees down everywhere, flooding, collapsed roofs -- and the bad bit hasn't hit yet. I guess I retract "big dud."
Also, can we name hurricanes after colors or something? Because all this "bitch" stuff is getting way old.
Hurricane Taupe officially downgraded to tropical storm. Nobody's wearing that shit any more.
Ol' Taupe is pretty blustery here. Reasonably glad we didn't park under a tree.
Did not realize that Schipol Airport is below sea level.
The clue is in the name. Ship...hole. It used to be a hole in the ground with ships. Now it's an absurdly gigantic airport and a really bad time if you missed your flight by three minutes and were cleaned out of cash by the cabbie who failed to get you to the airport on time.
They should name hurricanes after Hall & Oates songs. Then the "bitch" comments would be restricted to "Hurricane Rich Girl".
Irene is basically over here. We lost power at 3:51AM. It was restored at 3:52AM. There's lots of twigs and torn off leaves lying around on the ground. Part of the screen on the door to our porch has come away from its frame. Very locally, then: big dud.
274: They do switch off between male names and female ones, but many of the ones we seem to remember are female.
280: Starting in 1979. Official women's names started in 1953. They now have a list of 6 yearly slates that they rotate through retiring those that had significant impact. Don;t know when they started although there was 1999 Irene that did some damage in southern Florida as well as a 1981 one, so maybe that started in 1979 as well.
They should use the names of beloved cartoon characters. Who wouldn't welcome Hurricane Snoopy or Tropical Storm Pikachu? Also, sponsoring opportunities.
Wasn't there an Earl or something?
It's a common misunderstanding.
Ah -- my brother texted to tell me I shouldn't listen to anyone in my FB feed or at the Asbury Park Press: the 'cane was "not a big deal at all."
I slept through the worst of it. No lost power at all.
but many of the ones we seem to remember are female
You think? There's the obvious Katrina, but the two others that first come to mind for me are Hugo and Bob.
Isaac is the hurricane that had the most impact on Pittsburgh in my time there. Then there was Ike, Floyd, Andrew.
The real question is why the H-I-K axis is so destructive.
The real question is why the H-I-K axis is so destructive.
Because they're later-season storms in active years?
291: And that was the one ned referred to as "Isaac" in 288. Ivan had one of the strangest tracks ever. After starting as a strong "standard" Caribbean ->Gulf of Mexico hurricane it wandered northeast (prompting the flash floods in Pittsburgh and elsewhere) re-emerged over the Atlantic, went south and then west back over southern Florida and through the Gulf and back on land near the Texas /Louisiana border as a tropical depression.
On September 22 the National Weather Service, "after considerable and sometimes animated in-house discussion [regarding] the demise of Ivan," determined that the low was in fact a result of the remnants of Ivan and thus named it accordingly.
271: Now fretting about whether there is a safety issue if the water that is creeping higher in my basement gets to the pilot light of my gas hot water heater....
If you can't turn off the gas, open a window, preferably several. NG without a spark won't do anything except steal all the oxygen, and NG without compression won't explode. (A really bad leak might lead to a 'whoof', but the world won't explode.)
For future reference for anybody who cares, tornado warnings are worth very little. If the weather guys see a hook on the radar, they call out a warning. What matters is what's going on around you, as it is entirely possible for a tornado to spawn, touch down, blow a bunch of stuff away, and then disappear, without ever showing up on radar at all.
So, if the sky turns a sicked-out kermit green (if you're in an urban area you can see this from the reflection of the street lights) or another weird color (once I saw a completely overcast sky turn sherbet orange), that advaises you that actual trouble might be on the way. If there's a sudden strong wind and you smell dirt, like you struck your nose into a flowerpot with damp soil (you will not mistake the smell) then it's time to proceed to shelter. If you feel and hear a ground rumble like a freight train coming, hit the shelter. If the walls are rattling and the house is shaking (kinda like that earthquake but with less shaking and more wind), RUN. You've got a minute at most. (You'll be able to hear it above the rain noises no matter how loud the rain is - an oncoming tornado rumbles the ground.) Otherwise, relax and pay no attention to the weatherman, they like to freak out.
285: the 'cane was "not a big deal at all."
The problem is all the power outs. Richmond, Norfolk, DC, Baltimore, (I am guessing Parsimon got knocked out about 10 o'clock last night), Delaware and apparently all of southern New Jersey got hit hard with the outages. (It's hard to tell with NJ - the companies aren't reporting much.) The maps look pretty ridiculous.
They've been freaking out about storm surges and high winds, and the whole problem all along has been is too much goddamn rain and a craptacular electrical network. (Thanks deficit hawks!)
CNN about 9:30. They're showing some guy on the east river where everything is calm cool and casual. Not even much rain. So the anchor is all like, 'the story is different on Long Island [some location there]'. Cut to a guy looking disheveled and some rain pouring, and the winds blowing and you can only sorta hear him. Well, he starts explaining how terrible everything is in that voice of dread tone, and as the camera adjusts there's a guy in the background leaning against the railing all casual. And the reporter keeps talking and then suddenly, it looks a like a couple of guys with mohawks come wandering into frame. And then suddenly someone else wanders by. And then the guy leaning against the rail stretches his arms out and starts reacting Titanic. So the anchor kinda stumbles out, in a tone that indicates she can't decide whether to be morally outraged at the spectacle or to fall over into a coma from the shock, 'Those people back there, there's just.. what are they doing... touristing?' And the reporter can barely hear here and he starts to cough out some response, and this guy on a mountain bike just come toodling by from one side of the frame. Followed by a burst of about five-six people just out for their Sunday constitutional.
God. Damn. That was funny. I can say with complete sincerity that made me love New Yorkers.
max
['Except for people who work for cable TV news.']
WTTG-TV reporter Tucker Barnes was providing live updates for stations around the country as a wall of what he described as sea foam poured over him.
Barnes was on the boardwalk as Hurricane Irene hit the coast of Maryland. He noted that he had immersed himself in organic material. That "organic material" was most likely the effects of raw sewage pouring into the water during the storm.
"It doesn't taste great," he said. He said it had a sandy consistency and added, "I can tell you first-hand, it doesn't smell great."
Rains from Irene trigger mudslide in WMass. NORTH ADAMS, Mass.--Authorities say a mudslide caused by Irene has compromised a natural gas line in the western Massachusetts city of North Adams.
This is in poor enough taste that I didn't want to post it on my FB wall, but my first reaction to the above was, 'Well there's another theme cocktail I hadn't thought of. '
Not quite as gross as if it had raw sewage, but still pretty yucky looking.
Parsimon's hideout on Mt. Washington. 54 degrees, 56 mph wind gust to 81.
First big gust (big being small branches rolling down the road) and power goes out, that's pretty weak electrical infrastructure. Should check the sump.
No power loss here. I watched Dead Man (Jim Jarmusch) with Johnny Depp. Good stuff -- I'd really liked Stranger Than Paradise years and years ago, but kind of couldn't stand Mystery Train, so I'd stopped paying attention to Jarmusch. Wrong!
Close to half a million in Maryland without power, including approximately 25% of Baltimore City.
The only casualty in my own tiny realm is a medium-sized tree, a well-liked one, not very old, out back that's now leaning and, my housemate says, is wobbling. As in, he can push on it and it wobbles. Anybody know if it'll settle in firmly again once the ground dries out? As it is, my housemate says he wants to cut it down, since if it falls, it'll smash some stuff.
Also my tomatoes and Brussels sprouts are sideways but not uprooted. Some nice ripe tomatoes have been revealed as a result.
301.3. Doesn't sound well rooted, if he can push it and it wobbles. That could well be a problem regardless of the state of the ground. Do you know any experts? I believe there are sometimes things you can do to secure trees other than taking them out, but it'd be on a case by case basis.
303: Don't know any experts who can be accessed in the near term.
It's a young and healthy tree! The problem is that it's at the bottom of a downward-sloping driveway, so the water/rain drained last night right down to the ground in which the tree stands. The leaning isn't that bad: maybe 5 degrees (assuming that a 90 degree lean would mean the tree is lying flat on the ground).
I'm hoping to give it a day or two or three and see whether it still wobbles; I'd like to convince my housemate to resist the chainsaw until we can see. Trees don't need to be standing perfectly upright in order to live long and healthy lives.
Oh, and yes, I'll look into the possibility of securing it in a more upright position -- maybe that's viable. Thanks. We sometimes set out chairs under that tree and have a glass of lemonade and chat ....
I'm realizing that I'm hearing the sound of a chainsaw somewhere else in the neighborhood.
If you can't turn off the gas, open a window, preferably several.
Thanks. I ended up turning off the gas.
So, if the sky turns a sicked-out kermit green
Yeah, I would have been a lot less worried last night had I been able to see anything. I'm a lot more confident in my ability to gauge weather-danger during daylight hours.
They've been freaking out about storm surges and high winds, and the whole problem all along has been is too much goddamn rain and a craptacular electrical network. (Thanks deficit hawks!)
I was talking with a guy a couple of months ago who went on at great length about how "lossy" the power grid in the Northeast is. I don't know the industry at all, but my impression from his statements was that the age and condition of the electrical networks are a) causing a lot of electricity to be "wasted" in transmission (which obviously has environmental and financial consequences), and b) make the whole network more fragile than is generally acknowledged.
If only there were people out there advocating for infrastructure development and maintenance, and there were some economic reason to spend on those sorts of things...
You can stake trees - put in 3+ heavy stakes and cable them to padded collars around the tree. If the whole depression is soft, it will be hard to stabilize the stakes.
41. I heard that the number is up to 18. Yes, it does depend what you count.
307: Yes, my housemate and I have talked about it: the ground's way too soft (soaking wet) right now for any stabilizing efforts. We're going to wait a few days and see.
OT on movies: Further to my 301.1, I'm looking into other Jim Jarmusch films to put in my Netflix queue. I've only seen Stranger Than Paradise, Mystery Train, and now Dead Man. Shockingly, I don't think I've seen Down By Law, so that's going on the list.
I see that Jarmusch has done a lot more films than I realized; any of those anyone would recommend?
I loved Coffee and Cigarettes. A couple of people I know walked out of it angrily for some reason--possibly its pointlessness? I forget. I think of them as a bit stupid, though. Also, I loved Mystery Train, so there's that to consider. Ghost Dog is also good.
I think I'll go for Ghost Dog. Part of what I disliked about Mystery Train had to do with the triptych/triple-story thing (that and I just am not interested in Elvis): I suspect I like Jarmusch better with a single story line film.
Also, I love Forest Whittaker anyway. Thanks, mcmc.
Power still off, just our block. Street light is on and house 30 feet away has power. This is bullshit. Did I mention we spent last weekend restocking the chest freezer with 60 pre-made meals? I'm seriously considering running an extension cord like some third world city.
I grew up in a state frequently hit by hurricanes, so the preparation seemed normal to me. The only thing that freaked me out beforehand is that my husband and I only moved here to the mid-Atlantic a few weeks ago, and so I know nothing about this neighborhood in regards to its vulnerability to flooding. Apparently, it's not something we really have to worry about.
We lost power around 8pm, and got it back sometime in the morning.
I don't fault people for being cautious, but some of the sandbags in front of building entrances on 19th near the Farragut metro entrance looked kind of lonely today.
