Who's expecting a visit from hurricane Sandy?

[Like2Plan]

DH and I were just returned from a weeklong visit to San Diego (DH was on business, I was there for fun ). We were on one the the last flights into Baltimore last night. The terminal was almost empty and the traffic on the roads was pretty light. We didn't get home until after 11pm last night, so all the stores were closed (DH is making an ice run this morning as we expect we will be without power later on this afternoon). I'm doing as many loads of clothes as I can before we drop power. We don't have much in the Fridge/Freezer--we cleaned everything out pretty much before we left. I'm hoping we can save the condiments in the fridge by putting it on ice, so we don't have to replace everything again (like we did from the derecho storm that came through this past June).

So, Sandy is giving us a real welcome home. It looks like we will remain on the west side of the hurricane so we won't see the worst of it like some of the folks to our north.

How is everyone else doing?

[bjl584]

I live in the Pittsburgh PA area and the rain has already started. They are saying heavy rains and wind starting tonight. We obviously won't get the brunt of it since we are so far inland, but we will most likely see some wind damage and some flooding in the area.

[disneysteve]

I'm in South Jersey. We are dead center on Sandy's path. It is expected to make landfall in Atlantic City, about 55 miles east of here, and continue west pretty much right over us. Schools are closed. I'm home from work. Pretty much everything has closed - malls, stores, etc.

[kv968]

I'm in central Jersey about 70 miles north of where it's supposed to make landfall. Not too bad right now, just some rain and wind but both have been picking up.

I went to work this morning and it wasn't too bad, roads are pretty much empty with everything being closed. I'm just hoping the power doesn't go out

[phantom]

I'm also in Pittsburgh and not expecting too much trouble. I do plan on taking my work laptop home tonight just in case I need it. But, it won't do me much good if I'm without power at home or if the servers I need to Telnet into at the office are without power. I guess it's insurance against flooding closing the roads between home and the office.

[Ramose]

Are the workers being paid while the businesses are closed? Just curious.

[Like2Plan]

Are the workers being paid while the businesses are closed? Just curious.

It depends on the business. There are a lot of federal workers around this area. Federal workers get paid. Although, some federal workers are still expected to show up for work even though the offices are closed. And some federal workers are expected to telecommute (if they have power at home).

[dfeucht]

Best wishes to all of you on the East Coast!

[esb3357]

We are in south virginia. It was just lots of wind and rain. We both had a day off. It was kind of nice.

[disneysteve]

We are in south virginia. It was just lots of wind and rain. We both had a day off. It was kind of nice.

Here in NJ, 60-80mph winds. Lots of power outages though thankfully ours is on at the moment. It went out briefly and came back so I'm not hopeful it will stay that way. The storm made landfall about 2 hrs ago. Schools and pretty much everything else was closed today and schools are closed again tomorrow. Every major highway in Philadelphia is currently closed (95, 76, 476, 676). The AC expressway and Garden State parkway are closed. Airports are closed of course. All public transit - buses, subways, trains - are shut down. Pretty much nothing to do but sit and wait it out, hopefully not in the dark.

[kork13]

Here in NJ, 60-80mph winds. Lots of power outages though thankfully ours is on at the moment. It went out briefly and came back so I'm not hopeful it will stay that way. The storm made landfall about 2 hrs ago. Schools and pretty much everything else was closed today and schools are closed again tomorrow. Every major highway in Philadelphia is currently closed (95, 76, 476, 676). The AC expressway and Garden State parkway are closed. Airports are closed of course. All public transit - buses, subways, trains - are shut down. Pretty much nothing to do but sit and wait it out, hopefully not in the dark.

Time to break out the Scrabble!

Honestly, this storm isn't too terribly powerful (as far as the winds are concerned)... the biggest threat is from storm surge in the coastal & low-lying areas. It's tragic how often people ignore the threats posed by storm surge and don't follow evacuation orders.

I grew up in the central Pacific, where we got anywhere from 3-10 typhoons (hurricanes) each year. Just hunker down with a good book or gather the family around for some candle-light board games, and wait it out. They're really not all that bad if you know what to expect.

If you're the curious type, take a peek out the window and admire the raw power contained in these storms. And for the adventurers out there, it's quite a thrill to stand outside during a hurricane (in a protected area... let's not be dumb here). That sounds crazy, but back in Japan, many of the locals almost totally ignore the typhoons -- you can see them driving around in the streets (in their teeny cars) during 75+ mph winds. Loony IMHO, but it's do-able...

[Like2Plan]

Honestly, this storm isn't too terribly powerful (as far as the winds are concerned)... the biggest threat is from storm surge in the coastal & low-lying areas. It's tragic how often people ignore the threats posed by storm surge and don't follow evacuation orders.
...

The other big threats are downed trees from the ground being saturated by the rain and the wind toppling them over (or snapping them off) and debris in the roads and flooding of roads (and cars getting washed away) and downed power lines. They shut down all mass transit very early today so folks wouldn't get stranded. The big concern was flooding the underground areas and/or loss of electricity to the metro cars. The other weird weather Sandy is causing snow fall up to three feet in the mountains of West Virginia. (It's currently snowing in parts of the Shenandoah valley-being a lower elevation they are not expecting as much snow ) Normally, a tropical system by itself would bring us warmer temps. Crazy, crazy weather. I hope no one got caught unaware--it is pretty early in the season to expect a blizzard with that much snow.

We have lucked out being on the west side of things. So far the highest sustained wind has been about 38mph with peak gusts up to 60--and i think the winds are starting to diminish (for us) now. We have not lost power, yet. Hurricane Isabel was much worse for us--it came right over the top of us (higher wind speeds). We lost power and water (and siding on our house) on that one and I think it took about two weeks before the power was restored for everyone in the area.